Bubbaworld

Publication Date: 3/10/07
Last Update: 3/10/07

For 16 years Robert Samuel Wheeland patrolled the streets of Haskell, Oklahoma as a police officer.

A Muskogee County jury has now determined that for at least part of that time he was also a sexual predator, roaming the streets of Haskell, using his position of trust and authority to prey upon young girls.

This is the story of how one small town cop became a big time convict.

This sad tale started when the mother of the first of Wheeland’s accusers took her 14-year-old daughter to the Haskell police station in October, 2005 for counseling.  There the child met Wheeland and his relationship with the girl developed from there.  Ultimately Wheeland repaid the mother’s trust by sexually abusing her daughter after first befriending her and presenting himself as a mentor and confidant.

Just as the investigation into Wheeland’s alleged crimes was getting into high gear, he was fired in February, 2006, by the Haskell Town Council when it was discovered he was under investigation for child sexual abuse.  The prior year Wheeland had been investigated on similar allegations but those allegations were deemed unfounded.  The Town Council fired Wheeland on the basis that he violated department policy when he took a young girl to his home.  An act which he reportedly admitted.

By July, 2006 a second of Wheeland’s alleged victims had come forward and investigators had sufficient evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for Wheeland.  He was arrested at his Haskell home without incident.  Shortly thereafter formal charges were filed.

The second alleged victim to come forward, a 15-year-old, revealed to investigators that she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Wheeland during June of 2006 and that it had lasted for approximately 30 days.  This while Wheeland was already under investigation for the rape and lewd molestation of the first victim and after he had been fired by the town of Haskell.

As the investigation continued, other young girls revealed to investigators that they too had been sexually abused by Wheeland and under similar circumstances.  Investigators ultimately discovered a total of four alleged victims.  Typically these alleged victims were 14 to 15 years of age, the usual ‘troubled teen years’, and easy pickings for a sexual predator.

Wheeland’s trial in the first case began on March 7, 2007.  The ‘star witness’ for the prosecution was the child victim herself.  She indicated that she first met Wheeland in October, 2005 and that by January, 2006 he took her to secluded locations, where he fondled and kissed her.  She testified that Wheeland would place her in situations that allowed him to molest her, take nude photographs of her, and ultimately to rape her.

The girl described for jurors how Wheeland lured her into his home by asking her to teach his daughter to play the flute.  She testified that she didn’t realize no one else was home until she was inside and that by that time Wheeland was herding her toward his bedroom, where he took Polaroid photographs of her and forced her to have sex.

Wheeland’s lawyer, Chad Richardson, as is typical, attacked the witness’s credibility during cross-examination; at one point asking the teen whether his client had been circumcised.

Previously, during opening statements Richardson had told jurors that the victim has been in counseling since she was 7 or 8 years old and that she simply is not a credible witness.

In spite of Richardson’s attempts to cast the victim in an unfavorable light, the jury was not buying it.  Wheeland’s fate was sealed when a second girl’s testimony painted a verbal picture very similar to that of the victim in the case at trial.  By using the second girl as a witness, Assistant District Attorney Nikki Baker Dotson had established a pattern of conduct on the part of Wheeland and it was a pattern than the jury would take with them into deliberations.

In less than two hours of deliberation the jury returned with guilty verdicts on two counts of lewd molestation and one count of second-degree rape, recommending 15 year sentences on each count.  The jury acquitted Wheeland on child pornography charges.

Formal sentencing for Robert Wheeland is set for June 11.  Wheeland’s lawyer, Chad Richardson, indicated he plans to file notice of his client’s intent to appeal the convictions.

Commentary and Opinion

Child abusers, child molesters and child rapists are among the most despicable offenders of society.  When the abusers, molesters and rapists are persons in positions of trust, respect and authority society has a right to both expect and demand those convicted be punished to the fullest extent provided by the law.

As of March 9, 2007 former Haksell, OK police officer Robert Samuel Wheeland, age 54, is a convicted rapist and child molester facing up to 45 years in prison and with three more trials for sex crimes against other young girls pending.  In the interest of justice Wheeland’s recommended 15 year sentences must be ordered served consecutively.  Anything less will be an affront to justice, an insult to Wheeland’s victim and an outrage to the citizens of Oklahoma who place their trust in those sworn to uphold the law not to violate it.  Law enforcement officers must be held to a higher standard and when they violate the laws they are sworn to uphold there should be no mercy.

Robert Samuel Wheeland would not have been brought to trial were it not for Muskogee County Sheriff’s Investigators Jan Ray, Tim Brown and their untiring investigative efforts in a case that would make most of us sick to our stomach.  For their efforts these officers deserve the thanks of us all.

Then there’s the contributions of Assistant District Attorney Nikki Baker Dotson who prosecuted the case and made sure another of Wheeland’s alleged victims was allowed to testify to Wheeland’s alleged crimes against her.  This to demonstrate a pattern of conduct.  That Dotson managed to get this testimony before the jury owes to ‘good lawyering’, not to luck.  This evidence was pivotal in obtaining a conviction.

Wheeland’s convictions would not have happened without a very determined girl that told jurors first-hand what Wheeland had done to her and to her life.  Child victims seldom make ‘perfect witnesses’, but they can be very credible witnesses and in this trial the victim’s testimony coupled with that of a second alleged victim was the difference between a child molester going free or going to prison.

And of course there is the jury which saw Wheeland for the evil that he is and made sure that justice was served.  The jury through its verdict and sentencing recommendations has earned our respect and our thanks for a job well done in a case for which few of us would wish to serve and none of us could have served better.