A prominent artist and activist who identifies as ‘queer non-binary’ was arrested by federal agents on Friday for trying to arrange anal sex with a nine-year-old boy in New York.
Efrem Zelony-Mindell, 35, was booked by the US District Attorney’s Office for intent to entice a child, as well as possession and distribution of child pornography, all felonies.
Agents say Mindell, who uses the pronouns they/them, was investigated after sending a message to an undercover agent posing as the father of the Manhattan boy over an encrypted messaging service in April.
In the messages, prosecutors wrote that Mindell tried to set up a date with the boy, making makes clear, ‘in graphic and unambiguous terms, his desire to engage in sexual activity with minor children’. The suspect was also under the pretense that the boy would be drugged before the encounter.
Zelony-Mindell, a renowned figure in the New York art industry, faces life in prison if convicted on the incitement charge, and another 20 years for each child pornography offense, which authorities say the artist has already confessed to.
Addressing the arrest of the once-respected artist over the weekend, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams described how Zelony-Mindell first came under his office’s radar last April.
The federal prosecutor said Zelony-Mindell contacted the undercover agent, who was working for the FBI, believing he was the father of the child. They allegedly tried to arrange to have anal intercourse with the boy through his father.
On Friday, on a Manhattan street corner, Zelony-Mindel met with the undercover officer, Williams said, in the expectation that he would take them to meet the boy and sexually assault him while partially drugged.
