The Journal Record
May
28
2020
LEGAL
BRIEFS
Page
A010
Clip
resized
51% Bill allowing district
court videoconferencing
becomes law
OKLAHOMA CITY – Courtrooms
across the
state will now
be allowed to
use videocon-
ferencing in
district court
proceedings.
House
Bill 3756,
authored by
Nicole
Miller state Rep.
Nicole Miller,
R-Edmond,
and signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt,
authorizes the use of video-
conferencing technology in all
stages of civil or criminal pro-
ceedings except in jury trials or
trials before judges.
“The COVID-19 pandemic
has really highlighted the flex-
ibility and usefulness offered by
videoconferencing,” Miller said.
“The utilization of videoconfer-
encing in district courts has the
potential to save our criminal
justice system both time and
money, as well as maintaining
public safety.”
State Sen. Michael Brooks,
D-Oklahoma City, is the princi-
pal Senate author of HB 3756.
As a criminal defense lawyer for
20 years, Brooks says the bill is a
much-needed step in modern-
izing the state’s judicial system.
“This is an important mea-
sure to improve public safety by
allowing law enforcement more
time to focus on enforcing
the law rather than constantly
transporting defendants to and
from the district courthouse,”
Brooks said. “One thing we’ve
learned during this health crisis
is that we have to be more ef-
ficient in government. This is a
great example of using technol-
ogy to modernize our court
systems.”
Scott Crow, director of the
Oklahoma Department of Cor-
rections, expressed support for
videoconferencing in a letter to
Oklahoma district court judges.
The Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Associa-
tion also asked Stitt in a letter
to sign the legislation.
The bill will become effective
Nov. 1. –Staff report
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Mangum pharmacy
owner sentenced
OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal
judge has sentenced Jeff Terry
to more than three years in
prison and ordered the former
Mangum pharmacy owner to
pay nearly $1.1 million he previ-
ously agreed to pay in restitu-
tion when he pleaded guilty to
a false claims scheme in 2019.
The initial investigation
that led to Terry’s indictment
found he falsified prescription
information within his phar-
macy’s software program, then
submitted those false claims to
SoonerCare and Medicare Part
D for drugs that were never
prescribed or dispensed to
patients.
The investigation was led by
the attorney general’s Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit and the De-
partment of Health and Human
Services-Office of Inspector
General, Audit Services. The
case, and resulting plea agree-
ment, were handled by the
Attorney General’s Office and
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Western District of Oklahoma.
In addition to prison time
and restitution, Judge Scott
Palk also ordered Terry to com-
plete 100 hours of community
service and three years of su-
pervised release.
The Oklahoma Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit receives 75%
of its funding from the U.S. De-
partment of Health and Human
Services under a grant award.
The remaining 25% is funded
through recoveries.
–Staff report
Governor signs juvenile
justice protection bill
OKLAHOMA CITY – The gover-
nor has signed a bill to protect
children 12 years of age or
younger from being placed in
a state juvenile detention facil-
ity unless all alternatives have
been exhausted and the child
is charged with an offense that
would be classified as a felony if
committed by an adult.
House Bill 1282, authored
by state Rep. Mark Lawson,
R-Sapulpa, was a request by the
Office of Juvenile Affairs. It also
sets limits for 13- and 14-year-
olds admitted to detention. The
bill is part of an overall reform
of the state’s juvenile justice
system. It passed both cham-
bers of the Legislature with
unanimous consent.
“This bill requires the state
to seek other
alternatives
for these
children who
commit adult
crimes but
who are much
too young
to be placed
Mark in detention
Lawson facilities,”
Lawson said.
“They would only be placed in
a juvenile center if no other al-
ternative can be found for them
and if their crime warrants such
detention.”
State Sen. David Rader, R-
Tulsa, is the Senate author of
the bill.
HB 1282 also requires OJA
to pay 100% of the cost for any
child in OJA custody awaiting
an OJA placement bed. OJA
currently pays 85% of the oper-
ating cost for every contracted
bed, which historically has led
to high wait times. The addi-
tional cost can be paid through
unencumbered funds reserved
for such expenses, according to
OJA.
