The two incidents share several key details. Terry Byrum, according to the report, was on the ground, having already been handcuffed and subdued by deputies when Bates arrived, placed his foot on Byrum’s head and fired his Taser.
Robert Bates is the focus of perhaps the most high-profile criminal case in Tulsa County. So how did almost everyone miss his court appearance Friday?
The legal wrangling over the 6,647 authenticated signatures seeking a grand jury investigation of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office will extend into next week, following an order signed Thursday by District Judge Rebecca Nightingale.
And that legal wrangling, in part, will be paid for by the very people seeking the investigation in the first place.
In neighboring Okmulgee County, where the district attorney has been assigned to investigate alleged wrongdoing by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office…
Days ahead of their self-imposed deadline, county election board officials broke some news Tuesday afternoon: 6,647 signatures requesting a grand jury investigation of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office had been verified and turned over to the court clerk’s office.
“We’re confident,” organizer Marq Lewis said. “A lot of hard work went into this. A lot of hard work by a handful of volunteers who believed in the process and believed they could make change, believed that they could change things.”
The news for Alan Hruby got worse Tuesday afternoon: According to Stephens County court records, District Attorney Jason Hicks filed a Bill of Particulars, a move signaling his desire to seek the death penalty.
Warren Crittenden, a key figure in the TCSO scandal, is one of four people charged in February with first-degree murder after a man named Michael Jones was killed in an east Tulsa motel.
As it turns out, Crittenden may not be heading to trial on that charge.
