Justice Department charges Pulaski Town Council member in CSAM case

A member of the Pulaski Town Council elected in the 2024 cycle is in custody on federal child sexual abuse material charges.

Steven Wayne Erickson, 48, who is also the coordinator of the Pulaski County Work Report Program, was charged with one count of receipt of child sexual abuse material and one count of distribution of CSAM, per a release from the Department of Justice.

Erickson, a Radford native, ran for the Town Council seat in 2024 as an independent, and was unopposed.

According to the DOJ release, the investigation into Erickson began when the FBI received a cyber tip regarding potential child sexual exploitation occurring over Kik, a messaging app.

Agents discovered in their investigation that Erickson used two Kik accounts, and that records from the app revealed several instances where Erickson solicited and shared CSAM with other Kik users.

In 2025, a user referred to as “Cravt” sent Erickson almost 100 photos of Cravt’s purported family, including elementary-aged minors.

Erickson, per the FBI, encouraged Cravt to use AI to transform the photos.

In mid-October 2025, Cravt sent apparently AI-generated CSAM of minors – some depicting at least one of Cravt’s minor children – to Erickson.

Erickson sent back videos of himself masturbating to the CSAM.

In late February of this year, another user, “Tribbin,” sent Erickson video taken from a hidden camera that depicted an apparently teenaged minor unknowingly exposing herself to use the bathroom.

Erickson sent back a video showing him masturbating to that video, and later asked for more material, but Tribbin said he hadn’t had company over for his hidden camera to capture.

In March, Erickson chatted with another user who claimed they sexually assaulted their 9-year-old daughter. Erickson sent a photo of his genitals in exchange for a sexually explicit photo of the daughter, and he repeatedly urged the user to send images of the daughter being abused.

In early April, Erickson sent another user, “Benji,” photos of a minor, some of which appeared to be taken without the minor’s awareness.

With Erickson’s direction, Benji used AI to generate various sexualized and exploitative images of the minor.  Erickson sent back videos of himself masturbating to the AI-generated CSAM.

Erickson also urged Benji to “abuse” the minor. At Benji’s prompting, Erickson described his fantasies of sexually assaulting the minor.

In later April, Erickson sent several photos, again including photos of a minor, to another user, “Tony.” Tony used AI to generate a video of individuals stripping nude. Erickson forwarded this video to a second Kik account.