(with special thanks to Mark Hoover, OIDS, for contributing regularly)

 

“I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and the poor—anybody can do that—but against power, against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them, and I never shall.”—-Clarence S. Darrow, Attorney for the Damned 491, 497 (Arthur Weinberg ed. 1957).

 

No. 20: CUSTER COUNTY: The county seat is Arapaho, and this county was named as you might expect, after Gen. George Armstrong Custer. I have had at least one case there, way back when I worked for Stephens Jones. So that brings my total to 14 out of 20 twenty counties so far where I have appeared and represented a client.

 

 

No new cases.

 

NEW JUDGE: Gov. Fallin has appointed Tulsa County Associate District Judge DANA KUEHN to the OCCA. Judge Kuehn is a former prosecutor and has been a judge since 2006. She has handled civil cases since 2009.

 

 

No new cases.

 

 

“Only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren are expected to and do take the entire summer off.” –Chief Justice John Roberts (statement made while he served as a lawyer in the Reagan Administration).

 

No new cases.

 

 

United States v. Aaron McMahan, No. 16-10255 (5^th Cir., October 5, 2017): Notice: The Government filed a Rule 35(b) motion for a sentence reduction based upon substantial assistance after McMahan’s trial. The district court denied the motion without notice to McMahan or providing him an opportunity to be heard on it. The panel affirmed, but noted an apparent conflict of authority in a Second Circuit case that held to the contrary.

United States v. Andracos Marshall, No. 16-4494 (4^th Cir., September 25, 2017): Forfeiture; Counsel of Choice (Appellate): After being convicted of various crimes at trial, the Government initiated forfeiture of substitute assets, and the district court granted forfeiture. Marshall objected on the basis that he was entitled to release of the assets to hire appellate counsel of his choice. In this opinion, the panel disagreed.

United States v. Lacresha Janelle Slappy, No. 16-4010 (4^th Cir., September 22, 2017): Supervised Release: Slappy was sentenced to the maximum 36-month term for violating the conditions of supervised release, and she appealed on the basis that the sentence was unreasonable because the district court failed to address her nonfrivolous arguments in favor of a within-range sentence or to explain sufficiently why it imposed the statutory maximum. The panel agreed.

 

 

KEN SUE DOERFEL, Lawton, heard the special two-word verdict of not guilty by the jury in a case where her client was accused of sexual abuse of a child under 12 in Comanche County. The two day trial was presided over by the Hon. Irma Newburn. Nice work, Ken Sue!

CARL BUCKHOLTS, Duncan, represented a client in Stephens County charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and also a count of feloniously pointing a weapon. After a week-long trial, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Interesting facts are contained in the link. Terrific job, Carl!

 

 

RETIRING: Enid attorney, and former part-time assistant district attorney, John L. Scott, is retiring after 43 years of practicing law.

RETIRING II: Supreme Court Justice Joseph Watt has announced his retirement at the end of this year.

RETIRING III: Sheriff Joe Lester of Cleveland County announced his immediate retirement form service.

COPORATION CHARGED: A poultry plant in Oklahoma City has been charged with the misdemeanor crime of unpermitted discharge into a river.

EXECUTION UPDATE: Oklahoma DOC announced that 16 death row inmates are eligible for execution, although executions are currently on hold pending resolution of the execution protocols. Once that gets ironed out, the execution chamber should be busy very soon.

EXECUTION: Meanwhile in Florida, the state executed Michael Lambrix last week for the 1983 killings of two persons.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM: None other Clay Bennett has written an article about the positive changes in the criminal justice system implemented in Oklahoma County.

IMMIGRATION WOES: The number of inmates at the Tulsa County Detention Center has doubled because of immigration holds.

DA RESISTANCE: Interesting article about prosecutorial resistance to diversionary programs.

CITY ATTORNEY: Carol Lahman was voted in as the new City Attorney for the City of Enid, a job that she had held before.

COMMUNITY POLICING: This old idea is being discussed anew in Tulsa.

