New details emerge after Augusta man accused of child molestation

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - An Augusta man has been arrested and accused of touching himself while watching kids play nearby.

This happened Saturday in the area of Brussels Street.

Richmond County deputies say 60-year-old Dennis Jennings is charged with six counts of child molestation, non-aggravated.

The children involved in this case are ages 7 to 13 years old.

In the wake of his arrest, a graphic video of the incident taken by one of these children has circulated on social media.

There were several reported incidents with Jennings, but investigators tell us that video evidence plays a key role in investigations like this.

Nearly two months ago, Jennings was arrested and charged with public indecency.

He was released on a 12-month probation, but neighbors say that didn’t solve the problem. It just got worse.

Deputies say the only way to arrest him was to catch him in the act.

A neighbor shot a video of Jennings being arrested by Richmond County deputies on Saturday.

“Bye-bye, go to jail.”

She wasn’t just a bystander; she was the one who called the police.

“I was in the living room, and I was laying down watching TV, and the kids ran in the house,” said the neighbor. “My son, he was like, ‘Mama, he doing it again, I got the video.’”

The video they’ve been trying to get for months, capturing Jennings in broad daylight.

But another neighbor says it’s been anything but easy.

“I never could get a good video because he will always get up, or move, or stop doing what he was doing once the kids came and told me,” the second neighbor said.

It’s a problem neighbors on Brussels Street have been concerned with for a while.

“I have been getting complaints from neighbors around like, you have to be careful because he masturbates to children and things like that,” said the first neighbor. “But I never thought that we would be a victim.”

And their kids are suffering.

“The kids can’t even come outside in the yard,” said the second neighbor. “They don’t play in the road. They are well-behaved kids, so there’s no point for them to be sheltered in the house because you want to sit outside and do that.”

Reports show the sheriff’s office has responded to issues with Jennings accusing him of pleasuring himself since 2023.

• In June of 2023, an incident report states that a neighbor accused him of touching himself while sitting on an electrical box.
• In April of 2023, Jennings was accused of exposing himself to children while they were playing outside, according to an incident report.
• In September of 2024, Jennings was accused of “self-pleasing” while a child was in the area, according to an incident report.
• In October of 2024, one of Jennings’ neighbors accused him of self-pleasing in her front yard before going back to his house, according to an incident report.
• In January of 2025, another neighbor accused Jennings of touching himself while watching her children through a window, according to an incident report.

But neighbors were told it’s basically he said, she said.

Investigators say they see 15 to 20 cases like this a week, and it all comes down to the video.

“If you can video it,” said Sergeant Terry Gore. “Take a picture of it. Do something that we can use as evidence to be able to further the case along.”

More recently, the local neighborhood watch is going digital.

“Everybody talks about everything on social media. We find out about crimes we didn’t even know about.,” Sergeant Gore says. “So we reach out to victims and try to get a hold of them and say, ‘Hey, did this happen to you?’ Then we can go from there.”

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