WCU student recorded women in bathrooms

Posted by ChaddsFordLive on October 31, 2018

A 24-year-old West Chester University student from Honey Brook was arrested and charged with hiding a phone and recording women in public bathrooms, the Chester County District Attorney’s office reported.

According to a press release, the incidents took place in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland and involve more than 20 victims. Some have yet to be identified.

The suspect is identified at Joshua Yannuzzi, a musical theatre student who was scheduled to be in WCU’s production of “My Fair Lady” in November, the DA’s press release said.

District Attorney Tom Hogan said, “This defendant was a technological predator. Using his ties in the theater community, he specifically targeted certain young women for hidden recordings in private places for his own sexual gratification.”

The investigation began after a woman found an iPhone taped to the inside of a single-person bathroom on the West Chester Campus on Oct. 10. She turned the phone over to police who found Yannuzzi outside the bathroom. Surveillance video showed him entering the bathroom before and after the victim.

A search warrant was issued and the phone was then analyzed. Police determined Yannuzzi targeted women he knew through performance and other activities and would “surreptitiously record them in various states of nudity,” the release said. Locations included four theaters and several residences.

The defendant has been charged with more than 100 offenses, including wire-tap violations, criminal use of a communication facility, distribution of obscene materials and invasion of privacy. He has also been banned from the WCU campus, Hogan said.

The 12-page criminal complaint indicates there are recordings showing more than 90 individuals using at least 10 different bathrooms between February and October of this year. There were also recordings from dressing rooms and backstage areas of theaters.

Police also said in the criminal complaint that Yannuzzi admitted to them that the phone was his and that he was sexually aroused by the videos. He also admitted to uploading some of the videos to an Internet website.