Stillwater man accused of lewd acts to child in store

 STILLWATER — A 43-year-old man accused of lifting a child’s dress and taking a picture of her buttocks at a Stillwater shopping mall on the day before Labor Day has been ordered to appear in court on Oct. 5 on a felony charge.

   If convicted of lewd acts to a 10-year-old girl as she walked through a store, Kenneth Leonard Poppe of Stillwater could be sentenced to as much as life in prison without the possibility of parole, court records show.

   Poppe, who was released from jail on Labor Day on $50,000 bond, was ordered by Special District Judge Jill Ochs at his arraignment to not be around any minor child unsupervised, court records show.

   Poppe was arrested at 3 pm on Sept. 6 in the 2400 block of N. Perkins Road, less than two hours after Stillwater Police Officer Roger Osiek was sent to a shopping center regarding “a child sexual molestation that had just occurred,” his affidavit alleged.

   In his affidavit, Officer Osiek alleged, “I was told by dispatch a Good Samaritan had chased the suspect to the shopping entrance off of Lakeview before losing sight of him. I did not see a suspect during my approach and made contact with the victim’s parent at the store.

   “I immediately got in contact with the (store) manager, who was able to provide me a photo of the suspect, which I disseminated to the other officers on duty. He showed me the footage showing suspect approaching (the child), then lifting her dress, bending down and taking a picture.

   “Immediately after, the suspect took off running out of the store with (the parents and a Good Samaritan) in pursuit. The girl was wearing a pink almost princess dress with a tulle/mesh skirt with her hair in a ponytail. I believed she was 8 years old until I obtained her birthday.

   “While officers were searching the area, I started looking at security footage from surrounding businesses. I started following the security footage trail…(At another store), employees recognized the suspect and were able to pull a name out using credit card purchases. I viewed the footage of the male checking out, made a positive ID and viewed the footage (from that store).

   “I distributed Poppe’s name to officers, and due to a prior traffic stop, officers were able to identify and locate Poppe’s vehicle parked outside of (the store). The windows were down; multiple perishable goods including groceries and chicken breasts were in plain view.

   “Shortly after this, an employee of (a fast-food shop) called in stating the individual I showed them was inside their store. Officers filled the area and observed Poppe running west…Poppe was arrested in a small cut out of the fence in the empty area on the northside of (another business). Poppe was hiding behind a bush in an area where no normal person should be without reason.”

   Officer Osiek alleged in his affidavit, “I told Poppe he was under arrest for molesting a child, read him Miranda (rights), then asked him to tell me what happened. Poppe told me this was all a big misunderstanding. Poppe stated he was hiding waiting on this to all blow over.

   “Poppe described the situation as it happened but stated he did not take a picture; he only considered doing it. He stated he placed his phone under a woman’s dress but did not take the photo.

   “I had already acquired Poppe’s phone as part of search incident to arrest, and I asked him if I could look through his photos. Poppe gave consent to search his phone, and I opened his photo’s folder.

   “The first photograph was a high quality (studio grade) photo of a juvenile female. My estimation is she was about 13 years old. No actual nudity was observed on this first picture. I then looked in the recently deleted folder. I found pictures of up skirt shots on what appear to be a juvenile female. I stopped looking at this point.

   “Officer Biggs offered to transport Poppe for me, and I returned to the PD to place the phone into property under the instruction of Sgt. Boren and Detective Kellison.”