TULSA, Okla. — A man faces multiple charges of possessing child sex abuse materials and peeping Tom after allegations he watched girls changing on security cameras.
The incident happened in February 2025 at RiverOaks Presbyterian Church near 101st and Yale.
A Tulsa police officer responded to a call on Feb. 28th. A woman told them a church employee told them that an employee of the church said to him that the employee watched a minor victim undress through security cameras installed at the church. The employee is identified as Kurt Erich Schmitz.
The officer talked to the caller and got the security footage from a hard drive in the church. He also interviewed the minor victim. She said she was taking part in a dress sale fundraiser and said she tried on several dresses during the setup.
The suspect's wife talked to the officer and said he'd mentioned to her several times that he was concerned about the cameras being used during that event. She said the next morning, she saw screenshots on a monitoring app the couple shares. She said he confessed to watching the girl change clothes, but only saw her in a sports bra and leggings, and partial nudity. She told him to call the person who reported it to the police and turn himself in, or she would divorce him.
The suspect talked to police and said he would "tell me the truth because he didn't want to waste my time. He would be completely honest, no matter what."
He said he knew when the event was because he coordinated making sure the church was unlocked. He initially intended to disable the security cameras. He started reviewing the footage and saw the victim removing her clothes, including her bra. He felt bad and deleted the app, and then couldn't re-download it to his phone without his wife's approval on the monitoring app.
Police said days later at church, he used a tablet he'd hidden to re-download the security app and planned to re-watch the video. He said he had a history of pornography addiction and would by secret tablets to play video games and watch porn without his wife's knowledge. He said doing this avoided the monitoring app. They said he admitted to watching several girls change on the live footage.
The next day, he called the person who reported the incident and turned himself in as his wife had ordered. That person covered up the cameras and notified the police.
In the investigation, police said they found videos of two girls recorded on 13 files on Feb. 12 and videos of four girls recorded on 16 files on Feb. 14.
Schmitz signed a waiver for investigators to take the tablets to analyze the content and said they would find porn, but nothing child-related. The investigator found the tablet Schmitz described and another one sitting on it. They found a zip file on that tablet that when opened showed pornographic videos of a girl. Investigators immediately got a search warrant and turned the devices over to the digital forensics lab.
The girl in the pornographic videos has not been identified.
Schmitz appeared in a Tulsa court on the 22nd. They held his bond hearing and scheduled an arraignment for Aug. 25. Schmitz is in custody.
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