Bubbaworld

On a hot August night, dozens of Tulsa’s finest were called to Big Splash Water Park after hundreds of youths reportedly brawled inside the park and on its parking lot.

Tulsa Police officers were called in from all over the city to help control the crowd which cops estimated at 3,500.

Prior to the arrival of the first wave of cops there was reportedly only one somewhat over-worked security guard on duty at the water park.

Eventually the cops managed to gain the upper hand on the brawlers, the park was closed for the night and numerous kids whose parents were scheduled to pick them up at the planned closing time of 10:00 pm were “dumped” onto the adjacent streets and parking lots to amuse themselves.

Some apparently wandered across 21st Street to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market where they engaged in a bit of looting to pass the time and amuse themselves.

While the events of the night of August 5th are unfortunate, it could have been worse, a lot worse.

There was no knife or gun play involved and the only reported injury was to a teen girl that was trampled by the crowd and she reportedly did not require hospitalization.

And amazingly, Tulsa Police did not have to make a single arrest.

They simply used a massive police presence to break up the brawl and loudspeakers to herd the crowd away from the water park.

I guess it just goes to show you how well behaved a brawling mob can be on Christian youth night at the water park.

Yes, you read that right.

The event was dubbed, “Waves of Worship” and was sponsored by Christian radio station KXOJ.

It has been a few years, well only three years, since some Tulsans suffered a heat induced outbreak of lunacy which resulted in the last lame-brain proposal to “do something”.

Guess what?
Here we go again…

Back during the summer of 2006, in the midst of a heat wave, a project called “The Channels” was proposed. The idea was to build a new multi-use development in Tulsa. Well, not so much “in Tulsa” as in the big middle of the Arkansas River in Tulsa.

The fantasy was to build three man-made islands, linked together in the middle of the river, creating 40 acres of public, office, and residential space with entertainment facilities. The folks behind this lunacy offered to put up $100 million of their own money, if the taxpayers of Tulsa would cough up an additional $600 million of theirs.

Fortunately not all Tulsans had lost their minds in the heat and they refused to go along with the idea of “The Channels” , sending the proposal to the death it so rightfully deserved.

Now here is it summer again and we are in the midst of yet another heat wave and are experiencing another outbreak of lunacy fueling another lame-brain proposal.

The latest proposal, and it is a real laugher – let’s bring the 2020 Summer Olympics to Tulsa…

Yeah, you read that right.

The Tulsa 2020 Committee on Tuesday presented the City Council with the idea of Tulsa making a bid to host the 2020 summer Olympic games.

Of course Tulsa has a few, well make that a lot, of issues to over-come before it can hope to land the Olympics. Here’s just a partial list.

(1) Find a way to not only fix the streets but also to afford to keep the street lights on, neither of which we have been able to do in years.

(2) Find a way to hire LOTS more cops, firefighters and para-medics and while doing so find a way to stop making the ones we currently have take mandatory un-paid furlough days as they are now doing.

(3) Find a way to hire LOTS more other city employees and while doing so find a way to stop making the ones we currently have take mandatory un-paid furlough days as they are now doing.

(4) Scare up some hotel rooms, LOTS of hotel rooms. With Tulsa having only an estimated 13,000 hotel/motel rooms and the Olympic Committee requiring 40,000 this may be a problem. Using boats anchored out at the Port of Catoosa to supply the missing hotel rooms, as suggested by proponents of the proposal, has drawbacks. If each boat only houses up to 150 visitors each as proponents of this lunacy suggest, we would have boats lined up along the Arkansas Navigation Channel from Catoosa all the way down to New Orleans and possibly into the Gulf of Mexico.

(5) The Olympic Committee requires a 80,000-seat stadium. Skelly Stadium ain’t gonna’ cut it at 25,000 or so capacity. Maybe we could saw the top off the BOK center (capacity 17,000 or so currently), add side-boards all round it to about 10 stories high and put in bleachers sufficient to hold 80,000 but it probably wouldn’t look like much and work out worse. Oh! The humanity!!!

(6) With Tulsa basically “broke” to the point we can’t afford to pay the cops and firefighters, it’s not going to be easy providing all the other facilities required by the Olympic Committee either. Maybe we could hold the swimming events down at the Arkansas River, provided there was water in it during the summer of 2020 – not a sure thing by any means. But if there is water, the e-coli and dead bodies that inhabit the Arkansas River during summer should make for some “interesting” races. Heck, even us old fat guys would “haul ass” to get out of that water as quickly as possible. For track and field, there’s always the various tracks next to some Tulsa high schools and of course the storm water retention ponds could be used, providing it wasn’t raining and the soccer kids weren’t using them at the time. But still, we are going to have to do some building, LOTS of building.

This is just the “short list” of issues that will have to be resolved if Tulsa is to con, oops – I mean convince, the International Olympic Committee to hold the 2020 Summer Olympics here. There’s more, lots more to be resolved but until the above issues are addressed there’s no need worrying about the rest.

And if it doesn’t work out, there’s always the possibility of landing the Winter Olympics.

We could host those in the “Tulsa Mountains”.

Providing John Erling will tell us where they are…

On January 12, 2009 former Woodward County Sheriff Leslie Morton, shown above, appeared in Woodward County District Court for a preliminary hearing on 9 counts of embezzlement. It was alleged that Morton, while sheriff, used his county-issued vehicle and fuel card for personal use.

At that time, Morton entered a no contest plea to five of the embezzlement counts and as part of the plea deal, the state dropped the remaining four embezzlement counts.

At that hearing and in order to enter the no contest plea, Morton waived his right to a jury trial, was found mentally competent to do so, was advised of his rights and without admitting guilt Morton agreed to accept the punishment called for in the plea deal.

Under the terms of the plea deal with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Morton received a one-year unsupervised deferred sentence, was ordered to pay $878.66 in restitution and was prohibited from seeking or accepting employment in law enforcement until after 3/27/09.

In addition, Morton was ordered to pay court costs and deferred fees.

On January 22, 2009, a mere ten days after cutting what some might consider a “sweetheart deal”, former Woodward County Sheriff Leslie Morton apparently decided that the deal wasn’t as sweet as he originally thought.

On that date, Morton filed a motion to withdraw his earlier no contest plea and restore his trial rights.

In March, Morton filed an application for count appointed counsel. After reviewing the application and hearing Morton’s testimony and state’s cross examination the judge denied Morton’s application for a free lawyer.

In May, a court hearing was set for June 4th on Morton’s motion to withdraw his no contest plea and restore his trial rights.

On June 4th, the hearing on Morton’s motion to withdraw and proceed to trial was heard and that motion was denied. At that time, counsel for Leslie Morton gave oral notice of intent to appeal.

Morton’s appeal was thereafter filed with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, where it is currently pending.

According to court records Morton, who was defeated in his 2008 bid for re-election, owed the State of Oklahoma $6204.00 in costs and fees as of 07/31/2009.

This post will be updated as new developments occur.

Some of our regular readers will recall that Bubbaworld has a sister site called “Today In Oklahoma”. Over the years, “Today In Oklahoma” had fallen into disuse and was all but forgotten.

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.

Case Update

On March 24, 2009 former Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess was sentenced to 79 years in prison.

The jury had recommended a sentence of 94 years in prison and $15,000 in fines.