SALLISAW -- An agent in the Sequoyah County District Attorney's Task Force testified Thursday about a chaotic scene shortly after a 1999 drug raid that left one Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper dead and another injured. Clint Johnson, now a field supervisor for the task force, said he worked to save trooper David "Rocky" Eales, who had been shot while trying to serve a search and arrest warrant on Kenneth Eugene Barrett, 42, of Vian. Eales died of his wounds. "I remember seeing the glow of the lights (from the highway patrol vehicles)," Johnson said. "I heard one of the troopers say that they had two down, and one hurt pretty badly. I could hear them yelling." [continues 431 words]
A report from the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center suggests major reforms in how criminals, specifically drug offenders, are sentenced in Oklahoma. The report, obtained Wednesday by The Oklahoman, will be discussed at today's meeting of the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission. It is designed to encourage the Legislature to reform sentencing laws in order to cut expenses in the state prison system. Among the report's recommendations: Intermediate sanctions for probation violations. Current laws put criminals on probation back in prison for probation violations. [continues 214 words]
A prison expert told legislators Wednesday that Oklahoma's dependence on private prisons leaves the state "vulnerable" and that lawmakers should look at ways other than privatization to save money. James Austin, director of George Washington University's Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections, said Oklahoma could have problems if private prison companies decided to end their contracts with the state or faced financial difficulties and had to close. Such a situation would leave the state with thousands of inmates needing cells. As of Jan. 27, Oklahoma's public prisons are almost 98 percent full, state Corrections Department statistics show. [continues 495 words]
TISHOMINGO -- A Johnston County judge Monday refused to accept guilty pleas from two men charged with murder in a methamphetamine lab explosion and fire that killed a woman in Mill Creek. Wade Allen Edwards, 39, and Gary Lee Hicks, 40, had sought to make a blind plea to second-degree murder in the death of Teresa Hicks, 39. They are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to manufacture drugs. Associate District Judge Robert M. Highsmith refused to accept the pleas, preparing the way for the first-degree murder charges to move toward trial. A preliminary hearing for Edwards and Hicks is planned for January, officials said. [continues 226 words]
Oklahoma legislators are expected to give state Corrections Department employees a reprieve from furloughs when Monday's special session begins. But the funding proposal they'll consider may just be a temporary fix to a much larger problem. Legislators are expected to give the department $9.8 million to delay furloughs until April. Even with that money, the agency still faces a $27 million deficit because of state budget cuts and costs associated with a growing inmate population. Officials are hoping something happens between now and April that will stave off what could be a disastrous situation for the department, compressing its planned furlough days into a three-month span. [continues 1009 words]
STILLWATER -- A Perkins reserve police officer has been suspended while agents investigate the fatal shooting of a fleeing suspect last weekend. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents met Monday with Payne County District Attorney Rob Hudson to discuss preliminary findings about Saturday's shooting. The shooting involved Perkins police officer Toby Mason, 31. Mason was working with Payne County sheriff's deputies in capturing a suspect who fled from an oil field near Perry that had been staked out by Noble County authorities. [continues 157 words]
Oklahoma City's top FBI agent said that the agency's work in Oklahoma probably won't be much different than it has been in the past, despite national efforts to redirect federal resources to counterterrorism. Although the FBI plans to reassign hundreds of agents nationwide to counterterrorism, the effect on Oklahoma City's field office will be small, said Richard Marquise, special agent in charge of Oklahoma City's FBI office. "The impact is going to be minimal," Marquise said Wednesday. "The rest of the crime problems won't just be dumped on local law enforcement." [continues 175 words]
TULSA -- Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson said America needs to continue its battle against drugs and cited recent successes tied to the war on terrorism as reasons to do so. Hutchinson, speaking before more than 600 delegates at the National Sheriffs' Association Convention in Tulsa on Tuesday, said the country needs to resist efforts to loosen anti-drug laws and policies. "We should not abandon the cause," Hutchinson said. "I think we win the debate (on drug policy) if we wage it because we are right on this issue." [continues 323 words]
Almost half of the state's incoming prison population in 2001 was made up of people jailed for drug and drunk driving offenses, according to a report released Thursday by the state Criminal Justice Resource Center. The report, which examined prison statistics in Fiscal Year 2001, showed that 19.7 percent of the state's incoming inmates were sent to prison for drug possession. Another 13.7 percent were imprisoned for drug distribution and 10 percent for driving under the influence of intoxicants. [continues 276 words]
ADA -- Consider Larry Cartmell a history buff. When he was a child growing up in Pawnee, Cartmell and his friends collected Indian arrowheads and dreamed of the buffalo hunts and battles that took place there long ago. Childhood fascination with the past hasn't lessened with age. It has just evolved. Cartmell, the lab director at Ada's Valley View Regional Hospital, travels the world dissecting mummies to help archaeologists learn more about ancient people. In March, his research took him to Hierakonpolis, a 5,500-year-old Egyptian archaeological site. He's been analyzing hair and tissue samples from mummies buried there. By this summer, he should know more about how these people lived and died. [continues 897 words]
The Pardon and Parole Board has dropped its guidelines for life- without-parole inmates to apply for clemency. In a prepared statement, Board Chairwoman Stephanie Chappelle said Friday that the board withdrew the policy from its list of "special consideration applications" for early parole. Some life-without-parole inmates would have been eligible for release after 15 years in prison under the guidelines. The board's policy was designed to create a process that addressed the loophole in the life-without-parole law. [continues 605 words]
Ada: Phone tap broke case MUSKOGEE -- A former Ada assistant police chief was sentenced Wednesday to 61/2 years in federal prison for two drug convictions. Dennis Edmond Corvin, 40, pleaded guilty in August to having a gun while drug trafficking and establishing a drug manufacturing operation. He was sentenced in federal court in Muskogee. Corvin was arrested in February after the Pontotoc County District Attorney's Drug Task Force learned that he was involved in a methamphetamine manufacturing ring. Corvin, then the security manager at the Ada Wal- Mart, allowed one of his partners to come in the store and steal lithium batteries. Lithium strips in the batteries are used to make methamphetamine. [continues 134 words]
SPARKS -- A state narcotics agent shot and killed a Lincoln County man during a Tuesday morning drug raid. Kirk M. Massie, 48, died after being shot three times by an agent after barricading himself in a bathroom and pointing a double-barreled shotgun at officers, said Mark Woodward, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control spokesman. The name of the undercover agent who shot Massie is not being released. Narcotics agents and Lincoln County deputies went to Massie's home to serve a search warrant. [continues 328 words]
EL RENO - When it comes to dealing with drug problems, it pays to have police officers whose sole duty is busting dealers. just ask the El Reno police. The department, with funding from a $75,000 federal grant, has arrested 23 people and taken down 14 methamphetamine labs this year. Those funds, plus $25,000 more from the city, pay the salaries and expenses for El Reno to have a two-person team that works exclusively on drug investigations. "This is all we’re doing, so we’ve been able to develop our cases more," said David Beaty, one of the drug unit investigators. [continues 743 words]
WARR ACRES -- Jamelle Holieway is remembered as one of the University of Oklahoma's greatest gridiron heroes. But he is also part of a growing list of high-profile former state college athletes to run afoul with the law. Holieway, 31, was arrested on complaints of driving under the influence of drugs, possession of marijuana and three traffic violations after a recent low-speed chase in Warr Acres, police reports show. The March 11 report said Holieway, of Oklahoma City, drove through a closed-off portion of NW 63 Street near Norman Road at 11:38 p.m. [continues 319 words]
