An allegation from a 16-year-old girl that she encountered a Peeping Tom while getting senior pictures taken at Winship Studios has rung true for the accused photographer.
Kevin Kenneth Winship, 38, pled no contest and was found guilty of disorderly person/window peeping by Judge Michael Batchik at a pretrial Friday, March 7 at the 52-2 District Court in Clarkston. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation for the misdemeanor.
Winship turned himself in to authorities July 24 and was then arraigned before former Judge Gerald McNally. He was later released from custody on a $1,000 personal bond.
The alleged victim, of Waterford, accused Winship of watching her change clothes through a vent from an adjacent dressing room.
Police reports stated the girl had taken off her shirt and skirt, when she looked up and saw something in a vent near the ceiling. She then looked into the mirror and saw a head in the vent through the mirror’s reflection.
“What are you doing?” she yelled out, after which she heard a loud bang, from the area of where Winship had been seen.
An investigation by detectives of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department Independence Township substation, led them to believe it was possible to peer into the room through the vent grate.
Detective Jerry DeRosia said while looking in the dressing room mirror, it was observed the other room could be seen through the vent. From a ladder, the view was even clearer through the mirror.
DeRosia said it would have been possible for Winship, who is 6’1″, to stand on the stationary chair with wooden arms inside the room to get a view of the other room.
In a police interview with Winship’s father and Winship Studios owner Ken, he said his son had been on an outdoor photo shoot prior to the sitting with the victim, and had been perspiring from the heat. He wanted to change his t-shirt under his button down shirt, but didn’t want to make his appointment wait. So he did the first session and then changed his shirt in the adjacent dressing room, while the victim changed her clothes for the next shoot.
The victim’s mother told detectives she saw Winship come out of the room buttoning his shirt and stating he had changed his shirt. But the woman said it was the same shirt he was wearing prior and the t-shirt was still underneath.
The mother and daughter demanded for the man’s last name, but no staff member would comply, and also told the two Winship would never do anything like that. The mother and daughter received their money back in full and immediately left to file a police report.
Since the original incident, DeRosia said Winship Studios has moved one of the vents between the changing rooms, so it is impossible to see into the adjacent dressing area now.
Winship Studios has been in business for more than 33 years, and Kevin Winship has been a photographer there for more than 15 years.