Photo: Tanja Ivanova / Moment / Getty Images
The host of an interracial dating podcast is facing prison time after pleading guilty to stalking five different Black people living in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday (November 6). Christopher Au-Young, 36, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for threatening and harassing his victims through videos posted to multiple social media platforms.
“The videos were so offensive and threatening that many people complained and Au-Young eventually removed most of them,” reads a criminal complaint filed in January 2023.
Prosecutors claim the California man stalked a woman he met on his podcast from October 2022 until his arrest in January 2023. When the victim rejected his advances on the podcast, he started making racial threats and even told her, "I hope I ruin your life," officials said. Au-Young then posted several videos containing the woman's personal information, drove three hours to her home, and parked outside her residence. The victim ended up moving for her safety.
Au-Young met his second victim through a Facebook group about veterans, and they started dating, according to the DOJ. When she decided to end the relationship, that's when he started "stalking, threatening and harassing" her and her family. The woman claims the 36-year-old “warned her that he would never stop coming for her” and to “sleep with one-eye open.”
On top of posting videos warning the community to stay away from the victim and her family, Au-Young targeted his ex-girlfriend's adult daughter by posting dozens of videos about her, including one video where he baselessly labeled her a "PED-O-FILE." He reportedly sent letters to the woman's son calling him and the family racial slurs and making threats.
Court documents state he also mailed letters to the home and church of his ex-girlfriend's brother, who works as a minister. In these letters, he falsely accuses him of being a pedophile and "molesting several children" while implicating his wife, as well.
In December 2022, Au-Young reportedly drove from California to Illinois to stalk his ex-girlfriend in person for three days. He also said he was going to vandalize her car in a slew of videos, which prompted a "concerned YouTube viewer" to contact the authorities. Law enforcement found the podcast host in the backseat of his vehicle near the victim's job.
The first victim believed Au-Young targeted Black women due to racial statements he made about Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The 36-year-old suspect pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and cyberstalking on July 28.
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