–Staff report
Investigation alleges
felony cockfighting
activity
OKLAHOMA CITY – Former
Oklahoma Attorney General
Drew Edmondson is asking
U.S. Attorney Brian J. Kuester
to investigate allegations of
ongoing trafficking of birds
to Guam for cockfighting, for
illegally pos-
sessing fight-
ing animals,
and perhaps
engaging in
other conduct
at odds with
state and fed-
eral law.
Kuester,
Drew
Edmondson based in
Muskogee,
has jurisdic-
tion for the Eastern District of
Oklahoma.
The request follows an inves-
tigation by Animal Wellness Ac-
tion and Animal Wellness Foun-
dation that revealed that three
of the top five shippers of birds
to Guam, covering a three-
year period, reside in eastern
Oklahoma. AWA and AWF al-
lege, based on their investiga-
tion, that Oklahoma “may be
the cockfighting capital of the
United States.”
Edmondson asked district
attorneys for Cherokee, Haskell,
and LeFlore counties to investi-
gate the allegations as well and
to bring charges as appropriate.
“The Eastern District is
fraught with individuals who
have been involved in the
global trafficking and fight-
ing of birds,” Edmondson said.
“It is a felony under state and
federal law to buy, sell, deliver
or own any bird with the intent
that such bird shall engage in
a cockfight, and that’s clearly
what we’re seeing. The three
individuals identified in this
investigation brazenly defy
law enforcement officers. This
deserves the attention of law
enforcement officers and pros-
ecutors, and that’s what we’re
asking for.”
Through public records
requests to the Guam Depart-
ment of Agriculture, AWF and
AWA obtained nearly 2,500
pages of avian shipping records
dated November 2016 to Sep-
tember 2019. The records detail
approximately 750 shipments of
birds from more than a dozen
states to Guam, according to
AWF and AWA.
“Oklahomans voted in over-
whelming numbers to ban
cockfighting 18 years ago,” said
Louisa McCune, executive
director of the Kirkpatrick Foun-
dation, which
supports a
number of
animal wel-
fare causes.
“The record of
these illegal
shipments
indicates that
Louisa we have a siz-
McCune able cockfight-
ing industry
operating in Oklahoma. It’s our
hope that law enforcement
takes very seriously any and all
crimes involving the abuse of
animals, including the breeding,
selling, and shipping of roost-
ers used for an unconscionable
blood sport.”
–Staff report
Officer to be disciplined
for racist email
NORMAN – A Norman police
officer will be disciplined for
violating department policy
when he responded to an email
about coronavirus protective
masks that were issued by
sending racist images of people
with white bags over their faces
carrying torches, reminiscent
of black victims being lynched
by the Ku Klux Klan, a spokes-
woman said Tuesday.
Spokeswoman Sarah Jen-
sen’s announcement comes as
Norman police Officer Jacob
McDonough remains on duty
while the department’s inter-
nal affairs division investigates
the May 15 email that he sent
to about 250 colleagues. It
featured men dressed in KKK
masks from Quentin Tarantino’s
violent slave-revenge saga,
Django Unchained.
“The investigation into
this incident has sustained an
allegation of violation of de-
partment policy against the
involved employee,” Jensen said
in a news release. “The process
has now transitioned into the
disciplinary phase.”
The photos include the cap-
tions, “I think we all think the
bag was a nice idea,” followed
by, “But not pointin’ any fingers,
they coulda been done better.”
Within 15 minutes of Mc-
Donough’s post, police Lt.
Lee McWhorter responded.
“McDonough, I really hope
you didn’t mean that the way it
looks because that’s MORE than
inappropriate. I’d say this
is a fantastic time to stop
this email thread,” McWhorter
wrote.
“Sir, I would like to apolo-
gize,” McDonough wrote in
response, saying he was using
satire from the movie.
Police chief Kevin Foster has
said McDonough, who’s worked
for the department since Febru-
ary 2018, could be terminated
for sending the images.
Foster added that he was
“very offended” and “couldn’t
believe an officer had sent that
out.”
McDonough noted in the
apology that he “did not mean
any disrespect at all,” accord-
ing to a portion of the email
thread provided by the police
department. Foster said some
officers raised concerns about
the masks during the email dis-
cussion about “breathing and
fitting right and staying on in
the field.”
“This is the judgement of
one officer sending a photo out
like that,” Foster said at a news
conference May 19. “Regardless
of what he was thinking, the
inappropriateness of it and how
it offends people is still there.”
–Associated Press