Well, not anymore

Today In Oklahoma has received a major MAKEOVER and is providing the latest news and information from multiple print and broadcast sites around Oklahoma and it is doing so 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

You are invited to drop by Today In Oklahoma and take a look-see…

When Jeff McMahan ran for the office of Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector his campaign motto was “McMahan Can”

And now in the wake of federal conspiracy and bribery convictions it turns out that not only Jeff McMahan can, but his wife Lori McMahan can also.

Can go to federal prison.

On January 26, 2009 U.S. District Judge James H. Payne, in federal court in Muskogee, sentenced Jeff McMahan to eight years and one month in federal prison.

Judge Payne sentenced Lori McMahan to six years and six months in federal prison.

The McMahans requested leniency because they have two teenage children and Jeff McMahan claimed in court papers that he had not really known about the illegal campaign activities and that he and his wife were “politically naive newcomers” who got caught up in an already corrupt system.

The judge rejected the leniency request and the lame excuses offered by Jeff McMahan, telling him that he had “subverted the public’s trust” in the election process.

At the sentencing hearing, Lori McMahan, a former fifth-grade teacher, wept, trembled and then hugged her husband.

Jeff McMahan’s attorney was reported to have indicated that he would likely appeal.

Lori McMahan’s attorney was reported to have indicated that she likely would not appeal.

The McMahans’ fall from grace, criminal convictions and prison sentences were for the most part the result of the testimony of Steve Phipps, a southeastern Oklahoma businessman, who admitted giving more than $100,000 illegally to Jeff McMahan’s 2002 campaign, paying the McMahans’ expenses for three trips and buying expensive jewelry for Lori McMahan.

Phipps operated abstracting companies that were at the time regulated by the State Auditor and Inspector.

Speaking of which, below is a campaign sign from Jeff McMahan’s run for the office of State Auditor and Inspector.

Had McMahan practiced the honesty and integrity that he promised on his campaign sign, he and his wife would not be felons and required to turn themselves in no later than March 27th to begin their prison sentences.

He didn’t and they are…

A Major County jury has found Former Custer County Sheriff Michael Burgess guilty on 13 felony counts, including five counts of second-degree rape and three counts of bribery by a public official, in the latest jail house sex slave scandal in Oklahoma.

After eight hours of deliberation on Friday and Saturday the jury returned with the guilty verdicts along with 23 not guilty verdicts in a case that was moved from Custer County to Major County because of intense media coverage of the scandal in Custer County.

In addition to finding Burgess guilty on the 13 counts, the jury recommended that Burgess serve 94 years in prison.

Special prosecutor Mike Boring called the verdict important, saying: “This kind of action cannot be tolerated in our society.”

Defense attorney Steve Huddleston said, “I didn’t think he was guilty of anything.” Huddleston said he expected Burgess would appeal the convictions.

Formal sentencing is set for March 24th.

Interested parties you can follow the case via online court records. This case was initially filed and Burgess initially charged in Custer County. Those court records are available via this search.

In October, 2008 the defense sought and was granted a change of venue, to Major County. The Major County court records for the case of Michael Burgess are available online via this search

Notice: As of early on 01/19/09 Major court records have not been updated to reflect the jury trial and its outcome. Currently the online reference for Major County court records is updated on a monthly basis and was last updated on January 8, 2009, therefore it will likely be February before the trial and its outcome appears in the online Major County court records.

Meet former Creek County, Oklahoma District Judge Donald Thompson, who we sometimes refer to as “The Masturbating Judge”.

It seems that Thompson is in trouble with the law again.

No, not for playing with his sex toys in public, like previously.

This time Thompson was busted for allegedly driving while under the influence.

This after a state trooper saw a vehicle stopped on the outside shoulder of the Creek Turnpike east of Elwood Avenue, in Tulsa. When the trooper investigated he allegedly found the former judge to have slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and Thompson’s vehicle to have damage to the driver’s side and a flat tire.

Reportedly Thompson said he could not remember how his car got a flat tire and damage to its driver’s side. However the mystery did not remain a mystery for long as the trooper later discovered Thompson had had hit a bridge wall on the turnpike.

Allegedly Thompson’s breath test revealed a blood-alcohol content of 0.11 and he was arrested on a DUI charge.

Tulsa Jail records indicate that Thompson was arrested on a DUI charge at 3:00 a.m. on 12/05/08 and booked into the Tulsa jail at 5:30 a.m. Jail records also indicate that Thompson was released on $1,000 bond at 10:47 a.m. the same day.

