Law&Crime Sidebar - Predator Posed as High Schooler and Sexually Assaulted Teen Girls

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

Zachary Scheich, 27, will spend at least 40 years behind bars after entering a guilty plea to sex crimes charges. Nebraska authorities say Scheich was able to enroll in two different high schools while impersonating a 17-year-old. He then befriended young girls and coerced them into sending him nude photos. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber discusses this twist on the idea of sexual predators with Anna Sonoda, a licensed clinical social worker and author of the book "Duck Duck Groom: Understanding How a Child Becomes a Target."PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. When it was reported to us that an adult was posing as a student, we immediately turned it over to law enforcement and began an investigation as well. A 27-year-old man is busted for pretending to be a teenager and going to high school. And police say he used that ruse to get nude photos from teenage girls and to sexually assault them. Now, he may be going to prison for the rest of his life. I'm discussing this very unsettling case with licensed clinical social worker Anna Sonoda. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. Are there any fans of 21 Jump Street out there? Well, if so, you got to hear this story, although it is, much more sinister than that show because prosecutors in Lincoln, Nebraska, say Zachary Shike managed to blend in with students at a local high school for 54 days before he got caught. And the investigation that followed has revealed some very evil motives behind this ploy. So last week, a Nebraska judge sentenced Shike to spend 85 to 120 years in prison. now he won't be eligible for his first shot of parole until 40 years from now he's going to be in his 60s

shike took a plea deal where he would plead no contest to charges of child enticement with electronic communication generation of child pornography attempted first degree sexual assault and first degree sexual assault in exchange 10 other charges were dropped law enforcement says that shike cooked up this scheme in 2022 when he was enrolled at lincoln northwest high school as a junior transfer student under the name Zach Hess. And the next spring, he transferred to Lincoln's Southeast High School as a junior. Here's the thing. Shike had already graduated from that school in 2015.

Here's what his actual yearbook photo looked like then. So police say Shike, who was 26 years old, pretended to be 17. And it turns out that he transferred to South East High because of sex crime allegations at the other high school. And we're going to get to that in a second, but first, I know what you're asking. How did he manage to enroll? Well, authorities say Shaik had an accomplice. 23-year-old Angela Navarro.

She pretended to be Danielle Hess, Zach Hess's mother. And she then used false paperwork, including a fake birth certificate and fake immunization records to enroll her son. Dr. Matt Larson, Associate Superintendent for Education Services for Lincoln Public. public schools spoke about those records at a news conference in 2023. This individual provided a birth certificate, a high school transcript immunization records, and a physical from a clinic. As it turns out, all those appear to be fraudulent, but those documents were provided. Same documents we would request of any

student that enrolled in our system. The documents are not verified. We take students' words for these documents. We're reviewing all of our enrollment processes right now and considering ways in which we can verify the identity of a student for whom we might have questions. Now, police say that when they contact in Navarro last summer, she continued to insist that Zach Sheik was really Zach Hess and she was really his mom, Danielle. Navarro was also arrested. She's been charged with criminal impersonation, a class three felony. She entered a not guilty plea in April. She's been out on bond awaiting trial. Her actual real-life connection with Shaik, though, remains unclear. And remember, she is innocent until proven

guilty, but really startling allegations to say the least. Now, to talk about this bizarre case, I want to bring in licensed clinical social worker, Anna Sonoda, who wrote the book Duck, Duck, Groom, understanding how a child becomes a target. Anna, thanks so much for coming on. You know, this is a different one. This is a definite twist and the idea of adults targeting children. We know that there's instances where they lie and they cover it up, but you know, to say you're not an adult, to infiltrate the school in this way, my gosh, what do you make of that? Well, I think we need to start with the basic premise that predators will stop at nothing to gain access to their target. And in this case, this individual was looking for high school

kids to pray upon. And it wasn't good enough for him to be outside of the school. So he actually went through all of the fraudulent steps to get inside of the school. And his plan worked. Unfortunately, the policies that were in place at that school, and neither of the schools, did they protect the children first? Did they double check? Did they maybe do a follow-up on where he said he lived? I mean, this story is incredible. I'm still wrapping my head around all of the hoops he had to jump through in order to get himself into school. And for for almost two months, this kid was posing as a peer to these young teens. And it's just mind-boggling.

Yeah. So to go more into this, once Shike was apparently enrolled in this high school, he befriended teenage girls. And remember, he was pretending to be 17 years old. According to court documents, investigators found a cell phone that he used to communicate with several minors, texting, social media messages, and they said he kept up the facade, talking about classwork, talking about high school sports. Shaik was accused of sending sexually explicit messages to 13 and 14-year-old girls, encouraging at least one to meet up for sex and to send him nude photos. He even sent her money for the pictures. And if that's not the worst of it, you know what else?

