COOPER CITY, Fla. – Broward County deputies arrested a 24-year-old Fort Lauderdale man Friday after accusing him of molesting a Cooper City teenager he met through a dating app.
According to a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report, the victim, a 14-year-old boy, told detectives that he had initially signed up for the dating app, meant for adults, because he was “bored” and listed his age as 18.
Deputies said the boy and Henri Emery matched on the app and he would later tell Emery that he was 15. Emery also lied about his age initially, they said, and told the boy he was 22 but later admitted to being 24.
The boy told investigators that Emery “seemed uneasy” about his age, but continued communicating anyway, the report states.
The report goes on to state that Emery and the boy met up twice and went to the movies and, on one instance, Emery “snuck inside” the boy’s house and the two hung out in the boy’s bedroom.
The boy said Emery touched his genitals over his pants and kissed him on the mouth, but stopped after the 14-year-old pushed him away, the report states.
The boy’s mother would later become suspicious of her son’s “evasive” behavior and looked at his text messages, according to BSO.
The report details a number of text messages Emery is accused of sending the victim over the course of a month, including an Aug. 25 conversation where the two joked that the boy would be “grounded until he turns 18 years old” if he got caught meeting Emery.
The text messages also included requests to the boy to send a video of himself masturbating and for the boy to allow Emery to perform a sex act on him, the report states.
According to the report, Emery met with detectives at his Fort Lauderdale apartment and admitted to meeting the 14-year-old.
Emery was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation and using a computer to solicit a child. He was no longer listed in Broward County jail records as of Monday afternoon.