SCHEME: An elaborate scheme to smuggle contraband into a prison in Texas has been halted.

RAILROAD CROSSINGS: Oklahoma City police are cracking down on motorists who cross railroad crossings when the lights are still flashing.

SHOOTING THE DEAF: Interesting article on police shootings of deaf people who do not obey commands that they cannot hear.

BUDGET CUTS: Tulsa County District Attorney has implied that budget cuts are to blame for not keeping a 16-year-old behind bars who killed another person.

NOMINATED: President Trump has nominated a deputy police chief in Oklahoma City to be the next U.S. Marshal for the W.D. Okla.

UNQUALIFIED: The ABA has deemed federal magistrate judge Charles Goodwin “unqualified” to be a federal district judge.

CHARGED: An inmate at Cimarron Correctional Facility has been charged with “biochemical assault” after lacing a guard’s drink with meth.

 

WACKY CRIME

 

UNLUCKY 13: A man in Hobart tried to purchase 13 guns…by impersonating the Chief of Police. It did not work.

NOT PLAYING AROUND: A man in Lawton was stopped by police for carrying a machete in his hand while riding a bike…then he pulled out a shotgun.

KEEP LAWTON WEIRD: A roundup of weirdness in Lawton, including a bar fight in which a broken pool cue was stabbed into a woman’s eye…ouch.

CHECK PLEASE: A homeless man has been arrested for using a forged cashier’s check for $39,500.00…to purchase two all-terrain vehicles.

MUSICAL THIEF: A red wig-wearing thief stole an expensive…trumpet from a music store.

NEEDED A LIFT: A thief in Lawton suspected of shoplifting fled the scene…in a police car.

IT WAS MY TWIN: Police in Enid responded to a call that a man was defecating in the bushes outside of a McDonald’s. When they arrived and spoke to the suspect, the man replied that it must have been someone “that looked just like him.”

 

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SUBMISSIONS: To subscribe to the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Weekly just send an e-mail to James L. Hankins at jameshankins@ocdw.com and include the e- mail address to which you want the issues to be delivered. I am sending out the issues for free now to whoever wants to receive them. Submissions of articles, war stories, letters, victory stories, comments or questions can be sent to Mr. Hankins via e-mail or you can contact him by phone at 405.753.4150, by fax at 405.445.4956, or by regular mail at James L. Hankins, TIMBERBROOKE BUSINESS CENTER, 929 N.W. 164^th St., Edmond, OK 73013.

OKLAHOMA CRIMINAL DEFENSE WEEKLY

ABOUT THE OCDW: The Oklahoma Criminal Defense Weekly is compiled, maintained, edited and distributed weekly by attorney James L. Hankins. Archived issues can be obtained by contacting Mr. Hankins directly, although some of them are on the web site at www.ocdw.com. OCDW accepts no money from sponsors. Mr. Hankins is solely responsible for its content. The OCDW web site is maintained by Spark Line.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT & DISCLAIMER: ©2005-2017 by James L. Hankins. All rights reserved. OCDW hereby grants free use of these materials for any non-commercial purpose provided that proper credit to the OCDW is given. In the event that copyrighted works are included in an edition of the OCDW such works may not be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder because under federal law the OCDW has no authority to allow the reproduction of the intellectual property of others. For purposes that go beyond “fair use” of the copyrighted material under federal law, the permission of the copyright holder must be obtained. If you are a copyright holder and object to any portion of an issue of the OCDW, please contact the publisher, James L. Hankins, at the contact information above (located under the SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SUBMISSIONS section). Finally, the materials presented in this newsletter are for informational purposes only, and are not, nor intended to be, legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should consult an experienced attorney licensed in your jurisdiction for legal advice applicable to the specific facts of your case. Cases are summarized in each weekly issue as they are issued and filed by the respective court, and are thus subject to being withdrawn, corrected, vacated, and/or modified or reversed without notice. Always conduct your own research!

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