Law enforcement reports of whether Snelson was armed have varied — some said he had a knife, others said he was holding a lighter, while others have avoided saying what he might have been holding.
For years, Payne and his attorneys fought to have evidence from the crime scene undergo forensic DNA testing. But the results were not enough to convince a Comanche County judge for a new hearing.
Until July, Mull headed the Mayes County Sheriff’s Office’s drug interdiction unit, which conducts surveillance, intelligence and undercover drug enforcement operations.
The proposed consent decree would require steel distribution company Blue Tee and three of its top executives to pay a combined $75.5 million to seven states, three federal agencies and seven northeastern Oklahoma American Indian tribes.
“As far as I’m seeing it, I’m the only one paying any consequences,” said Shelley Dodson, who, despite not being charged with a crime, had her vehicles seized during a drug trafficking investigation headed by a former Mayes County deputy now facing indictment for allegedly stealing and using meth from evidence.
The district attorney’s office and sheriff knew about the previous allegations against the deputy before he was promoted to the head the county’s drug interdiction unit, according to court documents and interviews, though both said the allegations were unsubstantiated.
Called the “perfect example” of a peaceful gun owner, court records obtained by The Frontier paint a different picture of the man whose expulsion from the park kicked off the upcoming gun rally outside Tulsa’s Gathering Place.
In June 2018, Oklahoma was the first state to have its coal ash program approved by the EPA.
