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May 13, 2005

Palmyra store co-owner faces child porn charges

PALMYRA - Federal agents have arrested the co-owner of a hobby and game shop and charged him with trading child pornography over the Internet with a California man.

Jeffrey Yingst, 39, co-owner of Pastimes on the Square, was arrested Wednesday at his home in the 800 block of West Pajabon Drive, North Londonderry Twp.

When federal agents entered his home, they found him in an online child pornography chat room, said Virginia Kice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

While agents called Yingst a sexual predator, he is not suspected of molesting area children, Kice said.

During questioning, Yingst admitted creating an online chat room where he fantasized about children whose deaths had been in the news, Kice said. Yingst was charged with receiving and/or distributing child pornography.

He "set up a chat room where he would share his fantasies with other like-minded people," Kice said. "And those fantasies involved sexual interaction with recently murdered young girls, such as Jessica Lunsford and Jon-Benet Ramsey.

"Our agents tell us that this individual clearly is a predator of the worst sort."

Until seven months ago, Yingst worked as assistant concessions manager at Hersheypark, said Garrett Gallia, the park's director of corporate relations. He said there was no indication of wrong-doing while Yingst worked at the park.

Kice said it is not unusual for predators to have jobs working around children.

"One of the things that's true of individuals that have this kind of predilection is they try to put themselves in situations where they'll be in contact with children," Kice said.

Yingst's business partner at Pastimes on the Square, Steven Gingrich, said he was shocked by the charges. He said he and his sister-in-law, Laura Gingrich, will continue to operate the store that the three partners established in 1988.

"We'll just adapt," Gingrich said. "Obviously, it's too early to say much."

Gingrich said he met Yingst in the late 1980s through their shared interest in games. They have not socialized much outside of work in recent years, he said, but got along fine in the store.

"This surprises me no end," Gingrich said.

Kice said such an arrest would be shocking in any community.

"I don't think the fact that you live in a bucolic, rural area makes it any less appalling," she said. "Maybe people think that this doesn't go on. But the frightening thing is that the Internet has given people with these kinds of predilections another way to share their perversity with others. I think that many people think that the anonymity of cyberspace protects them. But it doesn't."

Federal agents learned about Yingst on Jan. 6 when they raided the home of Mark McGarry of Fresno, Calif., and searched his computer, according to court papers.

Documents state that McGarry's computer included pictures of "prepubescent children as young as a few months being subjected to sexual abuse by adults" and pictures of "children being subjected to bondage and other sadomasochistic and violent activity."

McGarry told investigators that Yingst was one of the people with whom he traded movies and pictures.

"The videos depict the sexual abuse and rape of prepubescent girls as young as 8 years of age in appearance and younger," Special Agent Mike Prado said in the criminal complaint against Yingst.

Posted by Nealus at May 13, 2005 01:32 PM

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