 |
Steve Kunzweiler | |
|---|---|
 Kunzweiler in 2025 | |
| Tulsa County District Attorney | |
| Assumed office 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Tim Harris |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Republican |
Steve Kunzweiler is an American politician who has served as the District Attorney for Tulsa County,Oklahoma since 2014. He has worked on shows for the Forensic Files ,See No Evil and 60 Minutes . He is a member of the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council.
Steve Kunzweiler started his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Osage County,Oklahoma. [1] In 1992,he started working for the Nowata County and Washington County district attorneys. In 2002,he moved to the Tulsa County district attorney's office. [2] In November 2013,he announced his campaign as a Republican candidate to succeed the retiring Tulsa County district attorney,Tim Harris. [3]
During the 2014 primary campaign,Kunzweiler challenged his opponent Fred Jordan's candidacy,arguing he was ineligble to serve as district attorney because he voted for pay increases for district attorneys while in the Oklahoma Legislature. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Jordan was eligible to hold the office. [4] He defeated Jordan in the runoff election,and since no Democratic candidate filed for the office,he won the election. [5]
In 2016,he filed felony first degree manslaughter charges against Betty Shelby. [6] By 2018,he had charged three police officers with shootings,Tulsa County Sheriff's Office reserve deputy Robert Bates,Shelby and Shannon Kepler. Both Bates and Kepler were convicted. [7]
In 2018,Kunzweiler was the prosecutor during the Bever family murders trial. [8]
In 2018,Kunzweiler ran against Jenny Proehl-Day,who was running on a social justice platform and claimed Kunzweiler "denies that there's any racial bias in the system." [9] Kunnzweiler was elected for his second term. [10]
In 2019,Kunzweiler organized a DA breakfast "where they could all come together for the first time ever" to later "feel comfortable to pick up the phone and call one of the district attorneys if they have a question about proposed legislation" that would affect their work. [11] District Attorneys including Steve Kunzweiler have criticized the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board,who want the board to be more conservative in their considerations for parole and commutation,despite the Republican Governor Kevin Stitt having expressed full confidence. In an article written by Tulsa World,the DAs were said to be taking an increasingly more political role that has "to some degree weakened" the board's influence. [12] Dark money conservative attack ads targeting Stitt as not tough enough on crime started airing in 2021. [13] The state of Oklahoma has the third highest incarceration rate in 2021 and its 2018 numbers show it incarcerates the most women per capita. [14] [15]
In 2020,Kunzweiler declined charges toward Black Lives Matter protestors in Tulsa who painted the street with the words "Black Lives Matter,"referring the case back to the Tulsa city attorney's office." [16] In 2021,Kunzweiler refused to charge the man who drove into BLM protestors,paralyzing a man,Ryan Knight,who "fell from an interstate overpass as the truck pulling a horse trailer drove through the group of protesters on Interstate 244. The 32-year-old was paralyzed from the waist down." [17] He "stopped short of endorsing proposals for harsher penalties for protestors or blanket immunity for drivers." [18] Also in 2020,Kunzweiler defended Harris's work when Harris was accused in the 2020 NBC Dateline investigative episode of allegedly coercing one of two formerly convicted Black Tulsa brothers into confessions. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] Atchison's lawyer Joseph Norwood,pointed out that "If Harris and Kunzweiler questioned the credibility of the lone witness against Atchison,the case should have been dismissed." Judge Sharon Holmes overturned Atchison's sentence. [29]
In 2021,Kunzweiler said that the ruling on McGirt "isn't just a criminal matter but can also affect businesses." [30] Kunzweiler and First Assistant District Attorney Erik Grayless were to blame for "a public censure from the Oklahoma Bar Association after admitting during a professional tribunal last year that interns she supervised represented the agency in numerous criminal cases without being properly licensed" that happened in 2021. [31]
In 2024,he was invited by Kevin Hern as his guest to attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union. [32] [33] He was invited because of his correlation to fentanyl overdoses,blaming immigration happening through the U.S. and Mexico border. [34]
In 2024,Kunzweiler supported the cross-deputization of police officers with tribal police to avoid confusion about who has jurisdiction. [35]
In June 2022,after the fall of Roe,a representative of No Forced Birth OK have called Kunzweiler "no friend to the Black community,the Indigenous community,to the gay community,to any community except white straight men." [36] On failure to protect laws,Kunzweiler said he viewed himself as a father punishing his daughters and that '"prosecutor's job was to 'teach people the morals they either never learned or they somehow forgot.'" [37] He has explained female incarceration "using a metaphor about spanking." [38]
