A fired Hall County official won’t face charges despite detectives discovering videos of him performing sex acts on men who appeared unresponsive and denied having a consensual, sexual relationship with him, authorities said.
On two occasions, former Hall County emergency management director David Kimbrell is accused of filming himself performing oral sex on two men while they were drunk or unresponsive, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The alleged victims declined to press charges, with one citing the embarrassment of the case.
Kimbrell told investigators both men knew of the videos and “what he was doing to them,” but documents detailing the investigation and interviews with the victims suggest otherwise.
Kimbrell was fired in late October after a Hall County employee found one of the videos on his work computer, according to documents.
Kimbrell was the county’s fire chief until August 2014, when he began serving as the county’s emergency management director.
Efforts to reach him for comment regarding the allegations were unsuccessful.
Authorities were told of the first video Oct. 26 when an employee conducting routine server maintenance found it in a folder on Kimbrell’s computer. The employee told authorities he viewed it to see if the video was something that could be deleted to clear space.
Instead, he saw a man “lying on his back fully clothed and (appeared) to be asleep or passed out” as Kimbrell pulled down the man’s pants and performed oral sex on him, according to the report.
The victim was unresponsive and seemed incoherent and unaware during the short video, which was shot in a hotel room, officials said. Kimbrell admitted to authorities it was him in the video.
Authorities interviewed the victim, who said the incident likely occurred in 2012 during a conference in Savannah when he was an 18- or 19-year-old new hire. The victim admitted drinking too much alcohol and recalled passing out and waking up on a sofa.
The man admitted he and Kimbrell were close and would “play around,” but denied having an intimate, sexual relationship with Kimbrell. The victim declined to press charges but didn’t provide a reason why.
“Even though the victim in that case had already stated that he did not wish to prosecute, the proper legal protocol is to forward the case to the appropriate jurisdiction to allow them the opportunity to review it and determine their own course of action,” Hall County sheriff’s deputy Stephen Wilbanks told The AJC in an email.
Savannah-Chatham police, who were notified of the allegations, have not responded to multiple emails The AJC sent regarding the case and if charges were filed in their jurisdiction.
Just days after Hall officials were notified of the incident, investigators found a second, longer video that showed Kimbrell performing oral sex on a man who appeared unresponsive. Kimbrell told detectives the video, found on a thumb drive during a search of his office, was filmed in his Gainesville home six years ago.
In an interview with authorities, the victim admitted he spent the night at Kimbrell’s home, but said he did not have consensual sex. The man said he may have passed out after drinking liquor, which he rarely consumes. The only place he consumed it was at Kimbrell’s house, he told authorities.
The victim decided not to press charges, saying he was “extremely embarrassed” by the video, which he did not want being played in court if the case went to trial.
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