Surprise, Surprise
On April 28, 2006 Maynard Leroy Lane, 40, of Stillwater, pleaded guilty in Payne County District Court to charges of lewd molestation and rape by instrumentation of a 15-year-old girl in June, 2004. Prior to his guilty plea Lane had been free on $20,000 bond. Payne County Associate District Judge Robert Murphy Jr. accepted Lane’s guilty plea and sentenced him to seven years in prison on the two counts.
Then Judge Murphy, in what can only be described as an act of kindness for a child rapist, allowed Murphy to remain free “to visit a dying relative” until May 5th, at which time Lane was supposed to report to the Payne County Jail to be transported to state prison to begin serving his sentence.
Surprise, surprise. May 5th came and went and Lane was a no-show.
State Department of Corrections records show that Lane was sentenced to ten years in prison for a 1988 conviction for manslaughter in Payne County. Those same records also show that Lane has a 1993 conviction for auto burglary in New Mexico, for which he received probation. Lane, being an ex-con, is no stranger to prison life and likely knew what awaits a child rapist heading back to prison.
Is it surprising that a man headed to prison for child rape would not be that anxious to get there? Evidently this tid-bit of knowledge was lost on Judge Murphy in his desire to show kindness to a child rapist.
Ten days after Lane’s deadline to report to the Payne County Jail for transport to state prison the district attorney’s office filed escape charges against Lane and Special District Judge Phillip Corley set bail at $50,000. Then all they had to do was find a convicted child rapist “on the lam”.
Payne County Deputies did just that on Friday, May 26th when Lane was picked up without incident. He is now in the Payne County Jail awaiting further action on the escape charge and further delaying his transport to the state prison where he belongs.
For the sake of the children of Oklahoma, hopefully a judge other than Judge Murphy handles the escape charges against Lane. Otherwise Murphy just might turn him loose to visit another “dying relative” and Lane may never have to serve a day in prison.
