Federal prosecutors say a former Punahou School girls basketball coach Opens in a new tab should remain jailed until trial to protect the public because he is allegedly “a prolific and aggressive child predator.”

Dwayne Yuen, 49, was arrested Feb. 2 and charged with possession of child pornography. His detention hearing Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader was continued until Feb. 23 at 9:30 a.m. Yuen is facing 10 years in prison.

“For many years, he has taken advantage of his position of trust and authority over minors in the community and used that power differential to groom and abuse vulnerable children in his care for his own sexual gratification,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Olson, in a 40-page filing Tuesday. “Yuen is not simply a passive collector of child pornography. Rather, he is a prolific and aggressive child predator who has repeatedly targeted minors that he knows well. He also has a history of relentlessly and obsessively contacting, harassing, and threatening his victims.”

Prosecutors oppose releasing Yuen to the custody of his mother because victims allegedly reported that Yuen lived with his mom when they were assaulted in his home.

His attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jacquelyn T. Esser, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the government’s motion includes “civil allegations and not criminal convictions.”

In July, investigators learned Yuen was involved with a 14-year-old girl starting when he was a basketball coach during her freshman year of high school in 2016 and continuing through 2020, according to federal court records.

Yuen was still coaching minors when he was arrested.

Agents got copies of “sexualized text message communications between minor victim 1” and Yuen, “sexually explicit photographs sent to MV1 by Yuen” and “electronic financial transactions” showing that Yuen gave MV1 money on multiple occasions.

MV1 said during her senior year of high school, Yuen allegedly began to give her “gifts such as sports bras, spandex, shoes, dinners and lunch.”

Between Sept. 16 and December 2020, while the girl was 17 and Yuen was 47, their conversations showed Yuen knew she was underage. The Tuesday filing includes sexually explicit text exchanges between Yuen and MVI pulled from 550 pages of texts turned over to the FBI.

In MV1’s last text message to Yuen in March 2022, she told him that she was not answering his messages and calls because “he kept texting younger girls than her and kept inappropriate pictures of younger girls.”

Yuen’s alleged conduct in the federal criminal case happened after the allegations outlined in lawsuits brought against Punahou School by former players alleging sexual assault and abuse.

Yuen left Punahou in 2006 and settled the lawsuits Opens in a new tab in August 2021. FBI agents interviewed victims involved in the civil suits as part of their ongoing investigation.

The FBI is asking anyone victimized by Yuen to call 808-673-2719, email yuenin vestigation@fbi.gov or visit fbi.gov/yueninvestigation Opens in a new tab.

Yuen started teaching in August 2005 at Kalani High School, according to state records. He was a senior assistant boys basketball coach from 2011 to 2013 at Moanalua High School. He taught at Momilani Elementary School from January 2007 until he resigned Feb. 13, 2018, amid an investigation into his conduct.

The DOE did not receive any complaints about Yuen.