A South Florida man arrested on child porn charges was a YMCA camp counselor, cops say
Investigators say a Boca Raton man told them that although he’s Snapchat friends with boys ages 12 to 14, any concern by parents is misplaced — he used to be a YMCA camp counselor and doesn’t have a sexual interest in children.
But, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says, that’s not what Isaac Yunes’ Snapchat account, or 30 child pornography photos and videos on his cellphone, told investigators.
Yunes, 25, was arrested Friday and remains in Palm Beach County Jail, charged with 30 counts of possession of 10 or more files of child pornography and one count of tampering with phyiscal evidence. His bond is $103,000. Should Yunes post bond, he’s to stay off computer devices and have no contact with minors under 18.
What was on the phone?
An arrest report says a Dec. 22 CyberTip came to PBSO from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children via the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Snapchat reported that a user had uploaded seven files containing child sexual conduct/abuse.
After seeing three other Cyber Tips, one of which contained the same Snapchat account as the first, Palm Beach sheriff’s detective Emma Borrows checked out the files reported and found “they contained child sexual abuse material.”
Two of the videos showed men molesting a toddler and a 6- to 8-year-old child.
The three Snapchat accounts in the Cyper Tips were kj48115, kj_4716 and idk_1685 and allegedly belonged to boys ages 16, 16 and 17. But they had the same IP address, used vaguely similar birthdates (3-24-2005, 5-14-2005 and 5-21-2004) and were started between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. Subpeonas to AT&T, Miccrosoft and Google, the report said, returned only an answer from AT&T, that the IP address traced to the Yunes household.
Borrows said a search warrant for the Snapchat accounts turned up conversations in which Yunes poses as a 16- or 17-year-old boy and talks to boys he believed were ages 14 to 17. She says she also found more files of child sexual abuse as well as this reply when offered a link featuring boys 10 to 18.
“I’m more into 10-14.”
The report says Borrows reach conversations in which Yunes “talks about ‘trading’ links and states ‘I prefer 13 and younger lol.’ He sends several links and then states ‘I’m sending 12 more’ followed by several more links.”
On March 31, PBSO arrived at the Yunes house, out of which state records say from 2017-2021 Isaac Yunes ran Sweet Relief bakery for four years, with a search warrant. Yunes, the report said, “refused commands to exit the residence” and was seen by SWAT agents walking into a bathroom, where he remained for several minutes.
“Yunes’ cellphone was located in a bathroom drawer, soaking wet,” the report said. “The lid to the top of the toilet was askew. The port of the phone was too wet to download the full contents on the scene.”
Yunes, the report said, said he didn’t make any Snapchat accounts. VPN, Dropbox and Kik (long a favorite of child pornography traders) had been on the phone, but deleted. Yunes claimed he used Mega in high school, but had deleted it, but a phone check showed Mega had been downloaded on Oct. 27 and used as recently as March 29.
But, after unlocking his phone, Borrows wrote, “Yunes held down a red icon, believed to be Mega, and deleted the application.”
Borrows said there were still 22 “videos and images of males aged 10-15 years oldbeing sexually exploited or masturbating for the camera” and eight pictures of boys “8-13 years being sexually battered by other juvenile males and/or unidentified adults.”
Yunes said his parents had “expressed concern” over his Snapchat friendships with boys 12 to 14 years old because “they don’t get it.
“Yunes explained he used to be a camp counselor and worked at the YMCA.” PBSO said that was from 2017-2019.
If anyone has any information related to this case, they can call Detective Borrows at 561-688-4080.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 2:55 PM.
