The president of the union for Oklahoma City municipal employees has resigned from his position amid allegations of embezzlement of union funds.
Late last month, William Dale Bryles, 54, announced his departure from Local 2406 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with his last day to be Tuesday, September 6. Bryles had been the union president for several years, and had been an Oklahoma City employee for some 32 years. He called his time with the union "a good ride."
Just three days after his announcement, Bryles was charged with four felony counts of embezzlement.
The man initially came under police investigation a year ago, after being accused of sexual assault. He has been accused of rape three times--in 1999, 2013, and 2015--although none of the allegations have led to criminal charges. In the most recent allegation, a woman told police that Bryles drugged and raped her in 2005, but it was only after recent counseling that she was able to tell her family and report the allegations to police. Her case is still under investigation.
During the course their rape investigation, police say several witnesses told them that Bryles had been taking money from union funds. According to one witness, the man used a union credit card to purchase a refrigerator for his own home. Other witnesses say they began hiding checkbooks from him, and accused him of making cash withdrawals.
Investigators say bank records seem to support the allegations of embezzlement, and say that it appears that Bryles forged the signature of former union vice president Jimmy Tabb.
Bryles is accused of embezzling more than $15,000 from the union, including $13,000 to support a basketball league he ran called
AFSCME Southside Basketball and another $2,000 for personal use.
In Oklahoma, embezzlement is punished according to the value of the property or funds misappropriated. Embezzlement of money or property valued at least $1,000 but less than $25,000 is punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison.
Image credit: Ed Ivanushkin
A former Oklahoma City high school teacher arrested earlier this summer for allegedly having unwanted physical sexual contact with students has been charged in Oklahoma County District Court.
Curtis Lamont Lowe, 43, was a science teacher and volleyball coach at Southeast High School, where three female students say he touched them inappropriately and made sexually suggestive comments to them.
Lowe was arrested in July after the girls made their claims against him, and he was fired 10 days after his arrest.
The former teacher is accused of placing his hand on the legs of the female accusers, and sliding it up until he touched their bottoms. He is also accused of making a sexually explicit comment as one student blew into a cadaver's lungs in front of the class, and of asking another what sexual positions she had tried.
While three students have accused him of wrongdoing, others support their teacher, calling the allegations "out of character."
Lowe was charged earlier this week in Oklahoma County District court with three felony counts of sexual battery.
Sexual battery is defined in 21 O.S. § 1123 of the state statutes as non-consensual physical, sexual contact with a person aged 16 or older:
"Sexual battery" shall mean the intentional touching, mauling or feeling of the body or private parts of any person sixteen (16) years of age or older, in a lewd and lascivious manner:
1. Without the consent of that person;
2. When committed by a state, county, municipal or political subdivision employee or a contractor or an employee of a contractor of the state, a county, a municipality or political subdivision of this state upon a person who is under the legal custody, supervision or authority of a state agency, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision of this state;
3. When committed upon a person who is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or in the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, or technology center school, by a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system that the victim attends; or
4. When committed upon a person who is nineteen (19) years of age or younger and is in the legal custody of a state agency, federal agency or a tribal court, by a foster parent or foster parent applicant.
Sexual battery carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for each count. Additionally, anyone convicted of sexual battery in Oklahoma must register as a Level 3 sex offender, which requires lifetime sex offender registration.
When local reporters asked Lowe for a statement regarding the charges, he simply said, "It's a no-win situation." Being accused of a sex crime can certainly feel like a no-win situation, but working with an attorney experienced in handling complex sex crime cases can give the accused the best opportunity for a favorable outcome. To speak confidentially with a lawyer about your case, call (405) 417-3842.
Image Credit: Joe Gratz
It is not uncommon for a restaurant patron to accidentally leave something behind when he or she leaves the restaurant. To-go boxes, credit cards, wallets, and cell phones are all frequently left on restaurant tables after a patron walks away. But it is certainly less common for a forgotten item to lead to an arrest.
According to a local news report, an employee at BJ's Brewhouse in Oklahoma City near Quail Springs Mall noticed a cell phone left behind. The employee picked up the phone and opened it to try to find identifying information for the phone's owner. Instead, the employee found something shocking.
The employee reported to police that the phone was opened to a website featuring images of child pornography.
When the phone's owner arrived back at the restaurant to retrieve the lost phone, Oklahoma City police arrested him on a complaint of possession of child pornography.
The Oklahoma City police jail blotter shows the arrest of a 28-year-old Oklahoma City man on complaints of possession of child pornography on Saturday. That man was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, a little more than two hours after the discovery of the phone. The man identified in the police blotter has not been charged, and jail records do not indicate that he is in custody.
