Still Crazy Like A Fox
Former Oklahoma Senator Gene Stipe has once again managed to avoid a criminal trial - surprise, surprise.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ronald White for the second time ruled Stipe mentally incompetent to stand trial on a four-count federal indictment that accuses him of continued political corruption and bribery.
Judge White said, “It would be an understatement to describe this case as unusual”.
White also stated that he had seen no evidence from the government of improvement in Stipe’s mental condition.
Gene Stipe spent four months in the federal prison medical facility in Missouri where his mental condition was evaluated by mental health professionals, two of whom testified offering differing views of Stipe’s mental condition.
Judge White refused to consider as evidence 246 recorded phone calls that Stipe made in prison over his recent four month evaluation. This in spite of U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling insisting that the calls do not give an indication of dementia but instead show Stipe to be mentally competent to handle his business, family and personal affairs.
Judge White indicated that he would not allow the calls to be played in court without listening to them first and stated that he was not going to take time to do that. White pointed out that he became aware of the recordings only on Monday morning and that the government could have sought a continuance but did not.
With Judge White’s refusal to listen to the government’s evidence and the government’s decision not to seek a continuance that would give him time to do so, is it any surprise that the judge has not seen (or heard) evidence from the government about improvement in Gene Stipe’s mental condition?
With this, a second defeat in trying to get Stipe declared competent to stand trial it appears that Sheldon Sperling is on the verge of simply giving up.
With Sperling’s decision not to seek a continuance to give the judge time to review the 246 recordings one might wonder if “giving up” is not what Sperling wishes to do.
Meantime Gene Stipe sits at home under house arrest in McAlester.
At least until January.
That is when his five-year probation on a 2004 conviction for campaign violations and perjury expires.
At that time Gene Stipe is totally free of federal control…
