Ex-deputy who allegedly tried to take photos up women’s skirts going to trial

A trial date is expected to be set next week for a former Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputy who allegedly tried to take photos up women’s dresses at a grocery store.

Dennis James Schiavone Jr., 43, of Trenton, was scheduled to appear Wednesday in Middletown Municipal Court for a pre-trial hearing on the charge of attempted voyeurism in connection with a July 2 incident at the Kroger on Oxford State Road. The charge is a second-degree misdemeanor.

“Mr. Schiavone pushed his cart with the cell phone up to the two women in an attempt to film up their dresses,” according to the summons issued earlier this month.

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Schiavone’s attorney Frank Schiavone III, who is his uncle, met with Visiting Judge Thomas Hanna., but the case was not called and Dennis Schiavone was not in the courtroom. A bailiff said the judge and attorneys will meet next week to set a trial date.

Dennis Schiavone is not in custody.

A woman told deputies she observed a white, balding man wearing a gray shirt and shorts push a shopping cart very close to her, nearly touching her leg, according to court documents obtained by the Journal-News.

“She looked down and noticed a black Apple iPhone on the bottom of the shopping cart with its camera lens facing up. She advised the phone was held in place by a bag of potatoes,” according to the report.

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When the woman moved away, the man followed her and attempted to move close to her again. The woman looked down at the phone, then at the man and he “quickly walked away,” according to the report.

The woman said she observed the same man push the shopping cart close to another woman wearing a dress. She told the woman about the camera. The woman notified store management, and while sitting in her vehicle, observed the man leave the store and get into a Ford truck. She got the truck’s license plate and waited for deputes to arrive.

The truck was registered to Dennis James Schiavone Jr., according to deputies.

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Deputies watched store security video and said it showed Schiavone with the phone in the cart and moving that cart close to the women, according to an affidavit for a search warrant. He also appeared to be looking at a phone watch in the security video.

Deputies searched Schiavone’s house and seized 13 items, including flash drives, a GoPro camera, computer discs, DVDs, two laptops, an Apple Watch and a tablet, according to court documents.

In 2003, Schiavone was convicted of sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for having sexual conduct with a 17-year-old student while he was a school resource officer in Madison Local Schools. He severed a six-month jail sentence, was placed on five years probation, and was declared a sexually oriented offender.

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