The man was arrested under 21 O.S. 1021.2, which says that anyone "who knowingly possesses . . . any child pornography shall be guilty, upon conviction, of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty (20) years."
Additional consequences of conviction of possession of child pornography include a fine of up to $25,000 and sex offender registration. In Oklahoma, possession of child pornography is designated as a Level 1 sex offense, which means that a person convicted of this crime must register annually as a sex offender for a period of 15 years. However, for a second or subsequent offense, a person would be considered a "habitual offender" and would be required to register as a sex offender for life.
Click here to learn more about Oklahoma child pornography laws and the penalties for possession, distribution, and production of sexually explicit images of minors under the age of 18.
Image Credit: Jacqui Brown
Early this morning, a 14-year-old boy walked into a Vinita police station to report to authorities that he shot and killed his stepmother. By 8:00 a.m., Vinita police had contacted the OSBI to take over the investigation.
After the teen's startling admission to murdering his stepmother, investigators went to the home, where they found the body of Laura Beth Hendrix, 38. The juvenile was taken into custody and was being interviewed by detectives, but as of this writing, he had not yet been charged with a crime. Investigators have not released the teen's name nor revealed a motive for the murder.
In Oklahoma, minors are prosecuted as either juvenile delinquents, youthful offenders, or adults, depending on the nature of the case. For misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes, minors under the age of 18 typically have their cases handled by the Office of Juvenile affairs. This means that the case is adjudicated in juvenile court, and, if found guilty, the minor is adjudicated delinquent by the court.
However, some cases are more serious and warrant harsher penalties than juvenile adjudication, yet still acknowledge a minor's chances of rehabilitation. In these cases, a minor is certified as a youthful offender. Youthful offenders may remain in a juvenile detention center longer than would a juvenile delinquent, and may also transfer to an adult facility if they do not take full advantage of opportunities for education and rehabilitation.
Minors aged 15, 16, or 17 are certified as youthful offenders if charged with the following crimes or their attempt:
Sixteen and 17 year olds are also certified as youthful offenders for the following crimes or their attempt:
Minors are only charged as adults for cases of first degree murder, unless they have been previously tried as adults (once an adult, always an adult in the eyes of the law). Minors aged 13 through 17 are charged as adults for first degree murder; however, a 13-year-old or 14-year-old may be certified as a youthful offender rather than as an adult.
Image Credit: Tony Webster
A Norman murder defendant who walked away from the courthouse and missed a hearing is back in custody.
Zekeil Trinidad, 23, and Courtney Mays, 23, were both charged with second degree murder and two counts of child neglect in the death of their 15-month-old son at a Norman motel.
According to reports, Trinidad and Mays left the 15-month-old baby, a 4-month-old infant, and a 4-year-old child alone in the motel room while they went shopping at Walmart. The toddler was left strapped in a car seat when the parents left, and video surveillance shows that the couple left the children unattended for more than an hour and forty-five minutes.
When they returned, they reportedly found the 15-month-old still in the car seat, but the car seat had tipped over on its side. The toddler was unconscious, with the leg straps of the seat unbuckled and the chest clip around his throat.
Upon calling 9-1-1, Mays told police that she had just stepped outside of the room to smoke a cigarette for "15-20 minutes," and that although she heard crying from inside the room, she did not enter it to check on the child until Trinidad returned from "buying pizza" for the family.
However, surveillance video allegedly shows the couple leaving the motel at approximately 8:05 p.m. and entering a nearby Walmart at 8:13. Walmart surveillance video shows the couple leaving together just before 9:00, having shopped for nearly 40 minutes. They did not call 9-1-1 for more than an hour after leaving Walmart, with the emergency call coming in at 9:53 p.m., one hour and forty-eight minutes after they initially left the three children alone.
Courtney Mays pleaded guilty to all three felony counts and was sentenced to 30 years for each count. However, 10 years of each sentence is to be suspended, and the sentences for all three convictions are to run concurrently.
Last Thursday, Trinidad was also expected to plead guilty to the charges, and he showed up at the Cleveland County courthouse to sign paperwork in advance of his hearing. However, he soon disappeared and failed to appear at the hearing. Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley issued a warrant for his arrest on Friday, and by Saturday, Trinidad was arrested again and back in custody. He is currently held in the Cleveland County jail on complaints of failure to appear for second degree murder, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, distribution of a controlled substance/possession with intent to distribute, and carrying weapons.
If convicted of second degree murder, Trinidad faces 10 years to life in prison.
Image Credit: Keith Allison
Norman police responding to a call for a welfare check claiming a woman was being held against her will arrested a man on multiple criminal complaints.
