Corruption Case To Be Unveiled In Tulsa

Up date:
Corruption case spurs 6 arrests in Tulsa


BY LARRY LEVY
Published: January 23, 2009

TULSA — Two city employees and four businessmen were arrested Thursday after being indicted on public corruption charges including fraud, bribery, conspiracy and money laundering that involved nearly $4.5 million.

City employees arrested were Larry Wayne Baker, 52, and Albert S. Martinez, 47, a field engineering manager. Baker left his city job in 2007, and Martinez resigned Wednesday, a city spokesman said.
Also arrested were: Harlan Eugene Yocham, 49, of Sapulpa, owner of Yocham Enterprises; Max Elliot Wolf, 56, of Owasso, president of Horizon Construction Co.;

Kenneth Kirk Shoemaker, 46, of Bartlesville, president of FBS Inc. and officer of FBS Engineers, Inc., both Tulsa firms; and Stuart Jay Franklin, 48, of Claremore, an FBS accountant.

They made an initial court appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Frank H. McCarthy and were released on their own recognizance. If convicted, they could face punishments of up to five years in prison in bribery, 10 years in conspiracy and 20 years in money laundering and wire fraud, plus fines up to $250,000.

A federal grand jury returned four indictments Jan 15. They were unsealed Thursday before the arrests were announced by U.S. Attorney David E. O'Meilia, James E. Finch, special agent-in-charge of the FBI in Oklahoma, and Michael P. Lahey, who heads the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation division in Dallas.

O'Meilia alleged that between mid-2005 and the present, the men participated in a scheme that involved awarding contracts for engineering and inspections and inflated invoices for street, bridge and other public works projects in Tulsa. Kickbacks were involved, the indictments allege.


Jan 22, 2009 08:37 AM
NewsOn6.comTULSA, OK --

The U.S. Attorney's office in Tulsa has scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon for what it calls "an announcement regarding a significant public corruption matter."David E. O'Meilia, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma, James Finch, Special Agent-in-Charge, of the FBI office in Oklahoma City and Michael Lahey, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS's Dallas office will be at the news conference.

The news conference will be held at the U.S. Attorney's office at 7th and Boulder at 2:30 p.m. The News On 6 will be at that news conference and will have further details when they become available.

http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=9713781

History in the making day in America

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Their is a few things that need to be shared on this History in the making day in America! One, We the people won a Presidents case today in Oklahoma Court! In a case where a local Court has denied an Right to Public Trial was over turned and remanded back to the beginning and everything was thrown out! No witness by the State so the case will be dismissed for false prosecution! State of Oklahoma V. David Starkey 07CF359. Two, The Private Attorney General Commission by Declaration was also filed into the record in Oklahoma State Court! #1-2009-000715 Book 1999 Pg: 905, 1/20/2009, 8:58 am. Also, I thought I would share with the list a picture that was taken the last time in DC! As you may see above the picture that was taken is at the same spot that President Obama was standing for the Inauguration Parade! We will begin our journey next week lobbing to the White House and the New 111th Congress House and Senate Judiciary Committees! Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to fight for our Constitutional Rights Back in our Courts!

One Man's Fights for the Right to Open Courtrooom

BY TONY THORNTON
Published: October 12, 2008

David Starkey stands next to a sign on the door to District Judge Dwayne Steidley's courtroom in Rogers County that tells people the public isn't welcome. By Tony ThorntonCLAREMORE —

They don’t disregard the entire 6th Amendment to the Constitution in Rogers County, David Starkey contends.
Featured Video
Closed Courtroom

Several people talk about rule a Rogers County judge has imposed that bans the public from viewing court proceedings.

Just the most important part.
Starkey has documented several occasions when the public was refused entry into court proceedings, including his own. He said the policy dates to at least 2002.

A sign on District Judge Dwayne Steidley’s courtroom confirms that the public isn’t welcome.
"ONLY DEFENDANTS are allowed in the court room,” the sign states. "Family and friends must stay in the hallway.”

"You’ve gotta ask: ‘Why does he not want people in there?’” said Starkey, who in April 2007 created the Web site www.rogerscountygrandjury.com. He wants an investigation of the local court system.

