Tulsa Police arrest man for stalking and posting sexually explicit videos of ex-girlfriend online

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Police said a man was arrested for stalking and nonconsensual dissemination after he posted sexually explicit videos of his ex-girlfriend online.

“There is anxiety, isolationism. You don’t want to go out of your house because you don’t know who has seen this. It can be very debilitating,” said Suzann Stewart, CEO of Family Safety Center.

According to the affidavit, Michael Wooten was formerly in an intimate relationship with the victim, who filed a protective order against him on June 12 last year.

On June 17 last year, the victim filed a violation of protection order/harassment report against Wooten.

“Stalkers are known for ramping things up to the next level many times. That’s why stalking is such a serious crime now,” Stewart said.

The affidavit said the victim had changed phone service providers and phone numbers so that Wooten couldn’t contact her. She said Wooten then messaged her from a new Snapchat account he created so that he could contact her. The message included a link to an X account (formerly Twitter).

The X account included Wooten’s initials in the username and featured at least four sexually explicit videos of the victim with thumbnails of her in ‘obviously sexual circumstances,’ the affidavit said.

The affidavit said the victim did not know the videos existed and she had not given permission for them to be recorded or posted on any public platform.

Stewart works alongside Tulsa Police and said she couldn’t talk about the case specifically, but she said cases like these point to disturbing trends.

“The awful thing is, if you are not aware of it and it is being posted and watching it happen, there is nothing you can do,” Stewart said.

She said stalking is becoming concerningly common in Tulsa.

In 2019, the Family Safety Center worked 788 cases. The number of cases has doubled over the next four years and so far in 2024, they have already had 314 cases.

“Sometimes it’s power and control,” Stewart said.

The victim provided screenshots of her messages with Wooten, which showed that he apologized to her and took the videos down, saying he was drunk when he posted them.

While the victim did not watch the videos herself, her mother viewed two of them and confirmed they were of her engaging in sexual acts with/on Wooten.

“Reluctance to seek help is very common because you are afraid someone is going to blame you,” Stewart said.

Wooten is still in jail as of Thursday on a $25,000 bond.