On April 14, a Lake County grand jury handed up an indictment accusing a Beachwood man of secretly recording an 11-year-old boy inside a restroom at Mentor’s Great Lakes Mall. Prosecutors say Joshua N. Yanowitz faces two counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and three counts of voyeurism tied to a reported Dec. 30 incident at the mall. He was arrested in January after a witness called 911 believing the child was being recorded, and authorities say the new grand jury filing broadens the scope of the investigation.
According to Cleveland.com, court records indicate that two of the pandering counts stem from recordings allegedly made between June and November as part of a continuing course of conduct that spans both Lake and Cuyahoga counties. Those same records spell out the three voyeurism counts that prosecutors say are tied directly to the Great Lakes Mall restroom encounter.
Bodycam footage shows officers seize phone
Body-worn camera video obtained by investigators shows officers confronting Yanowitz near the food court and quickly taking his phone to preserve any potential evidence, WOIO reported. In the clip, an officer tells him, “We had a call that you were standing inside the bathroom, with your camera open, and following young men into the bathroom and recording them.” Yanowitz responds, “It may be true, a little bit, yeah,” and acknowledges there were likely images of private areas on his device, according to the station.
Arraignment and court restrictions
Yanowitz pleaded not guilty after an arraignment at the end of December, and the case was later bound over to the Lake County Court of Common Pleas, News 5 Cleveland reported. A judge ordered him to have no contact with the child, to stay away from Great Lakes Mall and other retail centers, and to remain on GPS monitoring while the investigation continues. Hoodline previously covered the January arrest and the initial voyeurism filing; see the earlier piece on the initial arrest at Great Lakes Mall.
What the charges mean under state law
Ohio’s pandering statute addresses creating, possessing or distributing sexually oriented material involving minors and can be charged at different felony levels depending on the subsection; the statutory language is set out in Ohio Rev. Code §2907.322. Voyeurism involving a minor is classified as a fifth-degree felony under state law, per the voyeurism statute, Ohio Rev. Code §2907.08, and carries criminal penalties along with possible collateral consequences if there is a conviction…