Mark E. Abbey - Repeat Sex Offender

"He asked me if he could take naked pictures of me."

Mark E. Abbey

That was the testimony of a Muskegon teen Thursday about an incident that happened in the summer of 2006 when he was 13 years old, at the home of family friend Mark Edwin Abbey, 50, of 760 Catherine.

The boy said Abbey offered him $50 per picture if he agreed to be photographed. The boy did so on two separate occasions, he said.

That testimony -- coupled with exhibits of some 200 allegedly pornographic photographs and testimony by Muskegon Police Detective Peter Boterenbrood -- was enough to persuade visiting 60th District Judge Robert Benson to bind Abbey over for trial in 14th Circuit Court on three counts: manufacturing child pornography, a 20-year felony; possessing child porn, a four-year felony; and accosting a child for immoral purposes.

More charges are likely against Abbey, who is lodged in the Muskegon County Jail in lieu of $500,000 case bond. In court Thursday, Senior Assistant Prosecutor Robert Hedges said an additional count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct was expected later that day. As of 3 p.m., no new charges had been filed.

The boy who testified in court, who is now 15, testified that Abbey had not asked him to perform any sexual acts -- just pose naked.

But at least two other children already have been identified from photos found at Abbey's home, Prosecutor Tony Tague said earlier. Officials believe more victims may also be out there.

The investigation of Abbey began Nov. 15 after a visitor to the man's home was shown some of the pictures, police said. Police executed a search warrant Nov. 21 at his home and seized child pornography and computer equipment, including a Web camera.

Last week, Tague said investigators learned Abbey had enticed children to let him take nude, sexually suggestive photos.

Abbey has a prior conviction for second-degree criminal sexual conduct
involving a child younger than 13, committed in 1992.
He was in prison from 1994 to 2005 for that.