Last week Tulsa criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Krigel had six charges levied against him based on his long history of alleged sexual assault and rape.
Last week Tulsa criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Krigel was charged with multiple crimes including rape and witness intimidation.
According to the official court record, there are six total charges levied against him:
First-Degree Rape
Forcible Sodomy
Second-Degree Rape by Instrumentation
Distribution of Obscene Material
Two counts of Witness Intimidation
A warrant for Krigel’s arrest was issued on Jan. 12. He turned himself in that same night.
The six court cases filed by The Grand Jury supposedly happened in 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2022
This is not the first case against Krigel. In 2021, he was arrested because of a separate rape allegation. In the previous hearing for this case, Wagoner County Managing Assistant District Attorney John Bennett called the victim as his witness. In her testimony, she claimed that she and Krigel had been involved in a long term on and off again relationship, but they were broken up on the night of the incident. That night she was at his home and while they were talking, he offered her water which she drank. She remembers nothing following this until she woke up alone on his couch not fully clothed. When she asked Krigel about her menstrual cup she later realized was missing, he affirmed that they had had sex that night. The case is scheduled to have its next session on Jan. 20 of this year.
While at the time this was Krigel’s only charge, the Tulsa Police Department still treated him as a serial offender. This was due to a separate month long investigation that revealed at least six women who also accused Krigel of sexual assault as far back as 2005.
Currently, authorities consider Krigel to be dangerous and have taken precautions to keep him detained.
Krigel is currently being held without bond due to his dangerous nature and history of tampering in cases. Along with his three rape charges, he also allegedly intimidated two people who testified against him in his divorce proceeding. He is accused of sharing their personal information online, filing lawsuits against them and attempting to physically track them down.
He has additionally been charged with sharing one of his victim’s nude photos.
In response to the most recent allegations, the Oklahoma Bar Association has asked the State Supreme Court to suspend Krigel’s law license.
Lieutenant Darin Ehrenrich from the TPD Special Victims Unit commented, “I hope that our actions have shown how seriously we’ve taken this case and how important it is.”
The Tulsa Police department has acknowledged the difficulty surrounding this case and cases of this nature. It is difficult for them to find people willing to come forward and testify in sexual assault cases. Lt. Ehrenrich stated that, “The vast majority of sexual assaults are not reported, and they’re not reported for any number of reasons. There’s generally fear when it comes to making reports. There could be fear of reprisals, fear of how’s this going to affect their life, how’s this going to affect my personal life, how will this affect my job?”
According to Lt. Ehrenrich, despite their lengthy investigation, it was not until another victim recently came forward that they could charge Krigel with the additional rape charges.
