Ex-Punahou coach described as ‘prolific and aggressive child predator’

Punahou School’s former girls basketball coach should be denied release before trial because he is a “a prolific and aggressive child predator who has repeatedly targeted minors” that he knows, according to a motion to detain him without bail.

Dwayne Yuen, 49, was arrested Thursday and charged by federal criminal complaint with possession of child pornography. His detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader this morning was continued until Feb. 23 at 9:30 a.m.

His attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jacquelyn T. Esser, declined comment following this morning’s hearing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Olson, who is prosecuting the case for the government, also declined comment.

“For many years, he has taken advantage of his position of trust and authority over minors in the community and used that power differential to groom and abuse vulnerable children in his care for his own sexual gratification,” wrote Olson, in the government’s motion to detain filed Tuesday. “Yuen is not simply a passive collector of child pornography. Rather, he is a prolific and aggressive child predator who has repeatedly targeted minors that he knows well. He also has a history of relentlessly and obsessively contacting, harassing, and threatening his victims.”

According to the complaint and an affidavit by an FBI agent, federal agents received information in July that Yuen was involved with a 14-year-old girl starting when he was a basketball coach during her freshman year of high school in 2016 and continuing through 2020.

Agents obtained copies of “sexualized text message communications between minor victim 1” and Yuen, “sexually explicit photographs sent to MV1 by Yuen and “electronic financial transactions showing that Yuen sent MV1 money on multiple occasions,” according to the affidavit.

Between Sept. 16 and December 2020, while the girl was 17 and Yuen was 47, the messages shared between them allegedly make clear that Yuen knew she was underage.

Yuen’s alleged conduct in the federal criminal case happened after the allegations outlined against him in lawsuits brought against him and Punahou School by former players alleging sexual assault and abuse. Yuen had left Punahou in 2006 and settled the lawsuits in August 2021.