'I Didn’t Even Know He Seen Me': Janitor Admitted Masturbating In Public Bathroom

LACLEDE COUNTY, Mo. — In the third day of the trial for former Camdenton R-III School District janitor Jesse Devore, recorded interviews with Devore reveal he admitted masturbating in public bathrooms. Those incidents led to the six charges Devore now faces: charges of exposing himself to children at Camdenton schools and in other public places.

Devore, 30, of Sunrise Beach is charged with six counts of sexual misconduct involving a child under 15, in incidents going back as far as 2013. Devore was arrested in 2019 for allegedly masturbating in front of a student at Camdenton Middle School. Devore is also accused of incidents that allegedly occurred in the Camdenton Walmart parking lot and bathroom in 2013 as well as a juvenile victim’s driveway in 2015.

Day three of trial began with a recorded interview between Devore and a school resource officer from Oak Ridge Intermediate, while Devore was in jail.

During that interview, Devore admitted to having masturbated in Walmart and been seen by a child, although he denied touching, speaking to or making eye contact with the child.

"He just seen me through the freaking stall door, you know what I mean?... I admit to that," Devore said. “I didn’t even know he seen me. I wasn’t paying attention. I’m not there to let people see me. It’s just the excitement of it there or something.”

When asked why he thought he was masturbating in public, Devore disclosed that he had been molested when he was five.

“No, it was all because I was molested as a kid and it scarred me,” Devore said. “I mean that’s the only reason I masturbate in the bathroom. I don't know.”

When asked why he didn’t stop when he was caught, Devore said that he usually did.

“I normally say I would stop [when they caught me].”

The School Resource Officer

On Thursday, the defense asked that school resource officer if he had ever known Devore at his time in the school. They also asked if he had used any kind of coercive language before that recorded interview or if he had promised that Devore's interview would make the prosecution more sympathetic. The officer denied all of those things.

“I don’t make promises for the prosecution,” he said.

After this testimony, the prosecution rested and the defense called their witnesses.

Defense Witnesses

First the court heard from the forensic interviewer from Kids' Harbor and a special education teacher who heard the boys at Oak Ridge Intermediate talking about the incident.

Next, the defense called to the stand another young witness of the Oak Ridge Intermediate incident, a girl.

The girl spoke about what the original witness — the boy who allegedly saw Devore in the bathroom — said to her after he exited the bathroom and how she briefly went into the bathroom herself.

She recalled the conversation: "'Dude there’s a guy jacking off in there!' And we were like 'No way!' And he was like 'On God!' And so then he was like, 'No balls, you wouldn’t go in there.' And my balls are huge so I walked in there, and I came right back out after like two seconds."

The witness says she only saw shoes and she said that she asked the witness who had come from the bathroom if "he was peeping on him [the man]."

"And he said 'No, I just saw him through the crack,'" she recalled.

The defense also called two police officers who were present at the 2013 incident in Walmart and the 2015 incident in Devore’s yard respectively. Both officers referenced their notes from the time of the incident and gave slightly different accounts than what the witnesses had said at the time.

The officer from the Walmart incident testified that the child had denied that the man had touched or said anything to him.

In the yard incident, the children said that the kids had been playing basketball when the ball got away from them and when they chased after it, they saw a man masturbating in the yard. They said the man looked startled and the boys went inside.

With that, both prosecution and defense rested. Closing arguments begin Friday at 9 a.m., and jury deliberation will begin after.