In a disturbing revelation of privacy invasion, Jesse William Kirk, a 50-year-old registered sex offender from Lithonia, has been handed a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty to charges related to taking unauthorized upskirt photos and videos of women. The conviction, announced by DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, stems from multiple incidents where Kirk was caught on camera in the act of photographing unsuspecting women. Kirk's guilty plea included two counts of Using/Installing a Device to Observe or Record Underneath or Through an Individual’s Clothing and one count of Peeping Tom, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.
The first of these transgressions occurred at a Costco in Brookhaven on July 23, 2019, where surveillance footage captured Kirk taking photos beneath a woman’s dress. The store's management aided police in identifying the perpetrator through the license plate of his truck, which was caught on camera at the store's gas pumps. Kirk was arrested, but initially denied the allegations, yet, a warrant and subsequent examination of Kirk's phone by the District Attorney’s Office’s Digital Forensics Unit tied the device to the photos taken at Costco.
In a separate but equally unsettling incident in April 2023, authorities in Newnan arrested Kirk following a similar complaint at a Target store dressing room. A search of Kirk's phone unveiled even more surreptitious photos of women, alongside three videos of a partially dressed woman inside her apartment—recorded without consent from her balcony. After pinpointing the location of the recording, DeKalb County investigators contacted the woman who confirmed she was unaware of being filmed and did not know Kirk, who was incarcerated in Montana at the time.
In light of his guilty plea, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Brian Lake sentenced Kirk to serve 8 years of his 15-year sentence in confinement, with the remaining time on probation. District Attorney Sherry Boston's office highlighted the collective efforts of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit, including Senior Assistant District Attorney Garrett Emmons, Digital Forensics Analyst Cathy Barcroft, District Attorney Investigator Jennifer Alaedu, and Victim Advocate Ashley King, with Brookhaven Police Department Detective L. Howard spearheading the initial investigation. While Kirk has been held accountable in DeKalb County, his case in Coweta County is, however still pending.
