Jeopardy! winner arrested for allegedly putting cameras into a victim's bedroom

One of the champions of Jeopardy! is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Philip Joseph "Joey" DeSena, who appeared in 2024 and is a two-game champion of the NBC show, was arrested by the authorities on Monday, December 1, 2025, charged with two counts of felony secret peeping.

According to a warrant filed by the Currituck County Sheriff’s Office, the 42-year-old from Raleigh is accused of installing cameras in a victim’s bedroom and bathroom on October 10, 2025.

DeSena competed on the trivia game show in November 2024, where he won two games and took home $46,698, later appearing in the Champions Wildcard Tournament in January, making it to the semi-finals.

DeSena is expected to appear in the Currituck County Court on Wednesday morning, December 3, 2025, although he was not given bond, according to court records.

Who is the Jeopardy! champion arrested? Details explored

Joey DeSena, who made it to Jeopardy! stage was born and based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Joey works as a development engineer.

Long before his Jeopardy! appearance, he built a name in the retro-gaming and online entertainment space, contributing to projects such as 16-Bit Gems, Apollo Z Hack, and The Video Game Years.

He developed a dedicated following for his thoughtful commentary on gaming history, lesser-known titles, and the way old-school games shaped the medium under the name “Rue.”

Joey first applied to Jeopardy! in 2010, and after more than a decade of waiting, he finally stepped onto the Alex Trebek Stage in November 2024. He won his first two games back-to-back, both taped on the same morning, before narrowly losing his third. 

The results in the three days were:

November 11, 2024: The final score was $17,497, making his total $17,497.

November 12, 2024: Wagered $27,201, resulting in a  $44,698 total.

November 13, 2024: The final score was $199, bringing his previous earnings made his total earnings $46,698. Joey did not find any Daily Doubles in this game when he eventually lost to Evan Dorey.

Later, DeSena returned for the Champions Wildcard, where he delivered one of the strongest quarterfinal performances of the tournament with 20 correct responses out of 22, along with two Daily Doubles played perfectly, facing off against Mehal Shah and Eamonn Campbell.

In the first semifinal game, he faced off against Drew Goins and Jen Feldman. He came up with 12/15 correct responses, including one Daily Double throughout the first two rounds.

As Joey was the only player to get it correct in the Final Jeopardy!, but after losing to Drew, he received $10,000 along with one other competitor.

He competed against returning champion Rachel Marcus, a writer and consultant from New York with one-day winnings of $20,600, and Chris Spencer, a medical writer from Washington, D.C., in the Jeopardy! episode premiered on November 11, 2024.

As the Jeopardy! episode aired, Joey DeSena wrote some of his reviews of the performance and the game on Reddit, where he talked about the difficulty of the Final Jeopardy! noting:

"First thing Ken said as the credits started to roll was that FJ was tough, and he didn't know it either. I can't tell you how much better that made me feel!"

Telling that he was normally not a "write a shoutout during FJ" person, Joey wrote that he wanted to send a message to his four-month-old daughter, Lorelei, through the stage so that she might see it years in the future and smile.

He also told about his "piece of flair," a Navy pin that belonged to his father, which he had worn during the Jeopardy! game.

"This was my little way of paying tribute to him on the Alex Trebek Stage. I made it, Dad," he wrote.

Stay tuned for more updates.