GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The former chairman of Holland’s Tulip Time Festival told investigators it was his pornography addiction that led him to record upskirt videos of unsuspecting women in two West Michigan counties, according to an affidavit filed in 63rd District Court.
Mark Edwin Dykema, 39, was officially charged Friday in Kent County, where he’s accused of trying to shoot video under women’s clothes in two locations, including a Wyoming church.
“He said he has been struggling with a pornography addiction for years,” wrote a Kent County sheriff’s detective in a probable cause document. “He stated he has applications on his devices that block all pornography websites, and the applications send a daily report to his wife for monitoring. Therefore, Dykema said he began creating pornography since he could not access pornography websites.”
In the affidavit, the Kent County investigator reported that Dykema is being investigated for attempting to record woman’s undergarments in Holland Township, Lowell Township and the city of Wyoming.
Dykema, who previously owned several Biggby Coffee shops in Holland and Zeeland, is charged in Kent County with two counts of using a computer to commit a crime and four counts of surveilling an unclothed person.
His attorney, Rob Howard, told News 8 that Dykema sold his interest in the coffee shops before he was charged in Ottawa County in September.
Howard also said that Dykema’s actions were not work-related and there have been no allegations of wrongdoing at any of the coffee shops.
Gwen Auwerda, executive director of the Tulip Time Festival, told News 8 that Dykema resigned his position as Tulip Time chairman in August.
Howard said Dykema is cooperating with investigators.
“We are working through this process and hoping to get this resolved as soon as possible,” Howard told News 8.
Dykema already faces similar charges in Ottawa County after a woman reported a man may have tried to take a photo under her dress in August at the Lowe’s on Felch Street near Holland.
“(The Lowe’s victim) reported that an unknown male subject may have taken a photo under her dress while standing in the store’s central aisle,” wrote the Kent County detective of Ottawa County’s case. “(Lowe’s) surveillance video was obtained … (and) identified the suspect as Mark Dykema.”
The Kent County affidavit noted Dykema confessed to Ottawa County detectives that he was trying to record under the woman’s dress at Lowe’s for “sexual gratification.”
After the initial interview in Ottawa County, Dykema sent the detective a four-page email confessing to his actions, according to the probable cause document.
The affidavit said it was Dykema himself who told detectives he’d done the same thing in Kent County a couple weeks before the Ottawa County incident.
“(He) admitted he had made additional recordings up the dress of a lady at church,” wrote the Kent County investigator, referring to Grand Rapids First Church on 44th Street SW in Wyoming. “(Dykema) said neither his wife nor anyone else knew he had taken videos up female dresses, skirts, and baggy shorts.”
Ottawa County seized Dykema’s cell phone for examination through a search warrant.
According to the court document, Dykema also had photos of the woman he’d recorded in church, whom he knew.
He told detectives the woman was unaware he’d recorded her at church.
“There were two edited videos of Dykema recording images up (the woman’s) clothing, she was wearing an orange jumpsuit, capturing her lower buttocks and upper legs,” wrote the Kent County detective.
Dykema is currently out on bond pending resolution of the cases in Ottawa and Kent counties.
Defense attorney Howard told News 8 there’s been no discussion regarding a plea agreement.
If convicted on both Kent County charges, Dykema could face up to four years in prison.
