Joseph Yannai is clearly a very troubled man and his lawyers want to stop jurors from hearing some of his legal, but morally questionable, behavior from several years ago. Yannai authored the "The International Who's Who of Chefs 2004-2005," which contains over three-thousand biographies of famous chefs all over the world and their favorite recipes.
That is the most normal thing about this man. He stands accused of sexually abusing young female au pairs that he hired from Europe to work in the New York home he shared with his wife. According a recent filing by federal prosecutors, Yannai coerced three young au pairs to perform acts of oral sex on him and photographed several of the other young women in sexually explicit poses.
While working at his home, the author forced the women to not wear bras, urged them to have sex with him, forced them to watch him taking a bath and groped their breasts and buttocks, among other allegations. This pattern of abuse is documented as far back as 1992, but charges were not filed in that original case.
Unfortauntely, this bizarre case gets even worse. In 2008, Yannai traveled to Michigan and engaged in a consensual sexual encounter with a 16-year-old women. At the time, the age of consent in Michigan was 16, making the encounter legal. His lawyers wrote, "The questionable ethical and moral choice of an older man sleeping with a very young female would...lead many jurors to hate Mr. Yannai. Though not criminal, Mr. Yannai's conduct would certainly be viewed as abhorrent by a large portion of society."
Uh, yeah, you have that right. Yannai has denied the allegations and his trial will begin later this month.
Photo by: MrBill