The closed-door practice isn’t confined to Steidley’s courtroom. Next door, during a criminal docket Wednesday, a sheriff’s deputy said Special Judge Erin Oquin would have to approve any party other than attorneys before entering.
The Rogers County policy left one open government advocate aghast.

"That is unbelievable,” said Joey Senat, past president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma and an associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University.
Steidley, a former state legislator, didn’t return phone messages seeking comment.
District Judge Dynda Post, the county’s presiding judge, said she was troubled to learn of the policy and said she didn’t condone it.

She said she ordered Steidley’s sign removed and added, "It won’t go back up.”
Post said she has scheduled a judges’ meeting for this week "to make sure that everybody understands that no one is prohibiting the public from entering a courtroom.”

Closing courts legal in limited instancesBoth the Oklahoma Constitution and the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantee defendants the right to an open trial. But what about other court appearances?

Oklahoma law requires that a defendant’s plea must take place within open court.
In a 1986 case, the U.S. Supreme Court said a judge may close a courtroom only under "limited circumstances.”

In Oklahoma, exceptions to that requirement include adoption, juvenile, mental health and guardianship proceedings.
Senat said the Rogers County practice is "so outrageous as to be impossible to believe.”
Four months after creating the grand jury Web site, Starkey faced a domestic abuse charge in Rogers County.

At his preliminary hearing in January, a deputy announced to the courtroom that only criminal defendants could stay, two friends of Starkey wrote in affidavits.

The same thing happened at Starkey’s formal arraignment a month later, one friend wrote.
Judge Post said it won’t happen again.
"The public is not to be excluded,” she said.
You’ve gotta ask: ‘Why does (District Judge Dwayne Steidley) not want people in there?’”
David Starkey CREATOR OF the www.rogerscountygrandjury.com Web site
http://newsok.com/man-fights-for-right-to-open-courtrooms/article/3310224/?custom_click=pod_lead_news

Man fights for right to open courtroomscourtsDistrict judges bar public from proceedings
Comments 11

Some state judges forget courts belong to publicClosing courtrooms

WHAT is it about some judges in Oklahoma who believe their courtrooms are literally just that — theirs — and thus can be used however they please? How is it that some lose sight of, or simply choose to ignore, the fact that courtrooms are public property?

The latest example of judges behaving badly comes from Rogers County, where District Judge Dwayne Steidley had a sign posted outside his courtroom that made it clear the public wasn’t welcome: "ONLY DEFENDANTS are allowed in the court room. Family and friends must stay in the hallway.”

The Oklahoman’s Tony Thornton visited the court- house last week and reported that next door to Steidley’s courtroom, Special Judge Erin Oquin decided whether anyone other than attorneys were allowed in for that day’s criminal arraignment docket. A deputy said space constraints were the reason why, although Thornton noted that when he was shooed away, only one person was in the gallery.

The county’s presiding judge, Dynda Post, says she was troubled by the policy in Steidley’s courtroom and that she ordered his sign removed. Post plans to meet with her judges this week to straighten things out. "The public is not to be excluded,” she said.

The Supreme Court has held that criminal proceedings are presumed to be open, although judges are allowed in some cases to close the court. In Oklahoma, cases involving adoption, juveniles, and mental health and guardianship proceedings may be closed.

The Tulsa World reported last year that judges in many counties were closing public access to criminal hearings that involved drug and mental health courts. Some of those judges pointed to federal medical privacy laws as the reason.

We’re not sure of Steidley’s reasoning for closing his courtroom because he didn’t respond to the reporter’s messages seeking an explanation. Perhaps he’ll explain it to a grand jury if one is convened, as citizen David Starkey hopes.

Starkey started a Web site last year to get an investigation of the courthouse practices, which he has witnessed firsthand — his preliminary hearing and arraignment on a domestic abuse charge were restricted earlier this year.

Joey Senat, an Oklahoma State University journalism professor and past president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, said what has gone on in Rogers County is "so outrageous as to be impossible to believe.” Outrageous, yes. Impossible to believe? Sadly, no.
The Supreme Court has held that criminal proceedings are presumed to be open