Fugitive Deputy Kyle Yates Arrested for Raping and Molesting Child

The former Palm Beach County deputy who ran from the law for four months was arrested Saturday in Texas on charges of raping and molesting a child.

Kyle Yates, 38, ran away with his work-issued .45-caliber Glock handgun after he was confronted with the allegations in July. Deputies later charged him.

Police said a county employee in Corpus Christi recognized Yates while at a nightclub, according to the Caller-Times newspaper. The employee notified authorities, who arrested Yates without incident as he left the club early Saturday.

He will be extradited to Palm Beach County to face his charges.

Some of his family and friends said Saturday that they couldn't believe the man who loved law enforcement could be charged with such a crime.

Yates, an Army veteran and former Greenacres police officer, lost his badge with the Sheriff's Office after he went on the run.

"He abandoned his position," as a deputy, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

Yates was hired by the Sheriff's Office in 2004 and worked in Belle Glade and Wellington. His personnel file shows that he was a deputy who, in many aspects, exceeded requirements.

"Yates is a hard worker always willing to do more or assist a co-worker," his 2006 performance plan read. His mother welled up when asked about her son.

"He is a perfect son," said his mother, Linda Key. "I could tell you the good things but they're overshadowed by the bad things."

Yates, who grew up in Tennessee, loved spending time with his 8-year-old boy, Key said.

Yates told family members in July that he was going to check himself into a mental health facility and left before deputies arrived to question him.

Besides his Glock, Yates may have taken a Remington shotgun, deputies said.

He answered a call from a Sheriff's Office sergeant on the night he left and expressed suicidal thoughts. He reportedly said that he was on his way to the South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach. Instead, investigators said, he took his family's only vehicle and drove to Texas.

The next day, July 25, Yates was recorded using a credit card at a gas station in Odem, Texas, not far from Corpus Christi, the Sheriff's Office said. Authorities lost his trail after that.

"He's one of the finest people I know and I have nothing bad to say about him," said family friend Jo Ann Talley, 80, of Bell Buckle, Tenn. "I'm hoping to God this turns out to be untrue."

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