NORRISTOWN — A former Delaware County man faces several years of court supervision as a sex offender after he admitted to using a pen camera to secretly record females in fitting rooms at stores in the King of Prussia Mall, and to secretly recording a former romantic partner without her consent.
Joseph M. Stevenson, 29, formerly of the unit block of Drexelbrook Drive, Upper Darby Township, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Tuesday to four years of probation after he pleaded guilty to nine misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy.
It wasn’t clear when he last lived there. It was his address when he pleaded guilty in November.
The offenses occurred from Jan. 15 to July 3, 2021, at the mall in Upper Merion Township and at his former residence.
“You hurt people and I hope you heard their voices,” Judge Steven T. O’Neill addressed Stevenson, referring to statements made by some of the nine victims.
O’Neill said he trusted the decision made by prosecutors who negotiated the plea agreement.
Stevenson, most recently of the 100 block of Durham Lane in Smyrna, Delaware, apologized to the victims, adding he has sought counseling and treatment for a disorder or addiction that he suggested was the root cause of his voyeuristic conduct. Stevenson did not specifically identify that disorder.
“The trauma you feel is not your fault. Please allow the burden of this to be on me alone. I’m the only one responsible. I’m truly, truly sorry,” Stevenson said. “This is something I have to do, take responsibility in front of you, in front of your families.”
O’Neill said Stevenson will be under sex offender supervision and must comply with all recommendations for continued treatment.
“This is a form of assault but it’s the kind of disorder that hides in the back alley of your soul,” O’Neill addressed Stevenson. “This is your burden to bear. It’s your requirement to keep it under control.”
Stevenson faces a 15-year requirement to report his address to state police to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan’s Law.
The judge ordered Stevenson to have no contact with the victims, and he was banned from the King of Prussia Mall.
Assistant District Attorney Caroline Rose Goldstein said Stevenson violated the sense of security of the victims, some of whom sought therapy after learning they had been secretly recorded.
Trail of ‘violated’ lives
“This defendant had many victims, some who were known to him, many who were not known to him, who were just trying to go to the mall and have a normal day and were violated by this defendant. Their lives have changed from this. They can’t do things they normally would do anymore,” Goldstein said. “It’s going to take a long time for these victims to rebuild their sense of security. They’re always going to be looking around, wondering who’s watching them.”
Goldstein said having Stevenson under supervision “allows us to watch him closely and know if he reoffends and to make sure that he is complying with all of the judge’s conditions.”
The victims said they fear going into dressing rooms and into bathrooms and one victim orders all of her clothes online now and won’t step foot in a dressing room.
“I can no longer go to the mall with my friends because you took that joy from me,” one 17-year-old girl testified, adding she was 14 when she was secretly recorded in a dressing room. “I live in fear of your actions every day.”
The mother of a 15-year-old girl said their mother-daughter shopping trip to the mall on July 3, 2021, ended with her daughter “being violated in a way we could have never imagined.”
“Not only was she embarrassed to learn and see a video of herself in the dressing room, she was upset to learn he personally held the device in her dressing room, being specifically targeted by him. This violation of privacy changed her and has stripped her of being a typical teenager enjoying shopping and trying on clothes,” the victim’s mother wrote in a statement read in court.
In addition to recording unwitting females in various stages of undress in fitting rooms at the mall, detectives found 74 recordings on Stevenson’s electronic devices that depicted intimate moments between Stevenson and a former partner, during which the woman was nude or partially nude, according to the criminal complaint.
The woman told detectives she never gave consent for Stevenson to record her.
“I will have to work through this pain, while living with the distrust and doubts that I now carry in my heart, for years to come,” Stevenson’s former romantic partner wrote in a statement to the judge. “The charges in this proceeding are limited by the current Pennsylvania legislation and do not adequately speak to the severity of the crime committed nor the damage and pain that has resulted from Joseph Stevenson’s actions.”
The woman added that she and the underage girls who were targeted “have been forced to endure this nightmare at the hands of a predator.”
The investigation
The investigation began that July 3 when Upper Merion detectives responded to the Hollister store in the mall to meet with a person “who had discovered a covert digital recording device in a fitting room,” according to a criminal complaint filed by Upper Merion detectives Robert Smull and Jay Nakahara.
More from the affidavit:
The device appeared to be a black-colored ink pen but upon closer inspection “it was evident that the pen was in fact a covert digital recording device capable of both video and audio recording.”
The covert camera had been found in a fitting room by a 14-year-old female customer who stated she knew it was a covert camera because she had seen similar devices on the internet.
“The covert camera had been placed between the curtain and the divider inside of the fitting room where customers would not likely see it. Before realizing that the covert camera was there, (the victim) removed her clothing to try on Hollister clothing. Once the covert camera was found (the victim) turned it over to store employees.”
A store manager told detectives that a man identified as Stevenson had approached a sales clerk later and asked if anyone had turned in a pen left in a fitting room. Knowing that a covert camera disguised as a pen had been found earlier, employees told Stevenson that the device would not be returned to him and Stevenson left the store appearing “nervous.”
Detectives retrieved mall security footage that helped them identify Stevenson and his vehicle in the parking garage.
Several days later, with the assistance of Delaware State Police and Upper Darby police, detectives went to Stevenson’s two residences with search warrants and multiple digital devices were seized.
During an interview, Stevenson admitted to placing the covert pen camera in the Hollister fitting room and added he had placed a similar covert pen camera in a fitting room of the Urban Outfitters store in the mall.
Urban Outfitters employees told detectives they had discovered such a device in a fitting room and subsequently they turned it over to authorities.
The contents of both covert pen cameras were forensically examined and detectives found footage of Stevenson placing the camera in the fitting rooms of the stores. Additionally, detectives found footage depicting females, ranging in age from 13 to 29, in various stages of undress in the fitting rooms.
During the investigation, seven of the nine victims were identified and detectives spoke to them or their parents or guardians.
“All victims had a clear expectation of privacy while changing their clothing in the fitting rooms … all confirmed that they did not give permission to Stevenson or anyone else to covertly record them.”
“A number of these recordings depict Stevenson looking directly at the camera, presumably while hiding the covert recording device inside of the fitting rooms.”
The earliest recordings on the device appeared to be captured in January 2020.
Defense lawyer William T. Whitenack Jr. represented Stevenson during the court hearing.
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