A former medical resident in Detroit has pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge following a series of disturbing messages to other abusers – in one of which he bragged, “Love being a pedo.”
Equally shocking, the plea follows an investigation that revealed a Detroit area pedophile ring that included two other professionals — a psychotherapist and an attorney.
Lincoln Erickson, 32, of the upscale Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, entered the guilty plea earlier this week to receiving child pornography after an investigation uncovered a string of disturbing messages. The investigation involved the arrest of three other men, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Michigan.
Erickson, a former medical resident at what was only identified as a “public university” hospital was arrested in December.
According a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
According to court records, agents discovered on Erickson’s phone videos of minors engaged in sex acts and AI-generated pornography depicting nude children touching adult men. Erickson also attempted to convince another man to allow Erickson to bathe the other man’s children and admitted to making plans to travel to the man’s house for that purpose.
“This pervert was lurking among our trusted medical professionals. At the same time, he was feeding his disgusting appetites and plotting to abuse little children. Thankfully, the FBI caught him when they did,” U.S. Attorney Gorgon said.
The doctor was detained after the arrest in March 2025 of an Ohio resident named Brett Tooman which unveiled a network of child pornography. The investigation was engineered by an undercover officer posing as a pedophile parent, according to several news outlets.
Tooman was nabbed after he allegedly traveled to Toledo to sexually abuse a seven-year-old girl and a six-month-old infant he believed existed as part of a law enforcement sting, according to Channel 4’s Click on Detroit.
Two other men, Jeremy Brian Tacon, a Huntington Woods psychotherapist, and Detroit attorney Joshua Ronnebaum, were also arrested besides the doctor, their connections discovered during the course of the undercover investigation.
Ronnebaum’s arrest revealed an alleged text thread with Erickson via text message and Telegram, an encrypted chat app, according to the Daily Mail per the criminal complaint.
Erickson and Ronnebaum allegedly spoke about taking a trip to Thailand to sexually abuse children together, according to the Click On Detroit report that detailed that and other text messages.
They also reportedly fantasized about having a relationship with a man where they could raise a child together who they would abuse and groom “from baby to adulthood.”
“Start them young,” Erickson wrote in one message, the outlet reported.
“Love being a pedo,” he wrote in another.
The FBI said Erickson said in messages that he knew a father who allegedly allows him to sexually abuse the man’s three-year-old son.
A Telegram chat on his phone also showed him requesting more videos and writing, “Bro, I love other pedophiles. So hot.”
The former medical resident’s guilty plea could mean a prison sentence of at least five to 20 years behind bars and a fine of up to $250,000.
Erickson is set to be sentenced on September 15, 2026, and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
