Police: Restaurant Manager Convinced Underage Employee To Email Indecent Pics

COCONUT CREEK (CBS4) - The manager at a popular restaurant is under arrest accused of concocting a scheme to get an underage employee to send him naked pictures of herself.

According to Coconut Creek Police, Carmello Raffa was the manager of the Lime Restaurant off Lyons Road. Police say he pretended to be a recruiter for a modeling company and convinced an underage girl he worked with to email him naked pictures of herself.

A police report obtained by CBS 4 News shows that detectives say Raffa concocted an elaborate story about a former Lime employee who modeled and told the new, 16-year-old employee how much money she could make. In the report police say the teen started receiving emails from a modeling company requesting photos for an upcoming calendar. Investigators say the teen was pressured into sending topless pictures of herself. But police say the only person the victim was talking to -- was Carmello Raffa.

Coconut Creek Police arrested Raffa last Friday. The police report says, "The emailer (Raffa) offered to pay the victim $2500 for the calendar shoot but only if she sent the pictures of herself with and without panties on."

Detectives write in the report that after they began texting Raffa using the victim's phone, they caught him urging the underage girl to engage in sex acts. Police say when they arrested Raffa they found the photos from the teen and a nude picture that Raffa sent to her on Raffa's cell phone.

A member of Raffa's family spoke to CBS 4 News off camera. She said the family is shocked and that this behavior seems out of character for Raffa.

A spokesperson for Lime said that Raffa no longer works for the company and that the company is cooperating fully with police. Carmello Raffa is being held on $30-thousand dollars bond on three felony charges -- using a computer for pornography, promoting sexual performance by a child and distributing obscene material to a child.