Hess was even brazen enough to meet the families of the minor-age girls. But that ended up being his undoing because when some of the parents got suspicious and reported it, that's what launched the investigation. Now, at the time, Shaik admitted to pretending to be a teenager and rolling in the schools and messaging with the girls, but he denied sexually assaulting them. So, Anna, that's interesting, right? the idea of this brazen attempt, the parents knew something was up. I have to say, the people who should really get the gold star here are those parents

because they got a gut feeling about something not being quite right, and they reported it. And so often in these cases, adults who don't want to get involved, they don't want to stir up any sort of dust or negative imagery for somebody will say, oh, I don't think this is really a big deal or I'll let this go and fortunately in this case those parents said this smells a little bit funny and they followed up with reporting so the only reason we're able to talk about this case today is because of the bravery of those parents what a story my gosh you know as we talk about this case and we talk about other cases and all the laws that are involved I don't know it makes me appreciate speaking with some great legal minds here on sidebar and talking about that we are

actually partners with an incredible law firm Morgan and Morgan, they're a sponsor of ours. And when you think about knowing the law, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm, they get it. An incredible track record of multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. No upfront fee. You only pay them if you win. The whole process can be done straight from your smartphone. Clients get a dedicated legal team, case investigators, paralegals, customer case specialists. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim. at for the people.com slash L.C. Sidebar. And this, look, this wouldn't work for everybody, right?

You have to look somewhat young to pass off as a teenager. And that's what makes this just so much more insidious. You know, during his sentencing, the judge berated Scheik for what he did. They knew not to speak with an adult male on social media. They knew not to meet an adult male by themselves. They knew how to defend themselves against that kind of danger. So they did not know how to protect themselves against you because, again, they thought you were their peer, their friend, and because you gained their trust. And the judge also read a victim impact statement that was written by one of Shaik's victims.

And let me just give you part of it. She said, I'm supposed to feel safe in school and I no longer feel safe in a place that I used to. I'm so guarded that anyone who tries to talk to me or get to know me, I shut it down. I never believe what anyone says anymore. My trust is so broken that even if I want to believe someone, I can't. And that is really, really heartbreaking. And what he did may have created irreparable harm to these victims. Well, we often see this with survivors of childhood sexual abuse,

that one of the ripple effects is a trust in your own gut. an inability to trust, is my gut correct? Am I reading this correctly? Because in the past, there have been situations in which they have trusted an individual, and then they've gotten badly burned through the grooming process, which is, again, that perverse courtship, which convinces people and caregivers

to allow the individual to be close to the child, to have time and space alone with that child. child. And this predator went so far as to pretend he was a child in order to get even closer to his targets. It's just unthinkable. You mentioned something before that's really disturbing. Is it that easy to fake the paperwork and get into school or is this an anomaly? I'm about to get into another case that's sort of similar, but how often do we see things like this? I think this is a one-off. The amount of hoops that the average family has to go through to register to a local public

school are pretty thorough. But in this case, especially when you have documentation of the same individual graduating, the cooperated effort between these two individuals to dupe the system just so that this individual could have access to young minors shows that most predators will stop at nothing. Remember, 70% of all child sexual predators have up to nine victims, so it's not unlikely that Hess has tried and attempted in other settings, whether online or in person, because we have to remember that when we think about predation, that online is a space, just like being in a classroom as a space or being in a neighborhood or a community as a space, and predation runs on gas. Predators are fueled by grooming, access, and space. And in this situation, the way that Hess was able to gain access... By the way, you mean Shaik.

You mean Shaq. You mean Shaq. Hesse was the fake name. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Even I'm getting duped. So we have a situation in which you have the people of Lincoln who were trustworthy, who were looking at this individual following their to-does,

checking off certain paperwork was received. And unfortunately, he was doing it just so that he could be a classroom and get cell phone numbers to then groom and prey upon these young girls. How do they recover from this? Not the school. Well, the school maybe, but I'm talking about the people that these young girls. How do they recover from this? Well, they were conned.

