DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced a guilty plea conviction in the case against Jesse William Kirk, a 50-year-old man from Lithonia. Kirk was charged with using his cell phone to take photos and videos of women without their knowledge.
On March 12, 2025, Kirk pleaded guilty to two counts of Using/Installing a Device to Observe or Record Underneath or Through an Individual’s Clothing and one count of Peeping Tom. These charges were related to incidents that occurred in Brookhaven in 2019 and 2023.
The investigation began when Brookhaven Police Department officers responded to suspicious activity at Costco on July 23, 2019. A male employee reported seeing a man possibly taking upskirt photos of a female customer. Surveillance footage showed Kirk using his phone to take a photo under the woman’s dress while she was shopping.
Further review of the video revealed Kirk following another female customer inside the store, placing his phone under her skirt and appearing to take a photo. Store management helped police identify Kirk through his truck's license plate after he used Costco's gas pumps before entering the store. The vehicle was registered to the Kirk family, and detectives matched his photo with the surveillance footage. They also found him listed on the Sex Offender Registry.
Kirk was arrested but denied taking photos. However, the District Attorney’s Office’s Digital Forensics Unit executed a warrant on his phone and confirmed that photos matched those from the Costco incidents.
In April 2023, Newnan Police Department officers arrested Kirk for a similar incident at a Target store dressing room. Investigators obtained a warrant for his phone again and found more unauthorized photos of women.
Additionally, detectives discovered three videos on Kirk's phone showing a partially dressed woman inside her apartment, apparently taken from her balcony without her knowledge. They identified the location as an apartment complex in DeKalb County and confirmed with the woman that she did not know Kirk. Warrants were issued for his arrest, leading to his extradition from Montana where he was incarcerated.
Kirk's case in Coweta County is still pending resolution.
Following his guilty plea, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Brian Lake sentenced Kirk to 15 years, with eight years in confinement and the remainder on probation.
The case was handled by Senior Assistant District Attorney Garrett Emmons from the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. He received assistance from Digital Forensics Analyst Cathy Barcroft, District Attorney Investigator Jennifer Alaedu, Victim Advocate Ashley King, and Brookhaven Police Department Detective L. Howard who led the initial investigation.