New Petition to Remove DA Steve Kunzweiler from the April Wilkens Case

Please sign our new petition to get Tulsa DA Kunzweiler removed from April's case so that AG Drummond can take over. 

In September 2025, domestic abuse survivor April Wilkens was denied resentencing relief under the new Oklahoma Survivors Act, a law that was written with her in mind. Community leaders and domestic violence experts are outraged.

Elected District Attorneys across the state continue to thwart the intent of the OSA, especially Tulsa DA Steve Kunzweiler. In November 2025, Wilkens’ attorneys filed a motion for Tulsa Judge David Guten to remove DA Kunzweiler, Assistant DA Meghan Hilborn, and the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office from any further participation in the case against Wilkens. We claim that Kunzweiler's office has conflicts of interest that undermine the defendant's due process and that AG Gentner Drummond should take over.

• Despite Kunzweiler claiming he supports the OSA, his actions say otherwise. He fought the bill’s passage and even created a waiver after its passage for future victims to waive their rights away under it. What’s more, the new documents recently filed include text messages he sent between members of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s staff. One of the messages from Kunzweiler reads: “Sorry about just now getting back with you. I was busy keeping April Wilkens in prison this week.”
• During April’s hearing, he spent over $11,000 of taxpayer funds to fight her case (despite Judge Guten saying Kunzweiler had no mandate to do so) and afterwards complained to the media that the legislature didn’t fund the bill when they passed it, showing that he wished the he could afford to fight all OSA cases. Kunzweiler has even lied to the media, claiming that April's abuser took out protective orders against her, despite there being no evidence of this.
• Staff members from the Tulsa DA's office recently attended the wedding for ADA Ashley Nix on Halloween. Nix allegedly bragged about buying Wilkens’ former home and had her wedding there for the "creepy vibes." Kunzweiler defended this concerning behavior.

DAs have a duty of neutrality to enforce the law as it is written. But it is clear from DA Kunzweiler’s text messages and actions that he has an overt agenda to keep April Wilkens in prison and blunt the impact of the OSA statewide. Members of the Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition like Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS) have called on constituents to raise their voice against how Wilkens’ case was handled. We here ask that AG Drummond take over the April Wilkens case.