Downtown restaurant employee accused of putting genitals in food, charged with child porn: records

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Three weeks after a restaurant employee was arrested for allegedly inserting his genitals in jelly, he was arrested again and charged with possession of child pornography.

Othello Larenzo Holmes, 27, faces five counts of possession of child pornography after investigators with Harris County Precinct 1 Constable's Office found hundreds of images and videos depicting children under the age of 10 on his phone, records state.

Holmes is being held in jail on bonds totaling $500,000. He was arrested for a second time Thursday morning.

"The things I have seen, and the behavior I have seen, it's very disturbing," Constable Alan Rosen said in a Friday afternoon news conference. "This individual is a predator."

It all started on April 5 at Kulture, a restaurant next to the George R. Brown Convention Center.

A manager alerted deputy constables to a video, showing Holmes, a cook at the time, putting his genitals into a jar of jelly. According to court records, he confessed and told investigators he "had these urges frequently" and "needs help."

Holmes was arrested that day and charged with a class B misdemeanor but gave investigators consent to search his phone.

"Boy, I'm glad we did," Rosen said. "We got a subpoena for his phone and found some really horrible things on his phone. We found child pornography and we are fearful that he potentially may have at some point molested young children."

Court records are more graphic. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of images on his phone showing children as young as infants being sexually assaulted, records state. Investigators said Holmes is identifiable in some of the images, and in one, there is another adult. They highlight five different videos for charging purposes. In each, it appears there is a different child victim under 10 years old.

At his southwest Houston apartment, a female relative declined to comment. Before his first court appearance, he told the public defender he lives with his mother. On social media, he identifies himself as a widower.

Rosen said the restaurant took swift action.

"They immediately shut down everybody. They had not served a single patron of the restaurant, and they shut down and only had their cook staff go and throw away items in the kitchen," he explained.

In a statement to ABC13, Kulture management said Holmes was fired and "we strongly believe this is an isolated incident resulting from retaliatory measures due to a demotion. Most importantly, this dangerous pedophile is off the streets."

Investigators believe Holmes may have traded his child pornography. Records state they found one chat conversation on the social media site Telegram, where Holmes wrote, "super pervy yesterday. I wish I had access to kids." A user with the username "princess" responded, "I wish you did too (cry face emoji)."

Rosen said Holmes previously worked at a hotel and that his office will seek a subpoena for a complete medical evaluation to see if he has any sexually transmitted diseases that he could have infected someone at the restaurant with.

The constable also said Holmes had many girlfriends who may have children. He fears they could be in the images. Anyone with any information is urged to contact the Precinct 1 Constable's Office at 713-755-7628.

Kulture offered a statement about what it's doing amid the arrest:

Two weeks ago, we learned that one of our employees had engaged in an unacceptable act contrary to our code of conduct and outside of his employment he was involved in reprehensible illegal activities, of which we were not aware. We took immediate action by shutting down our establishment, cleaning the entire space, discarding all existing inventory, and contacting the police to have the employee arrested immediately. Additionally, we worked with our security team to enhance our camera systems. These actions were implemented within one hour of the incident being brought to our attention, ensuring that the matter was addressed before the business opened again. The employee has been terminated, and we have taken all necessary steps to restore our normal services to the public. We strongly believe this is an isolated incident resulting from retaliatory measures due to a demotion. Most importantly, this dangerous pedophile is off the streets. We are continuing to work with ourselves, our employees, and law enforcement as this ongoing investigation unfolds.

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