{"id":476445,"date":"2026-09-26T13:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476445\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:02:36","slug":"former-fresno-cell-repair-worker-accused-of-accessing-minors-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476445\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fresno cell repair worker accused of accessing minor\u2019s videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

A civil lawsuit against a Fresno cell phone repair company alleges one of its technicians \u2014 a man previously accused of soliciting a minor \u2014 distributed \u201cintimate sexual\u201d videos he accessed in May from an underage female customer\u2019s iPhone.<\/p>\n

The complaint<\/a> filed last month in Fresno County Superior Court accuses Desmond Devon Fitzgerald of accessing the images in May, while he worked at Cellpros phone repair shop at 5211 E. Kings Canyon Rd. Fitzgerald is accused in the complaint of using the girl\u2019s phone to send the images to his own phone number and to another phone number whose owner has not yet been identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie Doe,\u201d a pseudonym used to protect the girl\u2019s identity, is suing Fitzgerald, Cellpros, LLC, and company owners Antony Ayodele, Yamrot Tadesse and Rudolpho Tobias Michel. The complaint accuses the owners and company of creating an \u201cunsupervised\u201d environment that allowed Fitzgerald to violate the minor\u2019s privacy, as his prior arrest was public information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn entrusting her phone to the Defendants here for a simple repair, Cellpros forever took away her honor,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Ayodele emailed a statement to The Bee on behalf of Cellpros that says the company did not know about Fitzgerald\u2019s prior charges and that it fired him immediately after learning of the new allegations. The company says it has since implemented major policy changes, including strict background checks for employees and tightened security for customers\u2019 devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alleged rogue actions of former employee Desmond Fitzgerald represent a total betrayal of our company\u2019s core values, operational guidelines, and the Fresno community we proudly serve,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald was arrested in 2023 during \u201cOperation Boogeyman,\u201d<\/a> a multi-agency undercover sting targeting adults who solicited minors for sex online. A felony criminal case against Fitzgerald that followed the operation is still open and set for jury trial Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Police Department confirmed Thursday that Fitzgerald was again arrested in June following the alleged cell phone shop incident, but he was released and has not been criminally charged for that. Fitzgerald told The Bee on Thursday he denies all allegations against him in the 2023 and May incidents and that the recent civil suit against him and the cell repair shop is riddled with falsehoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if the family is trying to get money or anything because, sure, you can look me up on Google and find me there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno Fresno County Superior Courthouse, 1100 Van Ness Ave, Fresno on March 2, 2021. JOHN WALKER FRESNO BEE FILE Details of lawsuit against Fresno cell repair shop<\/p>\n

Doe\u2019s cell phone needed a battery repair and was dropped off May 16 at the Cellpros shop on Kings Canyon Road, where it remained for a little over two hours, the complaint alleges. In that time, the phone was repaired and then two \u201cintimate video recordings\u201d depicting Doe were sent to two phone numbers before her father picked up the device from the shop, the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n

Despite not having her phone, Doe noticed the messages because she was connected to her iCloud through her Apple MacBook, says Benjamin Drake, one of Doe\u2019s attorneys. Doe told her father, and he returned to the shop to confront Fitzgerald, who allegedly later confessed to Doe\u2019s father that one of the numbers the videos had been sent to belonged to him, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald claimed he didn\u2019t know who the second number belonged to, the complaint alleges. Drake told The Bee that number\u2019s owner has not yet been identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the scary part,\u201d Drake said. “Our suspicion is it might have gone through to the black market or some black sites … and has been transmitted multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the impact to Doe and her family is \u201cdifficult to put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a young minor who now has her private pictures \u2014 pictures nobody would want anybody to have \u2014 disseminated,\u201d Drake said. \u201cShe has no idea who has it, who can potentially use it against her, her reputation, her future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germain Labat, another of Doe\u2019s attorneys, said the extent to which the girl\u2019s data was taken also remains unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people have the ability not only to invade our privacy at every level, but to pull off full identity theft,\u201d Labat said of cell phone repair workers in general.<\/p>\n

Fresno cell repair shop says it made major changes<\/p>\n

In its emailed statement, Cellpros said it maintains a \u201cstrict zero-tolerance policy for any compromise of customer privacy or trust.\u201d (Read the full statement here.)<\/a><\/p>\n

The company, which has multiple locations in Fresno, said that prior to the allegations against Fitzgerald it had no history of customer data privacy problems.<\/p>\n

The company said it did not know about Fitzgerald\u2019s open criminal case from 2023 because, when he was hired, Cellpros\u2019 pre-employment screening was based on \u201cdirect professional reference and prior employer verifications.\u201d Fitzgerald was fired \u201cfor cause\u201d when the company learned of the May alleged incident and banned from all locations, Cellpros said.<\/p>\n

The company says it has implemented the following policy changes for customers\u2019 safety:<\/p>\n

Exclusively using charging docks with physically disabled data pins to prevent technical data extraction during charging, establishing mandatory dual-custody device storage, restricting passcode collection to real-time counter verifications only and installing upgraded workbench camera surveillance.Mandated comprehensive criminal background checks \u2014 including federal, state, county, and sex offender registry screens \u2014 for all prospective employees. A retroactive background audit has also been initiated across all current personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne person\u2019s unacceptable actions \u2014 a total betrayal of our core values and your trust \u2014 do not define who we are, nor should they erase 15 years of dedicated service to Fresno,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Accused former cell repair worker denies allegations<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald told The Bee he talked to Doe\u2019s father outside the repair shop when confronted, but was \u201cconfused (about) what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He denied ever admitting one of the phone numbers that received videos of Doe belonged to him. Fitzgerald said Doe\u2019s father only mentioned one phone number when they talked, and that it was not his.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed them through my entire phone, and there was nothing on there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald claims Cellpros fired him because of his prior arrest in 2023 and not because of the alleged incident involving Doe\u2019s phone. He added that he cooperated with the company, surrendered his devices and nothing was found on them. Fitzgerald also says police in June \u201clet me out because there was nothing found on any of my devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Long, spokesperson for the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office, said in an email that \u201cadditional investigative follow-up was requested\u201d following Fitzgerald\u2019s June arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe matter remains subject to evaluation as additional information becomes available,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 25, 2026 at 12:42 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A civil lawsuit against a Fresno cell phone repair company alleges one of its technicians \u2014 a man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-476445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}