Charges Dropped for Man Accused of Photographing Boy in North Babylon Bathroom

Charges have been dropped against a Dix Hills man accused of taking photos of an 8-year-old boy with his cellphone in a North Babylon restaurant in May, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

An investigation revealed there was no evidence to sustain that Luis Flores Jr., 28, was the person who committed this act, according to the DA.

On May 17, someone leaned over a bathroom stall and took photos of a young boy at Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet, located at 1114 Deer Park Ave. Flores was believed to be this person and was arrested and charged with second degree unlawful surveillance.

Assistant District Attorney John Cortes dismissed the charges in Suffolk County court after the following findings:

• A forensic examination of Flores’ cellphone by the Computer Crimes Unit of the Suffolk County Police Department did not find any pictures from the restaurant bathroom and there was no other incriminating evidence on his phone.
• The 8-year-old boy and his father’s version of events did not line up with the restaurant’s in-house video recording system.

The father reportedly claimed that no one else was in the bathroom when he left his son in there, but the restaurant video shows there were about four other men, including Flores, inside the bathroom.

Here’s the surveillance video’s sequence of events, according to the DA:

• One men left the bathroom about 10 seconds after the father left. Flores left about 15 seconds later. Two other unidentified men left the bathroom less than a minute after Flores.
• Two other unidentified men would enter and exit the bathroom before the father would return four minutes after leaving his son in the restroom.
• Flores was seen using his cellphone after leaving the bathroom.

The father told police that Flores was “loitering” and was playing on his phone outside of the bathroom. The father allegedly said Flores looked like he was going to return to the bathroom, but left after making eye contact with him.

Forensic evidence revealed that Flores was actually texting the woman he was having dinner with, the DA reports. Both Flores and the women reportedly went to their respective restrooms before leaving the restaurant.

The 8-year-old boy told his father he saw a hand holding a smartphone that reached over the stall door. He said the phone made clicking noises and emitted a flash, the DA reports.

The father alerted restaurant staff about the incident and later reviewed the restaurant’s surveillance footage and identified Flores as the offender.

The boy never saw the offender’s face and was not able to identify a specific phone that was used, police said.

Photo of Hibachi Grill, the location of the incident, via Yelp user Michael C.