Today In Oklahoma

Instead of feuding with the Mayor as in Tulsa, Oklahoma City Councilors are apparently feuding with panhandlers.

The city council is proposing limits on panhandling that will keep panhandlers out of the street and off the median.

In recent years Oklahoma City Council members have tried several times, with only limited success, to restrict panhandling, so they are going to have another go at it.

What makes them think this attempt will be any more successful is not readily apparent, but at least give them a “A” for effort.

Read it at Oklahoma City Council proposes limits on panhandling

And after a long day of city counciling or panhandling in the heat, a fellow needs a nice cool drink.

Maybe a nice cold orange flavored drink…

It turns out that they don’t serve orange flavored drinks at Chili’s Restaurant near Northwest Expressway and Rockwell in Oklahoma City.

That news apparently did not go over too well with a customer who upon learning of the policy reportedly pushed a waitress and ran around the building, apparently with the cops in pursuit.

Eventually the cops caught up with the guy at a car dealership. No word yet on whether he was wanting an orange vehicle or was less discriminating in cars than in drinks.

Anyhow, read it at Police: Man Attacks Waitress Over Orange Drink and contemplate whether “waitress pushing” is a misdemeanor or a felony.

Not to be outdone by city officials, two Tulsa County officials have now caught the silliness that is overtaking Tulsa City government.

The “spat” between Tulsa County officials involves Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel and County Commissioner Fred Perry.

Yazel is accusing County Commissioner Perry of using “Soviet style” tactics of intimidation and interrogation in handling an open records request by Ruth Hartje, a candidate for Tulsa County Treasurer

Yazel is quoted in media reports (links below) as saying, “This meeting was inappropriate and politically motivated. When a citizen legally requests public records, they don’t deserve to be badgered and interrogated about why.”

Yazel is also quoted as saying, “This Soviet style of intimidation and interrogation is what I fought against as a Marine overseas, and now I find it in my own county commissioner. I am disgusted.”

Perry stated that Yazel’s comments were politically motivated.

Perry is quoted as saying, “It is unfortunate that the assessor is injecting himself and making a mountain out of a mole hill. He is incorrectly describing a meeting he did not attend.”

And while this “spat” between two Tulsa County officials does not compare to the feud between the Tulsa Mayor and City Councilors, at least it is a start of Tulsa County’s contribution into portraying, if not making, Tulsa the Detroit of the Southwest.

Read it at:

Assessor: Tulsa commissioner used ‘Soviet style’ tactics handling open record request

Assessor blasts county exec over records request

Tulsa City Councilors tried and failed to “get” Mayor Dewey Bartlett and his chief of staff, Terry Simonson on allegations that they lied to the Tulsa City Council.

Now, the trio of Burt B. Holmes, Nancy Rothman and Henryetta McIntosh have returned the favor and filed a civil lawsuit in Tulsa County District Court on July 14 alleging that the Tulsa City Council and its individual members violated the Open Meeting Act.

The plaintiffs contend that the Open Meeting Act was violated during an executive session the Tulsa City Council held regarding an investigation into allegations that Mayor Dewey Bartlett and his chief of staff, Terry Simonson, lied to the council about a federal police grant.

It was during that executive session that the Council voted to remove Bartlett from the room. Reportedly Bartlett had refused to leave the room.

Oh well, with a Mayor and City Council acting like a bunch of spoiled brats what’s another black eye for Tulsa as it races to become the Detroit of the Southwest…

Don’t it make Tulsans proud?

Read it at:

Tulsa councilors served in Open Meetings lawsuit

Lawsuit against councilors denounced

Online Court Records of the Lawsuit

U.S. Attorney Jane W. Duke, a special prosecutor from eastern Arkansas, is leading a federal grand jury in Tulsa in its investigation of corruption at the Tulsa Police Department.

As a result, five Tulsa cops have been indicted including one of “Tulsa’s finest” who faces 58 counts of perjury, conspiracy to distribute drugs, witness tampering and various and sundry other crimes.

