KENT COUNTY — Mark Dykema, a former local business owner and chairman of Tulip Time, faces another sentencing next week for taking upskirt photos of women, this time in Kent County.
Dykema, 40, was sentenced to 180 days in jail on Monday, May 19, in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court after pleading no contest to surveilling an unclothed person and using a computer to commit a crime.
A no contest plea does not express admission of guilt, but waives the right to a trial and allows the court to sentence the defendant as if they were guilty.
During sentencing, the prosecution said over 375 files from multiple locations, including Eighth Street in Holland, were found on Dykema’s device during the investigation.
Mark Dykema speaks to his defense attorney during his sentencing on Monday, May 19, in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court.
In addition to 180 days in jail (with 35 days’ credit for time served), Dykema must pay $550.60 in restitution and will spend 36 months on probation. The camera will be disabled on his phone.
According to reporting from WZZM, Dykema is charged in Kent County with three counts each of using a computer to commit a crime and surveilling an unclothed person. He also pled no contest to those charges.
Dykema told detectives he’d been struggling with a porn addiction for years, according to WZZM, using an app on his phone to block all pornography websites and sending a daily usage report to his wife for monitoring.
He was forced to take matters into his own hands, Dykema allegedly told police, capturing “hundreds of photos and videos” of unsuspecting women in public. Officials said he learned how to record on his phone while keeping his screen black so he wouldn’t be detected, and uploaded the media to a personal YouTube account.
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According to an affidavit in Kent County, Dykema told detectives in Ottawa County he was trying to record underneath a woman’s dress at Lowe’s in August 2024 for “sexual gratification.”
After his initial interview, Dykema reportedly sent detectives a four-page email confessing to his actions. The Sentinel filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the email, but was denied, citing the ongoing investigation and court case.
Weeks before the incident at Lowe’s, according to WZZM, Dykema took recordings underneath the jumpsuit of a woman at church, one of his wife’s friends.
Detectives found two edited videos on Dykema’s phone of the woman, in addition to 14 images of the same woman in lingerie. Officials discovered the photos were taken of images in a private scrapbook.
In a police interview, according to WZZM, the unnamed woman said the photos were from a scrapbook she’d given to her husband on their wedding night and kept in her husband’s sock drawer. The photos were taken while the woman and her family were on vacation. She alleged Dykema had called and asked if he could go to their house to drop off a trailer.
Mark Dykema listens during his sentencing on Monday, May 19, in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court.
Dykema previously owned several Biggby Coffees, including spots in Holland Township, Zeeland and the Haworth Hotel. Gwen Auwerda, executive director of Tulip Time, told WOOD TV-8 in October that Dykema resigned his position on the board of directors in August, one month before charges were filed.
One victim, who was 16 when she worked under Dykema at Biggby Coffee in 2022, spoke before his sentencing in Ottawa County. The Sentinel does not name victims of sexual assault.
“He was a person that I trusted,” she said, adding she learned she was a victim during her freshman year of college in a different state, and had to move her final exams around court subpoenas.
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“As more information was given to me, I began to question my self-worth and found myself replaying that moment over and over in my head, wondering if I missed signs or if there was something I could have done to prevent it,” she said. “Even though I know the responsibility lies solely with Mark.”
Dykema is scheduled to be sentenced in Kent County’s 17th Circuit Court on June 4 under Judge Paul Denenfeld.
— Cassidey Kavathas is the politics and court reporter at The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at ckavathas@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @cassideykava.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Mark Dykema faces second upskirt photo sentencing in Kent County