A middle school principal with the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district has been charged with trying to hire for sex a 15-year-old girl who was actually an undercover police officer working a sex trafficking and prostitution sting operation.
38-year-old Mohamed Ali Selim was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with felony prostitution of someone he believed to be between 13 to 16 years old. Selim was arrested Tuesday and remains jailed, awaiting a first court appearance on Friday.
Selim has been the principal at Eagle Ridge Middle School in Savage since July, following two years as the principal at William Byrne Elementary in Burnsville, according to the school district.
Selim allegedly responded to an advertisement for prostitution and engaged in a text conversation with a 15-year-old girl, according to authorities. The advertisements were placed on websites by officers who were involved in the sex trafficking and prostitution detail.
Selim is among four men who were arrested Tuesday and booked into the county jail on suspicion of felony prostitution, according to St. Louis Park police. While the three other men were released from jail while prosecutors consider charges, Selim was held there pending formal charges “due to his position of authority working with children,” police said in a statement.
According to the criminal complaint, Selim responded to an advertisement on Tuesday by texting the advertised number. He then connected with the undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl.
The undercover officer provided rates to Selim, who replied that he could, “head over now for a hhr,” or half an hour, the complaint says. He then called the undercover officer, who didn’t answer and called him back.
In recorded phone conversations, the undercover officer told Selim that she was 15 years old and said, “it’s not a problem for me if you’re fine with it,” according to the complaint. “Defendant laughed and stated, “OK, that’s fine” and then asked “So, you’re 15?”
Selim said that she was too young, but then asked the officer where she was located, according to the complaint. When she said St. Louis Park, Selim asked if she was affiliated with the police.
Although noting that her age made him nervous, according to the complaint Selim said that he could meet her to “spend some time together.” The conversation shifted to text messages, with Selim telling the undercover officer to “let me know if I can come see you now. Please send the address,” the complaint says.
The undercover officer gave Selim an address and once there he called her, then messaged when she didn’t answer, according to the complaint. She told Selim an area where to pick her up and when he got there, he was arrested.
“Defendant was distraught and made comments that his life/career was over,” the complaint read.
Officers searched Selim and found $208 cash. They also seized his cell phone, which contained the text messages and records of the phone calls, according to prosecutors.
The sting operation was conducted by the St. Louis Park, Bloomington, Eden Prairie and Edina police departments, along with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force, Southwest Hennepin Drug Task Force and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
In a Thursday statement, the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district called the allegations against Selim “upsetting” and that the district’s “immediate and primary concern is for the well-being of our students.”
Counselors and support will be available for students and staff who may need to talk to someone, the school district said.
The school district said it could not comment on private personnel information, but added that “Selim will not be at work at this time” and that Associate Principal Bill Heim is serving as acting principal.
“This is a hard day for the school and for the district,” Superintendent Theresa Battle said in the statement. “It will be difficult for all of us to process this. At the same time, we will continue our commitment to providing a high quality education and experience for students as we finish the school year.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Selim previously worked as a sixth-grade teacher and dean of students at Global Academy, a charter school then in Columbia Heights, and as a math coordinator for the Harvest Network of charter schools in north Minneapolis.
On Thursday night, three Savage and Burnsville area state legislators weighed in on the arrest in a joint statement, calling it a “collective shock of our community.”
“The safety of our children in schools is of the utmost concern, and this betrayal of community trust is heartbreaking,” read the statement by Sen. Lindsey Port (DFL-Burnsville), Rep. Jessica Hanson, DFL-Burnsville, and Rep. Kaela Berg, DFL-Burnsville.
It is “unacceptable” that Minnesota has the third-highest rate of child sexual exploitation, the statement continued, and Selim’s arrest “should serve as a stark reminder that we must do more to address and prevent these crimes.”
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