In 2022,Kunzweiler's office wrote a protest letter against criminalized survivor April Wilkens's application for parole. [39] It is speculated that the board did not grant her a hearing this period at least in part due to the protest letter. [40] Hers was one of the first cases Tim Harris prosecuted as DA,and Harris later accepted campaign contributions after the trail from Terry Carlton's father,Don Carlton,as well as from Kunzweiler's wife. [41] [42] The same month as Wilkens was being denied parole by the (at the time) all-male board,they unanimously recommended the Crossbow Killer,Jimmie Stohler,be granted parole in the same meeting. [43] Any DA protest for Stohler's release would have come from Kunzweiler's office. Governor Kevin Stitt approved the board's recommendation for Stohler's parole. Still,he reversed his decision,citing new but undisclosed "information" in what the Tulsa County DA's office had sent him. [44] Stitt reversed his decision after accusations of racism for not also releasing Julius Jones. [45] Three weeks after the Oklahoma Survivor's Act was passed in 2024,legislation introduced by Greg Treat and Jon Echols that would resentence criminalized survivors like April Wilkens, [46] Kunzweiler's office came under scrutiny for creating a waiver that would get abuse victims to waive away their rights under the new law,to the outcry of domestic violence advocates,including the CEO of the YWCA in Oklahoma City. [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] They accused him of "forcing domestic violence victims charged with crimes to give up their rights if they want plea agreements." [54] Kunzweiler defended the form,saying that similar forms are used in other types of cases. [55]
In 2025,April Wilkens's attorneys accused Kunzweiler of dragging out the process to get her a resentencing hearing under the Oklahoma Survivors Act (OSA). Greg Treat also spoke out against Kunzweiler when delays in April Wilkens' resentencing hearing were occurring in Tulsa,saying "justice delayed is justice denied." [56] Advocates questioned why Wilkens still had no hearing date set. [57] [58] She filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus,where Wilkens's "defense team calls her incarceration 'unlawful;' an 'unreasonable over-detention' and a 'violation of Wilkens' Fourth,Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.'" [59] Though Wilkens was the first to apply for resentencing,she was not the first granted a hearing or released. [60] [61] [62] The judge,Clifford Smith,granted the Habeas hearing for Wilkens. [63] The hearing will be about her supervised release until she is granted an OSA resentencing hearing date. [64] In response to Judge Smith granting the Habeas hearing,Kunzweiler released a statement to media,claiming Terry Carlton had also taken out protective orders against Wilkens,though Channel 8 KTUL could find no evidence that had happened. [65]
On September 4,2025,Tulsa County Judge,David Guten,decided on the second day of April Wilkens's hearing that she had not met the burden of proof that her abuse at the hands of Terry Carlton was a substantial contributing factor. [66] Wilkens had a domestic violence expert and a forensic psychiatrist testify on her behalf during the hearing,rebutting the report and testimony of the forensic psychologist Dr. Jarrod Steffan hired by the state. Dr. Steffan cost the state thousands of dollars despite the state not having any mandate to call forth anyone to testify,which was pointed out by the judge. Despite this and other evidence submitted in her case,Judge Guten sided with the state's expert. [67] [68] [69] [70] Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice claimed that the courts are "misinterpreting the statute." [71] There were tears in the court house from Wilkens's supporters. [72] [73] Wilkens's attorney said it was a "profound setback—not only for April but for the movement of survivors across Oklahoma who believed this law could provide a meaningful path to justice." [74] [75] Tulsa's Domestic Violence and Intervention Services spoke out against Kunzweiler and Meghan Hilborn's handling of all survivors act cases, [76] saying that the DAs have discretion in choosing what to fight and that it makes no sense to spend state resources against women who are not threats to society. [77] [78] DVIS also released a statement denouncing Kunzweiler and Judge Guten,urging their constituents to vote them out. [79] Wilkens' attorneys announced their plan to appeal but also filed a motion for him to reconsider his decision. [80] [81] They argued "that the court misinterpreted the Survivors’Act and excluded crucial testimony from a domestic violence expert." [82] [83] The motion also "points to other records,including a sexual assault exam that noted Wilkens had 'areas of bruising on her body and had multiple tears in her vaginal area.'" [84] A sign-on letter from the Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition collected signatures in support of Oklahoma judges like Guten following the OSA and standing with Wilkens and other survivors. Signers included the names of former Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor,author Rachel Louise Snyder,and representatives Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey. [85] The CEO of Bama Pies wrote an opinion piece in the Tulsa World,claiming that "Guten completely disregarded the testimony of one of the most respected experts in the field of domestic violence,stalking and coercive control." [86] Kunzweiler spoke about the case saying he supported the Survivors' Act and believed there would be some "occasions" where domestic violence would be proven or demonstrated as the cause for the crime. He said that just because "somebody files an application that I'm just going to roll over" just because it's the "popular" or "trendy thing to do." [87]
Also in early 2022,Kunzweiler's daughter stabbed him. Before her hearing,he called for greater mental healthcare reforms in the state. [88] Doug Drummond,presiding judge for the 14th district,recused the entire district from the case. She was found not guilty by reason of mental illness in 2023. The attorney "representing...Jennifer Kunzweiler,said the not guilty verdict she received...in Tulsa County District Court around charges related to the September stabbing of her father had little to do with her position as a member of a powerful Tulsa family." [89]
Rosario Chico case
In 2023,Guten was the judge on the custody child-stealing case for Rosario Chico,where he "initially recused himself from the case but then reinserted himself" and it was alleged that Steve Kunzweiler contributed to Judge Guten’s election campaign. [90] An injunction was issued against DA Steve Kunzweiler regarding a petition on this case. [91]
In 2024,after president Biden released a statement on the death of Nex Benedict,Kunzweilers' office would not comment on their death "until prosecutors have received all reports related to the investigation,including the full findings from the medical examiner." [92] On March 21,2024,it was announced that no charges would be filed for the fight involving Nex,which was considered "an instance of mutual combat." [93]
Henry Jamerson,a man sentenced to 34 years who only served 24 and was later exonerated, [94] accused the Tulsa Police and the District Attorneys office of a decades-long coverup scheme in a 2025 lawsuit. [95] Kunzweiler is appealing Jamerson's overturned conviction, [96] even though the woman who accused Jamerson of rape recanted,saying that "police decades ago convinced her to identify Jamerson as her rapist even though she'd never seen him before." She now "formally supported the legal move to get Jamerson off the Oklahoma sex offender registry." [97] The court of criminal appeals upheld Judge David Guten's ruling to overturn Jamerson's convictions in September 2025. [98]
In 2025,an open records request revealed that Kunzweiler,who joined the Board of Directors of Karpel Foundation software company in 2021, [99] had,in 2022,shown the Karpel Foundation paying a $10,000 award to Kevin Keller of Tulsa,Oklahoma. He was Assistant District Attorney in 2013 under Kunzweiler and later become a judge two years after receiving the award. [100]
In 2023,Kunzweiler spoke out about several bills introduced in the same legislative session,all dealing with lessening the penalties for cockfighting. HB 2530,pushed by Justin Humphrey,died on April 13,2023,for the second year in a row. Kunzweiler said he was glad cockfighting remained a felony. [101] Mike Osburn co-authored House Bill 1792 with Dave Rader [102] that would lessen the penalties of also dogfighting in the state of Oklahoma,which sparked pushback from animal rights advocates. [103] A third bill authored by Lonnie Paxton,Senate Bill 1006,died in the Senate. It would have also lessened the penalties for cockfighting in the state,similar to House Bill 2530,but died in the same timeframe. [104]
In 2024,Kunzweiler supported Kevin West's HB 3694 bill that would undo 2016 state question voted on by the people. It was also authored by Julie Daniels and John George. [105] It "would revert the minimum value of goods stolen to qualify as a felony larceny back down from $1,000 to just $500." The bill was criticized by Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform Executive Director Damion Shade. [106] This is a SQ 780 rollback that would increase incarceration and essentially set the bar back to where the voters raised it in 2016." A representative of the organization Oklahoma Appleseed called it one of their "Bad Bills." [107]
Kunzweiler and his wife,Christine Kunzweiler,have three daughters. In September 2022,a daughter with mental illness stabbed Kunzweiler multiple times,but he survived. [108] He is mentioned in the podcast Panic Button:The April Wilkens Case as having confronted a Tulsa social worker about how domestic violence advocates need to get survivors to testify,otherwise they are not really being abused. [109]
He has worked on shows for the Forensic Files ,See No Evil and 60 Minutes . [110]
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