Yuma man appears in court following arrest
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Yuma man who was arrested Wednesday appeared in court Thursday morning.
24-year-old Ismael Perez Jr. was arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material after detectives with the Yuma Police Department (YPD) followed leads into other criminal activity associated with Perez.
Previously, Perez was arrested last month by YPD after they received reports from multiple women who work at Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) received unsolicited sexually explict text messages from various unrecognized phone numbers and social media accounts. Following that arrest, Perez was charged with three felony counts, including alleged computer tampering.
YPD says due to the new leads, they, along with the U.S. Marshals Service, arrested and booked Perez into the Yuma County Adult Detention Center on "numerous new felony and misdemeanor offenses."
Perez was reportedly released on bond from the Yuma County Adult Detention Center at the time of the arrest.
One woman, who did not want to reveal her identity, says she went to school with Perez and isn't astonished by the charges.
"I'm not surprised that he got arrested because he was doing it to me too, and I knew eventually he was going to be dumb enough to do something crazy," the woman said.
She says she is one of the victims and began being harassed by Perez in 2019.
"He would message me off of different accounts being like, 'Hey, somebody's sending these and I want to see more,' but it was him from different accounts," the woman shared.
She says no matter how hard she tried, there was no stopping him.
"If I would block them, he would just create different accounts and then continuously message me on there even through Pinterest, Instagram, emails, phone numbers, and I don't even know how he got my number," the woman added.
Sgt. Lori Franklin, YPD's Public Information Officer (PIO), says over the course of the investigation, more people have come forward.
"It takes a lot of time to go through it. Plus, you know new people coming forward with other accusations and those all have to be looked into," Franklin says.
Police say to reach out to them if you're receiving any harassment.
"If you're getting messages that are unwanted, unsolicited that you don't want and are inappropriate, call us. Keep those text messages. Let us investigate it, and let us see what we can do for you," Franklin expressed.
Perez is now being held on a $1 million bond and he will be back in court on September 5.
