DALLAS – Twenty nine-year-old Rockwall resident Jordan Smith was arrested last week after Dallas Police said he used his cellphone to take photos under the skirt of a teenage girl’s uniform at the Cityplace Target store.
Smith was charged with improper photography or visual recording after confessing to police, according to police records.
“Yeah, I did it. I just have a problem,” he said, according to his arrest warrant affidavit. “I was actually about to go meet my probation officer for my sex addiction class.”
A witness was shopping at the store on Haskell Ave. at about 7 pm when she said she saw Smith take multiple photos under the girl’s school uniform, according to police records. When the teen turned around, he quickly attempted to delete the photos.
The witness told police Smith then fled the location but was brought back by a security guard.
He was being held in the Dallas County Jail on $5,000 bail as of last week.
Editor’s note: “Upskirting” may actually be legal in Texas. Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio ruled last August that the state’s Improper Photography Statute – defined as photographing another person without their consent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of another person – was unconstitutional. But because the other three Courts of Appeals in Texas have ruled the law is constitutional, the San Antonio District Attorney’s Office said it would take the legal battle to the the Court of Criminal Appeals — the highest court of criminal review in Texas. We cannot find whether it was or not as of today.
After a similar incident and arrest in Massachusetts in 2010, the state’s highest court ruled last March that it was not illegal to secretly photograph underneath a person’s clothing because the women who were photographed while riding Boston public transportation were not nude or partially nude. A new law was signed into law two days later making “upskirting” illegal in that state.
By J.J. Smith