Reports say someone called police to ask them to check on a woman the caller believed to be held against her will at a Norman residence, the former site of the Little River Zoo. At approximately 4:30 p.m. Thursday, a woman answered the door at the home and told police she was indeed being held against her will, and that her alleged captor, identified as 37-year-old Larry Dale Rouse, was asleep in another room of the house.
The woman warned police that Rouse was armed, and she told them there were possibly explosives in the house. The woman was removed to a safe location, and the Norman SWAT team responded to the home.
At approximately 8:15 p.m., Rouse was taken into custody "without incident." Police say they found guns in the house, but no explosives.
Rouse was booked into the Cleveland County Jail on multiple criminal complaints, including kidnapping, first degree rape, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm after prior felony conviction. He remains held on $1,000,000 bond for the kidnapping, rape, and related charges, but he is also held in connection with an Oklahoma County case involving possession of methamphetamine and false personation of another.
Rouse is a convicted sex offender who spent time on the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry for criminal sexual abuse of a victim aged 13-17.
The penalties the defendant faces if convicted are serious, indeed:
If convicted of rape and kidnapping, the defendant will be required to register as a sex offender for life.
A woman accused of murdering her husband and staging the scene to look like a suicide must stand trial for a first degree murder charge, a Tulsa County Judge ordered.
Judith Gayle Nix, 69, of Broken Arrow, has been held without bond in the Tulsa County Jail since her arrest in March. She is accused of shooting her husband Kenneth in the head and spending the next several hours staging the scene before calling police.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Nix called police at approximately 9:15 p.m. on March 21, to report that she had discovered her husband dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. She told police that she had entered the home through the garage and found her husband lying dead on the master bedroom bed with a gun underneath his hand.
However, police say evidence at the scene and inconsistencies in Nix's story led them to doubt that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. The affidavit says that one of Nix's daughters came forward and said that her mother admitted to killing Kenneth Nix. According to the affidavit, she claimed she had discussed the murder with her mother and another of the suspect's daughters, and she says that the three talked of ways to conceal the manner of death, including staging a robbery or suicide.
When questioned again by police, Nix first said that she argued with her husband before taking a gun away from him and firing twice. She says the man fell dead after she fired the second time. However, the affidavit says she later claimed that the second shot was self-inflicted. The affidavit claims Nix admitted that more than 14 hours passed between her husband's death and her call to police stating that "someone" shot him, and that during that time, she discussed with her daughters how to cover up the murder.
After reviewing the evidence at a preliminary hearing that began July 7, Tulsa County District Judge William LaFortune determined the prosecution's evidence is sufficient to warrant a trial in the case.
If convicted of first degree murder, the defendant faces life in prison or life without parole.
A former state representative, ex-CEO of Choctaw Electric Cooperative, and recently-resigned board member/Regent of the Regional University System of Oklahoma has been indicted on embezzlement charges related to his employment with the electric cooperative.
Terry Matlock served as a member of the state House of Representatives for more than a decade from 1990-2002. He left the state legislature and assumed the position of CEO of Choctaw Electric Cooperative, based in Hugo. Matlock remained at the co-op until 2014, when he was fired amid allegations of embezzlement.
However, despite the investigation, he retained his appointed position as a member of the governing board for Oklahoma's public regional universities until July 16, when his indictment was revealed and he tendered his RUSO board resignation to Governor Mary Fallin.
The indictment accuses Matlock of embezzling from the co-op from 2008 through 2014. He is charged with nine felony counts of embezzlement, two misdemeanor counts of embezzlement and one felony count of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses.
The allegations claim that the former state representative used electric co-op employees to perform work on his personal property, and that he used a co-op credit card for up to $70,000 in personal expenses.
In November 2008, Matlock reportedly used nearly $65,000 in co-op funds to purchase two John Deere tractors and attachments for his personal use. Additionally, he used allegedly used co-op funds to repair and refurbish a 1980 Ford Bronco he owned, spending nearly $6,000 in repairs between 2008 and 2009.
When the allegations surfaced in 2014, angry Choctaw Electric Cooperative customers issued a petition to oust the cooperative's board members. Nearly all board members resigned in the face of the recall petition.
In Oklahoma, embezzlement is charged as either a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the value of money or property involved. In this case, Matlock faces 11 embezzlement counts, including two misdemeanors and nine felonies. If convicted, he faces up to 51 years in prison and more than $75,000 in fines.
