Content Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse materials as recorded in an FBI complaint. Reader discretion is appreciated.
A “non-binary queer” artist has been arrested after attempting to meet a 9-year-old child for sex. Efrem Zelony-Mindell, 35, was arrested in Manhattan, New York on December 16.
According to the Department of Justice, Zelony-Mindell had begun communicating with an undercover FBI agent earlier this year after meeting him on Scruff, a hook-up application for homosexual men. During these conversations, Zelony-Mindell slowly eased into asking the agent if he was “into taboo,” and expressed an interest in “yng incest dad son.” He then repeatedly and graphically stated his desire to sexually abuse children, and sent the undercover agent child sexual abuse material.
Approximately one month later, the undercover agent offered to introduce Zelony-Mindell to another agent posing as a father of a 9-year-old boy willing to allow him to rape his son. The predator immediately jumped at the opportunity, and advised the second agent of his desire to sexually abuse the 9-year-old. Arrangements were then made for the two to meet after they had spoken both through an encrypted messaging service, text message, and on the phone.
Zelony-Mindell was arrested after arriving to the location he had agreed upon with the second undercover agent. He waived his Miranda rights and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement, ultimately admitting to possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, and stating his intention to sexually abuse a child.
Later on that same day, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, and the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the FBI, Michael J. Driscoll, announced charges against Zelony-Mindell.
According to the FBI deposition on Zelony-Mindell’s charges, the predator told the undercover agent that he “loved seeing sexy pedo’s” while asking for a picture of the other person.
Special Agent for the FBI Aaron Spivack also noted in a federal court on Friday that the Telegram account Zelony-Mindell communicated through utilized a phone number that matched the one on his personal website.
Zelony-Mindell had also sent videos and images of child pornography to the agent after admitting his interest in pedophilia. Within the complaint, graphic descriptions of the materials Zelony-Mindell sent to the first undercover agent were provided.
Among the media, were “a video depicting an adult male raping an approximately 11-year-old boy by penetrating him anally,” and an image of a toddler boy being forced to perform oral sex on an adult male. There was also an image of “an adult male restraining an approximately 12-year-old boy whose penis and anus were exposed.”
Additional disturbing content included multiple images of adult men licking the anuses of boys as young as 8, media of a 10-year-old boy being forced to perform oral sex on an adult male, and images of an adult male “raping a young girl, approximately 8-years-old,” by vaginal penetration.
After being put in contact with the second undercover agent, the one posing as a father to a 9-year-old boy, Zelony-Mindell began distributing child pornography to that agent as well. This included an image of an adult male forcing a young boy to expose his anus and genitals, and a video of “a child under the age of approximately 10 years old being raped by an adult male who is penetrating the child anally.”
When asked where he got this child sexual abuse material, Zelony-Mindell responded that he “used to be in chat rooms,” has “a separate phone for perv atuff [sic],” and has “a shit ton on this phone.”
While communicating with the second agent, Zelony-Mindell stated: “I want to have sex with your son dude. It’s honestly all I think about. You watching us together.” He told the agent he was planning to visit New York, as he had previously moved to Arkansas, and asked, “You really want your kid to take my dick? Cause if we get together I’m absolutely going to fuck him.”
Zelony-Mindell is known for being an artist and activist, and has contributed to VICE in the past.
On his website, Zelony-Mindell describes himself as a “white non-binary queer” person and states his pronouns are “they/them.”
Zelony-Mindell has a history of painting and curating several “queer” art shows as well as being a former writing contributor to VICE.
In 2016, VICE published a piece by Zelony-Mindell in which he gushed about photographer Mary Ellen Mark and her “iconic” photos of a 13-year-old sexually trafficked child named Erin Charles. The girl “became a 30-year focus of turmoil and intrigue” to Mark, and the child “became integral to her artistic practice,” Zelony-Mindell described.
“What starts off as a portrait of a young girl with big dreams progresses over the years into a life that’s fallen apart through drugs, abuse, ten children, and other turmoil. ‘Will they make it?’ asks Tim Wride, one of the curators…, in reference to the subjects Mark captures on film. ‘Probably not. Is that the point? Probably not. At the same time, I think there is an optimistic edge that was so crucial to show with this body of work.’”
On his Instagram, one of Zelony-Mindell’s final posts is of a photograph taken by Jimmy DeSana in 1989 titled “Coat Hanger,” which features two nude young males with exposed bottoms.
On his website, Zelony-Mindell lists over one dozen shows he has curated, including at Ohio University, Texas Tech University, and the International Center for Photography-Bard.
In January, Zelony-Mindell’s book Witness was praised in Vogue in an article which appears to have been hastily deleted following the announcement of his charges. The Vogue profile praised Witness as “a resource” on the “intricacies of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists.”
Zelony-Mindell was interviewed for the article, at one point signaling to human rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests and demonstrations that rocked the United States in 2020.
“After the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor there was this collective specter hanging over the United States and the human species, really. A huge part of that violent weight was what role did photography and video play on us as individuals and communities. How do we collectively speak up and speak out?” Zelony-Mindell was quoted as saying. “How do we need to learn to listen and re-educate? How has silence and supremacy laid a pathway for complacency and white solidarity to racism, bigotry, and death?”
The disgraced artist is facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life if he is prosecuted for his count of attempted enticement of the fake 9-year-old boy to engage in illegal sexual activity. He faces another minimum of five years and maximum of 20 years in prison for his count of distribution of child pornography, and another maximum of 20 years in prison for his count of possession of child pornography.
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