And what we have to do in these situations is we have to back way up and we have to think about who can you trust. Those parents who met Shaik in person and said, we're going to do. going to raise the red flag we don't believe this they already have started that process of recovery with their own child because they believed that something was amiss and the first step when survivors of childhood sexual abuse come forward is to acknowledge that something nefarious happened something really bad happened and i believe you i trust you if you said this was your experience i believe that was your experience and i'll walk with you along the

process, whether it's individual counseling, whether it's group counseling, you know, because there were many people involved in this specific case, there could be a group of them, for example, who would get together and evaluate just how this individual preyed upon them and used a system that's meant to protect them, like a school system, to exploit their trust. That would be how we would start the recovery process, but it might be an arduous and a long one. you're exactly right so i do want to say and for everybody who's been following us here on sidebar this is not the first time that we have heard about adults pretending to be students and enrolling in schools it's not even the first time as i said we've reported to hear on sidebar because we told you

about last december 32 year old shelby hewitt in massachusetts she is the former social worker who allegedly enrolled in multiple schools during the 2022 2023 school year and her alleged scheme went even further because she also reportedly pretended to be a child in need who was in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, the agency that she worked for, all the while collecting her state salary. And Hewitt resigned from DCF in February of 2023, entered a not-guilty plea to several charges, including forgery, identity fraud, making false claims to her employer. Hewitt's lawyer says she has a documented history of mental health issues, that she's getting treatment. There's no sexual abuse claims like we had in this case.

And she was due in court at the end of August for a status update. Didn't appear because she was in a facility out of state. Her lawyer also wasn't there because he'd been in an accident. So the hearing was rescheduled to October 1st. The prosecutors say they believe that the case may be headed towards a resolution. So we're going to keep everybody updated on what will happen there. But when you hear that, right, different motivations too. So one of the things that we had been asking about in that case was it somebody wants to go back to that life.

style, go back to that time in their life, the simpler time, I don't know if there was something about the high school or middle school experience that they want to go back to. Other than trying to be a predator and sexually abuse young students, is there something about adults trying to go back to being a child that you see in your experience? I think that one of the things that we have to keep in mind, my lens really focuses in on child predators. And when we think about that group of individuals, there is a sense and some research to back it up that their emotional development was interrupted throughout their childhood development. So normally an individual would reach certain emotional benchmarks towards the

process of adulthood. If those things are interrupted through adverse childhood experiences or traumas within their own childhood, that could interrupt their normal natural development. And in that case, I could see that an individual would feel more like a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old rather than feeling like their numerical age. However, there is no exception that we can grant adults, right? Because we all have to advance within the life that we are given, and we don't get a redo. So in this case, we have a glaring example of individuals who have misused the... normal barriers of entry for school. For example, paperwork they would normally fill out, their family support, and we have students who are naturally supposed to be

there. And when you place an adult in an environment with kids, there is an automatic imbalance. So one of the things that I talk about is the seesaw principle, this idea that predators are going to do one of two things. They're either going to elevate the child to be a peer adult or they're going to lower themselves to act and imitate like a child. And in both of those cases, you see that that woman, as well as Shaik, imitated what it was like to be a kid. He even dressed like he was a child.

He made up that he had a mommy who was assisting him in the process of transferring to his school. So each of these benchmarks are indicators that these individuals are not capable of being trustworthy adults in the way that you and I would hope for adults who are first. example, working in school systems, or who are the gatekeepers of those schools themselves. Anna, I have another question for you as we think about this. What can parents advise their children to do? I mean, don't talk to kids in your class. That doesn't seem like the answer. But how do we protect our children? What should parents tell their children in order to make sure that they are not manipulated or violated or abused, particularly in a school like this?

That's a great question. I think first and foremost, parents need to do their due diligence. How are we picking the schools that our children attend first and foremost? Do we know the staff? Do we know the administrators? Are we familiar with the policies at play? Secondly, when we think about child safety, the safest children are those who have a strong connection to caregivers whom they live with. So your best bet is to have open and honest conversations with your children on a frequent basis. Thirdly, the other thing we can do is we can tell kids that they should be spending most of their time with their peers. So in this situation, this adult, he looked a little bit different, he acted a little bit differently. Those individuals who came in contact with him got a weird feeling. But it took the adults from double checking the situation to be able to act upon that.

So what we have to remember is that if individuals are getting close with our children, let's make a point to meet those individuals in person. Let's not just trust as we might do, for example, online when our children say, oh, I'm playing a game with my friends. Let's actually double-check that. Let's invite friends over. Let's meet out with friends. Let me have a chance to double-check that you are who you say you are. Let me meet your parents. Can you imagine in this case if a mom had gotten a phone call and said, hey, Zach, I'd love to meet your mom. Let's go out for coffee, for example, or let's all meet up and go out for dinner. You would have blown up the situation immediately. So parents have more authority and more power than they sometimes realize,

and it's our responsibility not only to trust, but to verify. Great point. I won't. I can't credit you for that one, but it was a great line to use nonetheless the trust but verify ronald reagan uh listen thank you so much that that's such a great point um and i'm glad you mentioned that because i didn't have the answer for that i don't know what you advise parents in this kind of situation but clearly there's one thing to report on this bring awareness to this but also trying to protect people from he's probably not going to be the last person to ever attempt to do something like this um so anna really appreciate your perspective on this anna sonota thank you again for coming here on sidebar always appreciate it

you so much. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on up a podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.