The state penalizes embezzlement as follows, according to 21 O.S. 1451:
1. If the value of the property embezzled is less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), any person convicted shall be punished by a fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not more than one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment;
2. If the value of the property embezzled is Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or more but less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), any person convicted shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one (1) year or by imprisonment in the county jail for one or more nights or weekends pursuant to Section 991a-2 of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes, at the discretion of the court, and shall be subject to a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes;
3. If the value of the property embezzled is One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) or more but less than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00), any person convicted shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than five (5) years, and a fine of not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes; or
4. If the value of the property embezzled is Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) or more, any person convicted shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than ten (10) years, and a fine not exceeding Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes.
If you are accused of embezzling money or property, you need prompt legal representation. Call 405-417-3842 to schedule a free, confidential review of your case.
Earlier this month, women in the Plaza District and Mesta Park areas of Oklahoma City began calling police with similar complaints: a man in a green ford Mustang was following them as they walked and masturbating as he drove slowly behind them. In one case, a woman reported that the man actually got out of his vehicle and chased her.
On July 3, two women called to report the same activity coming from the same vehicle in two separate incidents. Police stopped and questioned 25-year-old Brendan Trey Brown, a man convicted last fall of indecent exposure and required to register as an Oklahoma Sex Offender. Although the officer noted that Brown was on probation for an indecent exposure conviction, and that he has two similar pending cases against him currently, the suspect was not arrested.
However, the following weekend, Oklahoma City police received several more reports of a man in a green Mustang following women and exposing himself to them. On Tuesday, police arrested Brown and booked him into the Oklahoma County Jail on complaints of two counts of indecent exposure. As of this writing, he remains jailed on $8,000 bond.
Brown was convicted in November 2015 of a single count of indecent exposure, and he is on probation for 10 years. Indecent Exposure is a Level 1 sex offense that requires 15 years of sex offender registration after the sentence is complete. Therefore, his probation is scheduled to end in 2025, but he must continue to register as a sex offender until November 2040.
Under 21 O.S. § 1021, indecent exposure is a felony sex offense punishable by 30 days to 10 years in prison. Because it is a Level 1 sex crime, it requires registration for 15 years, rather than the 25 years required for a Level 2 conviction or the lifetime registration required for a Level 3 conviction.
However, "habitual offenders" are those who commit and are convicted of a second or subsequent sex crime violation, and these individuals are required to register for life as Level 3 offenders, regardless of the risk level assessment of the crime itself.
Read more about Oklahoma indecent exposure laws, including enhanced penalties for exposing oneself to minors under 16. If you need to speak with a criminal defense lawyer about allegations of indecent exposure or related sex crimes, call (405) 417-3842 or submit our online case review form to schedule a confidential free consultation.
Any time something is banned or outlawed, there will be a black market for that item. People are always willing to pay a premium for the things they want that they cannot easily get, and there will always be those willing to take the risk of delivering those items in return for a lucrative payout. Perhaps this is nowhere more true than in the American penal system.
Contraband is--and always has been--a part of prisons, and a part of prison economy, and while drugs and weapons are obviously among banned items, they are not the only contraband in demand in Oklahoma jails and prisons. Cigarettes and tobacco and cell phones and chargers are also in high demand, and there is no shortage of people willing to deliver these items--whether to repay a debt, to help an incarcerated friend or family member, or even just make some quick cash.
Last month, we wrote about a McClain County Jail health care worker who was arrested and charged with bringing contraband into a penal institution after jail employees found a cell phone among the inmates and traced it back to the health care worker. They say she "readily admitted" to bringing cell phones and controlled substances to jail inmates.
Getting corrections employees to deliver contraband is certainly one way to bring banned items into a jail or prison, but it is by no means the only way. Last fall, a drone carrying cell phones, drugs, and hacksaw blades crashed into a security fence at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. A former inmate was convicted in connection with the case.
Other cases of prison contraband delivery involve more basic methods--including simply throwing the items over a fence onto prison grounds.
According to a report by the Oklahoman, some 20,000 contraband cell phones were found in Oklahoma correctional facilities between 2010 and 2015--of that total, 7,705 were discovered last year, showing that the number of illegal smartphones in jails and prisons are skyrocketing.
In general, a first offense of bringing weapons, drugs, alcohol, money, or financial documents belonging to someone other than the inmate or his or her spouse into a penal institution (57 O.S. § 21) is a felony punishable by one to 5 years in prison. If an inmate is found to be in possession of any of these contraband items, he or she faces a sentence of 5 to 20 years. A second or subsequent offense of possession of contraband in a penal institution is punishable by a minimum of 20 years.
However, a person can get a lesser sentence for certain types of contraband. For example, bringing cigarettes or tobacco products into a jail or prison is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail. Bringing a cell phone or other device capable of sending or receiving electronic communication into a penal institution is a felony punishable by a maximum of two years in prison.
