An actor and singer from Weston faces extradition to Ireland after authorities say he repeatedly raped a woman over six years ago in a Dublin Airbnb.
Kevin Yungman, 31, was arrested Monday at his home by the U.S. Marshals Service, jail and court records show. He faces a charge of rape carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison under Irish law. The victim notified police the day after the alleged assault in 2018, according to court documents.
The victim, originally from Brazil, was 19 years old and working as an au pair in Ireland when she met Yungman, who was 25, while on vacation alone in Paris in April 2018.
He had come up to her on a walking tour and asked if she was trying to get a tan, she said in a statement to police included in the court filing. They ate lunch at a McDonald's next to the Louvre and spent the next two days together. That night, they had consensual sex at first. But later, she said that Yungman told her to take a deep breath, then squeezed her neck until she passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was "really scared," she said. In the morning, she asked Yungman what he had done to her, and he said it was a "technique" meant to induce a drug-like high and that it was normal.
The two parted ways but stayed in touch over social media, according to the complaint, and Yungman visited the woman in Dublin in June 2018. She had booked an Airbnb for the two of them to share during the visit.
The first night, the woman informed Yungman that she had brought condoms because she did not want to have unprotected sex like they had in Paris, according to her statement. He said he wouldn't use them or they wouldn't have sex. When she told him she was fine with not having sex, he got upset. But eventually, he told her that they could just be friends and not have sex, she said. He suggested they drink vodka together and talk; at one point they agreed on a "safe word."
Later, drunk, they had unprotected sex, the woman said. She told police it was consensual, but the next morning, she regretted it, worried she might get pregnant or get an STD. She said that she didn't speak much to Yungman as they went sightseeing around Dublin, but when she saw him interacting kindly with a family at dinner, she wondered if she was being too hard on him.
When Yungman approached her for sex that night, she said in the police statement, she tried to move away from him but he began to have sex with her without her consent, despite her saying the safe word they had agreed on. She couldn't move away because his hand was on her back.
Afterwards, the woman told Yungman she felt exhausted and wanted to rest. In the bedroom, she said, he began to have sex with her. At some point, he squeezed her neck again until she passed out. When she came to, she said in the statement, he started having sex with her. She said she was too weak to move and couldn't feel her body, but asked him repeatedly to "please stop." Eventually he stopped and said "he would let (her) have a break," she told police.
The next day, the woman pretended everything was okay, according to the statement. Then she met her sister in the park and told her the whole story. When Yungman was gone, they returned to the Airbnb and packed his things. He came back to find his bags outside on the street.
The woman confronted him about what he had done, and her sister told him to apologize, which he did, according to the statement. Later that day, he sent her a text over WhatsApp, writing, "know nothing like this will ever happen again."
After Yungman left, the woman went to the police, according to the complaint. She showed them the text. The next morning, Irish authorities arrested Yungman at Dublin Airport. During two separate interviews at the police station, he said that everything was consensual, but confirmed that he had sent the woman the text.
Close to two years passed. Then, in February 2020, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Ireland decided to charge Yungman, according to the court documents. A Dublin court issued a warrant for his arrest, but he was living in Weston at the time.
The Embassy of Ireland's formal request for Yungman's extradition from Florida is dated July 2021, over a year later, court documents show. Over two years later, in December 2023, the Department of Justice in Ireland submitted additional paperwork to the U.S. Department of Justice, including the victim's original statement to police. It is unclear what occurred during the gap.
It wasn't until July 30 of this year that federal prosecutors in South Florida officially filed a complaint seeking a warrant for Yungman's arrest in Weston, under seal, because they thought he would flee if he knew. He is now being held in Broward Main Jail as he awaits an extradition hearing in Fort Lauderdale.
On Friday, Yungman's defense attorneys filed a motion to release him on bond ahead of the hearing, questioning the urgency of the situation if it took over six years for prosecutors to seek his extradition.
In 2018, Yungman "was told by both law enforcement and his lawyer he was free to go and unarrested," the motion states. Then, in 2020, without his knowledge, prosecutors "decided to bring charges for the matter he had already been detained, arrested, cooperated with and told he was unarrested and free to leave the country by law enforcement and his own attorney ... It has been 6 years, 2 months, 7 days since the Dublin police arrested Mr. Yungman, conducted a full investigation and released him to return to his travel."
The motion also argues that all of the sex was consensual.
"Indeed, the 14-page sworn statement from [the victim] establishes the intense sexual experience ... was consensual and, any allegations of hindsight regret over the non-use of a condom ... was solely internally by (the victim) and she fully engaged consensually in the sexual experience," attorneys conclude.
Defense attorneys added that Yungman has no arrest record, delving into his background in show business and volunteering.
Yungman was born in Argentina and is a minor actor and singer who had roles in movies including Step Up Revolution and Killer Kids, according to his IMDb page. He attended Cypress Bay High School and was featured in local news reports at age 16 when he won a guest appearance in the Cirque Dreams "Jungle Fantasy" musical show. He later became part of the production's traveling troupe.
Yungman also worked as a paramedic and EMT at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, according to the motion. He has volunteered serving Christmas dinner to the homeless and helping children and adults with Down Syndrome.
The same day as the motion was filed, a judge denied Yungman bond at a hearing in Fort Lauderdale federal court. An extradition hearing is set for Sept. 27.