Tulsa Police Officers Jeff Henderson, 37, Bill Yelton, 49, Nick DeBruin, 37, Bruce Bonham 52, and retired Officer Harold R. Wells, 59, are thus indicted thus far.

U.S. Attorney Duke has indicated that the grand jury investigation, which has been going on for about two years, is carrying on its investigation and that more indictments may be possible.

On Tuesday afternoon, the five current and former cops appeared shackled in handcuffs at a hearing in Tulsa’s U.S. District Court. Four of the five pleaded not guilty and one did not enter a plea.

Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton reportedly remain jailed, at least until Friday, and the other three were released on $50,000 unsecured bond.

Henderson and Yelton were not allowed to post bail because the U.S. Attorney’s Office thought they were a threat to members of the community.

Reportedly, Yelton was named Tulsa Police’s Officer of the Year in 1993.

Thus far eleven people, who the feds say were falsely convicted on fabricated allegations on the part of some of the accused officers, have been released from prison and more may be released in the future.

And as a side note, Tulsa Police Officer Eric J. Hill, 32, who has received prosecutorial immunity in the grand jury probe into police corruption, was recently busted and jailed on a domestic assault and battery complaint.

It is alleged that Hill, who is reportedly 6 foot four and weighs over 250 pounds, assaulted his girlfriend by grabbing her head and hair and pulling her back into his car when she attempted to get out at a red light. It is further alleged that he then slammed her head into the dashboard two to three times and when they arrived at her apartment that he shoved her out of his car and onto the ground, injuring her knee.

Read it at:

Five Tulsa police officers indicted in corruption probe

Five Tulsa Police Officers Indicted In Corruption Probe

Officer in police-corruption probe arrested on domestic violence complaint

Tulsa Police say that a woman entering her residence at the Brighton Park Apartments at 51st and Yale shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday was confronted by two men armed with screwdrivers and who forced their way inside and demanded money.

After the woman gave them money, they told her to take her clothes off but she refused.

A commotion ensued which woke up the woman’s boyfriend who came out of the bedroom and began struggling with the two intruders.

The cops say that at this point the woman pulled a handgun from her purse and capped both the attackers, shooting 23-year-old Daniel Holman in the head and stomach and shooting the other thus far unidentified attacker in the head and the leg.

Both attackers were reportedly hospitalized in critical condition.

Tulsa cops say this is a case of self-defense.

I’d say it is a classic case of self defense and “way to go lady!”…

And to the two punks, “Didn’t your momma tell you not to take a screwdriver to a gun fight?”

Update:

The previously unidentified second punk has now been identified as Darreon Carter, 18. Reportedly he died at St. Francis Hospital from his gun shot wounds.

Daniel Holman, 23, reportedly remains in critical condition, also at St. Francis Hospital.

Read it at:

Two Intruders Shot By Tulsa Apartment Resident

Victim opens fire on robbery suspects, killing one

One Of Two Intruders Shot Inside A Tulsa Apartment Dies

Home Invasion Double Shooting

Standing in waist high weeds in front of an abandoned house, Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett on Wednesday unveiled a package of proposed city ordinances that are intended to address the growing problem of neglected vacant properties.

Bartlett said, “We can’t allow this kind of situation to occur”

Under Bartlett’s plan, which includes a Neglected Vacant Buildings Registry & Maintenance ordinance, property owners cited for violations would have to pay a fee to register their properties and provide contact information. In the case of absentee owners, a local contact would have to be provided.

The mayor did not explain how the new ordinance would make the people that own and neglect both their properties and existing ordinances comply with the new one but at least it sounded good during a speech in the heat of the day.

The mayor also did not explain what the city intends to do about waist high weeds growing on the city’s neglected medians and other properties. Apparently the City of Tulsa is exempt from the ordinances it wants to impose on other property owners.

Maybe there needs to be a Neglected City and Its Taxpayers Registry & Maintenance ordinance too.

Read it at Neglected properties targeted and wonder if the Mayor has been out in the heat too long…