Bubbaworld

If the allegations against Thomas Dale Haga are any indication, Haga may have taken dumping one’s spouse to the ultimate extreme.

Even for Oklahoma…

Haga, 55, a Pawnee County resident, is in jail charged with a felony count of unlawful removal of a dead body and a misdemeanor count of neglect of burial.

And not just any dead body, but the body of his wife Clarice Haga, who was last seen July 4, 2007, at the Black Gold Motel in Pawhuska, where Thomas Haga reportedly rented a room for a two-night stay.

What, according to DNA testing, is the body of Clarice Haga was found July 15, 2009, at the bottom of a cistern located between Maramec and Skeede in rural Pawnee County, Oklahoma. The body was reportedly under two feet of water at the bottom of the 15 foot-deep cistern. A cistern with a cedar tree stuffed into it to hold the body underwater.

Although DNA testing proved the body was that of Clarice Haga, the State Medical Examiner’s Office was unable to determine the cause and manner of her death due to decomposition of the woman’s body.

We can’t say if Thomas Haga is guilty of the charges he faces. That will have to be decided in a court of law. However, we can say that IF Haga is found guilty, there’s no doubt that he has managed to redefine the phrase “dumping one’s spouse”…

Exploding meth labs have become as much a part of Oklahoma as hot summers, cold winters, tornadoes and of course intra-state sports rivalries. Few Tulsans are surprised to learn of yet another meth lab explosion as they have become some commonplace.

However, when the exploding meth lab is located across the street from a Tulsa Police Department division sub-station it does come under the heading of PRICELESS….

On Sunday night at about 9:00 pm something went BOOM at America’s Value Inn located at 10117 East 11th Street, in Tulsa.

We have no idea if anyone at the Mingo Valley Division of the Tulsa Police Department, located at 10122 E. 11th Street, in Tulsa “caught wind” of anything unusual before the BOOOM, but firefighters arriving on the scene found flames billowing from the first and second floors of the motel.

As investigators sifted through the rubble of the units destroyed in the explosion and fire, they did find “meth-related items” according to Fire Department spokesman Bill French. The estimate of the damage from the BOOM and fire is $400,000.

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Some openly speculate that Tulsa, which recently laid-off about one-sixth of its police force, is well on its way to becoming “the Detroit of the Great Plains” and recent events tend to support that speculation.

Case in point – Saturday night, well actually Sunday morning at 3:00 am on February 28, 2010.

Between 75 and 100 people were reportedly milling around the Chicken Hut restaurant at Apache and N. Rockford waiting for their take out order when shots rang out and 27-year-old Valentino Verner fell to the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.

Despite the large number of people at the crime scene, apparently only one person saw fit to call 911 to report the shooting. When police arrived on the scene they found Verner lying on the ground, bleeding in front of the restaurant’s pick-up window, as Chicken Hut patrons stepped over the wounded man to pick up their food orders.

Tulsa police had a difficult time getting through the crowd to provide aid to the victim and when they did get through they found that no one was trying to help the injured man although some in the crowd reportedly became aggressive and angry when police attempted to aid Verner before an ambulance arrived.

When EMTs arrived it did not get any better as customers of the restaurant shoved past the medical personnel to get to the take out window to pick up their orders. Once medical personnel managed to get Verner loaded into an ambulance he was taken to St. John Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

When police questioned the crowd they found only one person, reportedly a relative of the victim, who had any information about the shooting and he only told police that the shooter was a black male wearing a hoodie and that he fled on foot after shooting Verner.

Reportedly none of the other 100 or so witnesses saw anything and refused to cooperate with police in their investigation of Verner’s murder, the ninth homicide in Tulsa this year.

Phillip John Ortega, 56, has been arrested in Oklahoma for allegedly exposing himself to an Oklahoma City woman.

It is alleged that when Ortega approached the woman he was wearing a woman’s pink single piece swimsuit, panty hose and makeup.

The alleged victim told police that she was smoking a cigarette on her porch when the man, whom she at first thought was a woman, walked toward her and asked her “Where’d my friend go?”

Reportedly the woman asked the man to go away at which point he allegedly used his left hand to pull the bathing suit to the side and his right hand to pull out his genitals, shaking them and saying, “Hey, look at this.”

The cops found Ortega walking nearby, which probably didn’t taking much looking for a man in a woman’s pink swimsuit, and hauled him off to jail.

Reportedly, Ortega is on probation for a six-year suspended sentence related to a 2007 felony attempted kidnapping case in Oklahoma County.

To some it may appear to be getting strange when Sequoyah County Commissioner Michael D. “Mike” Huff, 60, (pictured above) pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges in Arkansas and was sentenced to 10 days in the Sebastian County Detention Center and ordered to pay $490 in fines and court costs.

Usually when County Commissioners from Oklahoma enter either no contest or guilty pleas it’s to felony charges and in federal court in Oklahoma.

However, Sequoyah County Commissioner Mike Huff’s case is different than the typical case involving a county commissioner from Oklahoma, cases usually involving fraud and corruption.

Mike Huff was arrested on June 11th, in Fort Smith, Arkansas on misdemeanor charges of patronizing a prostitute and refusing to submit to arrest. This after he was busted in a prostitution sting conducted by the Fort Smith Police Department. Reportedly, five other “alleged john” were busted along with Huff during the sting.

It was alleged that Commissioner Huff took what he thought was a prostitute to the “Relax Inn”, a Fort Smith hotel, where he was subsequently busted. Huff was taken to the Sebastian County Detention Center from which he was released on a $2,500 bond.

On June 15th, Huff appeared for arraignment on the charges and entered a plea of not guilty. A court date was set for August 6th. On August 6th Huff appeared in Fort Smith District Court and entered his no contest plea.

Huff’s attorney Eddie Christian Sr. asked the judge to set Huff’s surrender date 30 days in the future. The judge ordered Huff to surrender to the Sebastian County Detention Center to begin serving his sentence on September 3rd.

Huff, who was was elected Sequoyah County District 3 Commissioner in 2006, is serving a four-year term.

Huff’s official duties include oversight of the Sequoyah County Jail. Since he will be getting a close up and personal look at how the folks in Arkansas run their jails, that might prove beneficial to the tax payers of Sequoyah County. If nothing else, he may at least come back with a clue.

In the mean time, Commissioner Huff might want to forget the “Viva Viagra” jingle and try to remember that he is married.

At least for the time being…

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.