A Manhattan man admitted to targeting teenage girls for sex by offering them money and gifts, leading to him drugging and raping at least one fourteen girl, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday.
Michael Olson, 56, pleaded guilty to Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance to a Child, Rape in the Second Degree, Criminal Sexual Act in the Second Degree, Facilitating a Sex Offense with a Controlled Substance, Aggravated Patronizing a Minor of Prostitution, Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance as a Sexually Motivated Felony, and multiple counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
“Michael Olson schemed to target, recruit, manipulate, and sexually assault young girls, and raped at least one child in Manhattan on a weekly basis,” said District Attorney Bragg. “His horrendous conduct was the very definition of predatory, and I thank my office’s Human Trafficking Unit for putting a stop to it.”
According to court documents, in December 2022, Olson found the teen’s profile on Instagram and responded to a post she made about clothes being too expensive. Olson sent her a gift card for clothing and began to pay the teen to spend time with him.
Over the course of six months, Olson repeatedly raped the girl in hotels in Queens and Manhattan, paying her $700 a week to engage in sexual activity with him. He also took the child to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami by purchasing her airfare with her first name and his last name in order to portray her as his daughter.
EMS found the teen overdosing in a Manhattan hotel room on May 26, 2023, and technicians found the girl and Olson with numerous narcotics present, including ketamine, cocaine, and Xanax. The victim was taken to the hospital and recovered, while Olson was arrested. He was later formally indicted in June 2023.
Olson is expected to be sentenced on Feb. 5, 2025 to 16 years in state prison.
