A Travesty of Justice
On March 10, Pawnee County Judge Jefferson Sellers sentenced former Pawnee, OK Water Department Superintendent Gregory Lynn Bryant, 38, to thirty years in prison. Bryant had been convicted in November, 2005 of the anal rape of a thirteen year old girl he befriended at a small Creek County church.
At the time of sentencing, Judge Sellers suspended the entire thirty year term, ordered Bryant to register as a sex offender, follow a sex offender treatment program and other conditions. Sellers’ handling of the case touched off a firestorm of controversy, as we reported here in A Miserable Failure.
Following his release from jail Bryant reportedly moved from Pawnee to Cleveland, OK and ultimately to Stillwater, OK allegedly without registering as a sex offender. On March 24 he was arrested on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender and was jailed in lieu of $85,000 bail.
On April 28, Judge Sellers threw out Bryant’s conviction and granted him a new trial on the basis that Bryant had ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ at trial back in November. Sellers was quoted in news media reports as stating:
“In the course of my 13 years on the bench, I’ve had probably 300 trials. There are very few that I’ve had feelings as in this case. This is not about what the jury heard — it’s about what the jury did not hear.”
Judge Sellers told Bryant’s new defense attorney, Julie Ball, of Tulsa, that any motion for a change of venue owing to publicity in the case should be filed within one week. District Attorney Larry Stuart indicated that he was going to have to research the law regarding the charge pending against Bryant for failure to register as a sex offender, since in the wake of Sellers’ action Bryant is no longer a convicted sex offender. As of April 28, Bryant remained in the Pawnee County Jail on that charge.
During a phone interview with news media the mother of the child, who is now 15, stated in regard to a new trial:
“If that’s what we have to do, we’ll do it. My daughter is a fighter. She is a strong, beautiful child. She will get through this. I’m just praying the truth will prevail here — that this man will get the punishment he deserves. I’ve got to believe the right thing is going to happen.”
In the wake of this travesty of justice, two questions arise.
First, why would any defendant wish to have a change of venue out of the court of such a ‘friendly judge’?
And second, who in their right mind expects that Judge Jefferson Sellers will do a better job of administering justice the second time around?
