TULSA, Okla. — A Broken Arrow man was arrested and accused of watching security footage of girls changing clothes during a church event.
Court documents say an officer was called to the RiverOaks Presbyterian Church on Feb. 28 when a woman reported that an employee of the church, Kurt Erich Schmitz, watched a girl undress through security camera.
Police received the security footage and interviewed the victim, who said she was taking part in a dress sale and tried on several dresses during the event.
Schmitz’s wife told police that Schmitz had mentioned he was concerned about the security cameras in the classrooms being used during the event.
Schmitz’s wife confronted him the next morning after seeing screenshots on a monitoring app that showed he viewed the security camera footage.
He admitted he watched a girl try on a dress, seeing partial nudity.
Court documents say police interviewed Schmitz and he said he would tell the truth because he did not want to waste the officer’s time and that he would “be completely honest, no matter what.”
Schmitz told police he knew the details of the event because he worked with the coordinator to unlock the doors of the church. He said he knew there were cameras in the classrooms that were to be used as changing areas and originally planned to disable them through the security app.
On Feb. 12, Schmitz was at the church when he began reviewing footage through the security app from the fundraiser setup. He saw the video of the girl changing clothes and Schmitz said he then deleted the app because he felt guilty. He could not redownload it without his wife’s permission through the monitoring app.
Court documents say on Feb. 14, he was at the church overseeing maintenance when he had free time. Schmitz went to a private area of the church and used a tablet he had hidden to redownload the security app.
Schmitz said he redownloaded the app with the intentions of watching recorded video from the fundraising event.
After downloading the app, he scrolled through the footage and saw other females changing clothes in the same room. He then switched to live camera footage and watched several other girls change clothes as the event was occurring.
On Feb. 15, Schmitz called the church and the event coordinator then covered the cameras in the classrooms.
Court documents say Schmitz signed a waiver for police to seize his tablet. He told police they would find pornography, but not child sexual abuse material.
The investigator found the tablet Schmitz described and another one sitting on top of it. A zip file was found on the tablet that contained a pornographic video of a girl. A search warrant was then written and both tablets were turned over to the digital forensics lab.
Schmitz was arrested for three counts of peeping tom by electronic device and three counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.