Thompson in addition to being a former Creek County district judge is also a convicted felon and registered sex offender who was released from prison in April after serving two years of four one-year sentences on four felony counts of indecent exposure after being convicted on allegations that he used a penis pump, shaved his scrotum and masturbated while on the bench during trials in Creek County, Oklahoma in 2002 and 2003.

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White declared the 82-year-old mentally incompetent last month and in an order issued earlier this week dismissed the petition to revoke his probation. This brings to an end the government’s attempts to bring Stipe before the bar of justice.

The feds were after Stipe for a lot of reasons including allegations of violating his probation by funneling excessive amounts of money into Democrat campaigns through straw donors and allegations of associating with another felon, Steve Covington.

This latest action on the part of the federal court brings to an end all of those allegations, leaving Stipe at home under house arrest until January 26th at which time Stipe will be free of all federal oversight.

Although Gene Stipe has beaten the feds there is still a battle brewing in McAlester where attorney Eddie Harper, acting in his capacity as the legal guardian of Gene Stipe’s property, has brought a lawsuit against Stipe’s longtime friend and business associate Steve Covington.

The lawsuit accuses Covington of mishandling of Stipe’s business affairs to enrich himself at Stipe’s expense, using funds or property belonging to Stipe to pay his personal living expenses, credit card expenses, vehicle expenses and a wide range of purchases of goods and services for his personal use.

The law suit in addition to damages seeks the return of property which may have been conveyed to Covington or any of the management companies listed as defendants in court documents.

If Stipe’s representatives prevail, taxpayers in the county could end up paying Stipe $14,633.34 a month to lease one of the buildings in the dispute. It’s the very building where the case could be decided - the temporary Pittsburgh County Courthouse.

There’s never a dull moment where Gene Stipe is involved…

Vinita Assistant Chief Of Police Barry Armstrong was quoted in media reports as saying that the Vinita PD was called after a clerk received four counterfeit $100 bills at a Vinita Wal-Mart on October 17th.

When Vinita Police arrived on the scene they confirmed that the four $100 bills were in fact funny money and set out to look at the Wal-Mart surveillance video in an effort to identify the culprit.

According to Vinita cops they had no problem in determining the culprit as it was allegedly none other than Fairland, Oklahoma Police Chief William Moore.

According to Assistant Chief Armstrong, “He was on Wal-Mart surveillance video in his police department uniform, and they have him on video presenting money to the clerk”.

The Vinita police say that the counterfeit $100 bills Moore tried to pass actually all had the same serial number, no watermark, and no security strips.

The funny money was turned over to the Secret Service which tends to take this sort of thing very seriously and which is reportedly investigating Moore.

William Moore is now the former Chief of Police of Fairland, Oklahoma, a town which just three years ago went through the experience of having its then Police Chief Clint Walker arrested for public drunk and subsequently fired.

Fairland officials have named police officer Tony Wiseley as acting police chief.

Reckon the folks in Fairland would do better if they paid their Chief of Police enough that he didn’t have to resort to a life of crime?

And “the cat” is the existence of $135.2 million dollars in unspent tax revenues collected over the past 20 to 30 years through various sales tax initiatives.

Tax revenues on which the City of Tulsa has apparently been “sitting” while the city’s infrastructure crumbles.

Tulsa City Councilor Bill Martinson observed, “We have funds that date back 17 years that haven’t been expended, and we have streets that are falling apart before our very eyes.”

Tulsa City Councilor John Eagleton upon learning of these old and unspent tax revenues said what may well be going through the minds of a lot of Tulsa residents preparing to vote on two ballot initiatives that will increase their taxes.

Eagleton said, “We’re getting ready to ask (voters) for about $500 million to fix the roads, and we’re sitting on $136 million for capital projects?” and that is a question that not only deserves an answer but gives rise to additional questions.

Questions such as:

In what bank(s) are these surplus funds deposited?

Are the taxpayers of Tulsa earning a reasonable interest on these surplus tax revenues, some of which have apparently been “laying around” since the 1970’s?

Who has ultimate control of this $135 million “slush fund”?

And most importantly, why when this much surplus tax revenue was available have Tulsans been asked time and again to approve new and additional tax increases for a variety of purposes?

At the City Council meeting where counselors learned of the “slush fund”, Budget Director Pat Connelly admitted that the city has some funds on its books dating to the early 1980s and even to the 1970s.

