A pastor at a Lake Elsinore church has been arrested for allegedly taking pictures up women's skirts with his cell phone camera without their knowledge, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

John Albert Kleinpeter, 51, was arrested Friday at his Murrieta home and charged with one count of video voyeurism for sexual pleasure, which is a misdemeanor, said Riverside County district attorney's office spokesman John Hall.

Kleinpeter's arrest followed an investigation into a series of incidents at Temecula and Murrieta Target stores where witnesses say they saw him use a cell phone camera or small mirror to secretly photograph or view up the skirts of unsuspecting female adult shoppers, according to investigators.

Kleinpeter is also known as "John Andrews," whom authorities said is a pastor at Generations Community Church in Lake Elsinore.

Denise Kleinpeter-Andrews, who answered the phone at Generations Church on Wednesday afternoon, said her husband is innocent.

"He did not do it," she said.

According to a declaration filed with the court by a member of Riverside County's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement task force in support of an arrest warrant, Kleinpeter is a registered sex offender, stemming from a 1982 felony conviction in Orange County for assault with intent to commit rape.

More recently, the affidavit states, the investigator observed Kleinpeter at the Murrieta SuperTarget on Aug. 18 take a picture of a woman's underwear with his cell phone while her 10-year-old daughter looked on.

"When she bent down to look at an item, he quickly squatted down, stuck his hand between her legs and under her skirt with his cell phone, and captured an image," the document states.

According to the affidavit, Kleinpeter has been observed doing much the same thing at the Temecula Target on April 6 and May 1.

The investigation started at the Temecula Target, where store security officers believed Kleinpeter may have been up to something, Hall said.

"But by the time they called the police he was gone," Hall said.

Kleinpeter was finally identified earlier this month at the Murrieta SuperTarget when his license plate number was traced, Hall said.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, he targeted women wearing short skirts, and would use a piece of paper to hide his cell phone from view.

"Apparently he was so quick and so covert in what he was doing that if a woman thought he was doing something and confronted him he would say he was just reaching for something," Hall said.

Kleinpeter is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 7.