The existence of a $135 million dollar “slush fund” does nothing to build a sense of confidence in Tulsa taxpayers asked to reach into the wallets and purses to fund infrastructure repairs which could have, at least in part, been completed years ago with tax revenues paid many years ago.

Someone has A LOT of explaining to do between now and election day…

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…

It used to be that City Hall was very easy to find.

It was located in what is called the Civic Center, a place where one also finds the Tulsa County Court House, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, elected officials of Tulsa County, the majority of Tulsa County offices, the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa Municipal Court, the Tulsa City-County Library central branch and the Tulsa Convention Center.

Adjacent to the Civic Center complex are the Oklahoma State Office Building, Oklahoma DHS, the Federal Courthouse and the downtown post office. Tulsa’s former City Hall fit right in with this one-stop area for the vast majority of federal, state, county and city government offices and functions.

But not anymore.

Recently Tulsa City Hall ceased to exist and the functions of city hall were moved to a building on the east side of downtown, a building called One Technology Center.

One Technology Center is a 15-story glass box resembling the “Borg Cube” and it is called that by some of its detractors. It’s also called “Taylor Tower” by other detractors. This in honor of Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor who managed to stampede Tulsa City Counselors into voting to purchase the building for $76 million dollars last year, even while the City of Tulsa can not afford to fix its streets or fund its police and fire departments properly.

At some point in time during the rush to purchase One Technology Center (hereafter called “OTC”) the elected officials of Tulsa realized that (1) even if all city departments/offices moved into OTC there would still be lots of empty space left in the building that would have to be rented out to anyone willing to pay a premium price for office space and (2) that the City of Tulsa should not be in the office rental business in competition with private companies trying to rent out office space in downtown Tulsa. It was at this point that a decision was made that would result in city hall becoming “lost”.

Tulsa’s elected officials decided to enter into a master lease agreement with Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) which would take over leasing operations at OTC. Since two private tenants, Level 3 Communications and Deloitte & Touche, were already in the building, BOK guaranteed for 10 years the rent revenue from these two tenants. This apparently to assure Tulsa taxpayers that if nothing else, some income from the lease of private space was a sure thing for 10 years.

But, and it is a big BUT, as part of the master lease agreement the name of the building is to remain “One Technology Center” and the City of Tulsa is prohibited from erecting a sign on the building.

But. But… BUT!!!

Yeah, the taxpayers of Tulsa own the building but can not change its name to something logical like “City Hall” and can not erect a sign on the building that says, well, that says anything other than “One Technology Center”, the only signage permitted under the master least agreement.

Apparently someone is getting “heat” over the missing “City Hall” fiasco, and the city’s Legal Department has concluded that there is no provision in the master lease agreement that prohibits a temporary sign that says “City Hall” being placed over the public entrance to the building.

Tulsa City Counselors have been told that a “large banner” will be strung across the top of the public entrance to OTC to help identify the building and that additional banners and signs are to be hung from light poles in the area, this to direct the public to the building. The sight of several plastic banners flapping in the breeze and proclaiming “CITY HALL” really ought to polish Tulsa’s image, don’t you think?

Toss in a couple of worn out couches on the sidewalk near the entrance to the OTC, a rusting Camero on jack stands in the street and a pit bull tied to each end of the Camaro and Tulsa’s new “City Hall” will on the map…

Only in Oklahoma folks, only in Oklahoma…

Not that Officer Schones was going back to school.

He did however catch the school bus carrying about 30 students to Star Spencer High School in Oklahoma City and driven by this man, Anthony Dewitt Atchison, 25.

When Officer Schones caught the school bus driven by Atchison he arrested the bus driver on complaints of reckless driving, speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Allegedly the school bus was going 49 mph in a 25 mph zone, which sounds likely as Atchison reportedly also had an outstanding warrant for failure to pay a previous speeding ticket.

According to a school system spokesperson, the district checks the status of driver’s licenses several times a year, and Atchison’s was “current”.

How a check by the school system indicated Atchison’s license was “current” when a check by the arresting police officer indicated it had been “suspended” raises enough red flags to decorate a school bus.

Also, the school system might want from time to time check to determine if there are any outstanding arrest warrants for its employees. In the least, the employment status of any employee with an outstanding warrant should be reviewed.

And they might even check with the various jails in the area to see if any of their bus drivers are locked up, like Mr. Atchison who following his arrest was being held in the Midwest City jail in lieu of $1,576 bail…