Last summer was a bad one for Oklahoma law enforcement. At least three officers from differentbranches of law enforcement were accused of sex crimes.
Daniel Holtzclaw, an Oklahoma City police officer, was accused of sexually assaulting at least 13 womenwhile on duty. Last month, he pleaded not guilty to the 36 criminal counts against him.
Former Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Roberts has pleaded not guilty to several charges againsthim after he was accused of raping or sexually assaulting three women during traffic stops. Chargesinclude sexual battery, soliciting an act of lewdness or prostitution, embezzlement, rape byinstrumentation, forcible sodomy, soliciting a bribe, second degree rape, and procuring indecentexposure.
The third law enforcement officer, a former Tulsa County Sheriff's deputy accused of sexual batterypleaded not guilty to the charges against him and was bound over for trial. Gerald Nuckolls, 26, ischarged with two counts each of sexual battery and indecent exposure involving the alleged assaults oftwo women while he was on duty. Charges of sexual battery and outraging public decency involving athird woman were dismissed when she failed to appear in court.
In the cases of all three men, one woman came forward to accuse the officer, and her allegations ledother alleged victims to come forward with sexual assault complaints.
In Nuckolls's case, a woman reported that the deputy came to her home insisting that drugs were on theproperty. She said she consented to a search because "he was going to do what he wanted to do atthat time or take [her] to jail." When the deputy said he was going to search a barn on the property, thewoman followed him, believing that he would plant drugs if not supervised.
Instead, she says, he exposed himself to her and pulled down her top, making inappropriate comments.
After reports surfaced regarding Nuckolls's arrest following the alleged incident, another woman cameforward to say that the deputy exposed himself to her and told her to touch his erect penis during a publicintoxication call. That woman testified that she did not come forward after her alleged run-in with thedeputy because she did not think anyone would believe her. She told the court, "It would have been myword against his."
Sexual battery charges can be tricky. The statute against sexual battery is vague in its definition of theoffense, which allows prosecutors to easily file charges. Sexual battery is defined in the same statute aslewd or indecent acts or proposals to a child under 16 (21 O.S. § 1123). Subsection B defines sexualbattery as follows:
. . .[T]he 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:
In order to obtain a sexual battery conviction, the district attorney must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the contact was made without the consent of the accuser (or that the accuser was statutorily unable to consent) and that the physical contact was sexual in nature. A defense lawyer must work to challenge evidence of lewd and lascivious intent.
An Oklahoma County judge has issued an arrest warrant for 28-year-old Whitney Fetters, a Spanish teacher at Hefner Middle School in the Putnam City school district.
Fetters is accused of sending sexually explicit emails to a student who is now 14 years old. According to reports, the teacher began exchanging texts with the boy when he was a 12-year-old student in her homeroom class. However, in December, the texts allegedly turned sexual, and investigators say they included at least 20 nude or semi-nude pictures and sexually explicit videos.
Putnam City school district officials became aware of the allegations against the teacher on January 30, and she has not returned to school since that time.
Some reports indicate that police were informed after the boy's fellow students told school administrators that he had pictures of a naked woman on his cell phone. Others say that the boy's mother discovered the images and notified police.
Regardless of the means by which police were notified, they obtained a search warrant for Fetters's home and a warrant for her arrest. While the woman has not been criminally charged, her arrest warrant lists the following criminal complaints: indecent exposure, lewd proposals with a child, soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor, and violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.
The accused teacher's Facebook page was deleted between the breaking of the story early Tuesday morning and the writing of this article. However, her Twitter, Instagram, and MySpace profiles remain active.
These profiles seem to demonstrate irony.
Her Instagram description, for example, reads as follows: "Spanish Teacher at HMS, Jiu-Jitsu changed my life. If you are a student at my middle school, no you may not follow me." If the allegations against her are true, then keeping her personal and professional life separate doesn't seem to be much of a priority.
Another irony on her Twitter profile shows her re-tweeting an encouragement to participate in a sexual assault awareness walk. She also re-tweeted the following quote from Teach Like a Pirate: "Kids can tell the difference between the teachers who only seem to care about them when they are sitting in the classroom, and those who see past the 'student' to the unique person who resides inside."
Sometimes, teachers who develop personal relationships with students are wrongfully accused of crossing the line between mentorship and romantic relationship. Parents who are jealous of the time a teacher spends with their children may launch false accusations; sometimes, these parents simply misunderstand. Other times, the student himself or herself may mistake mentorship for romantic interest, and when the teacher clearly responds that the relationship is strictly professional, a vengeful student may make false accusations. And still other times, a teacher may blur and eventually cross the line and engage in inappropriate and illegal acts with a student.
In all cases, a teacher accused of sexual impropriety with a student must retain immediate legal counsel.
An Oklahoma City man remains in the Oklahoma County jail after he was arrested Friday on drug and child pornography charges. Brent Joseph Cunningham, 46, was jailed after police served a search warrant at his home, allegedly finding methamphetamine and child pornography videos.
Police were alerted to Cunningham after a teenage girl discovered a hidden camera as she was taking a shower inside the home. When law enforcement searched the home and the suspect's vehicle, they allegedly found recordings of the girl showering as well as methamphetamine they deemed to be in sufficient quantity to indicated intent to distribute.
Cunningham was arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County jail on multiple criminal complaints:
Oklahoma's peeping tom laws make it a crime to secretly videotape someone where he or she has a reasonable expectation of privacy--for example, a bathroom, shower, or locker room. However, when the person who is secretly recorded for the sexual gratification of the viewer is a minor, the charges and the consequences become much more serious.
Under 21 O.S. § 1171(B), making a clandestine recording for illegal, lewd, or lascivious purpose is a felony:
"Every person who uses photographic, electronic or video equipment in a clandestine manner for any illegal, illegitimate, prurient, lewd or lascivious purpose with the unlawful and willful intent to view, watch, gaze or look upon any person without the knowledge and consent of such person when the person viewed is in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy, or who publishes or distributes any image obtained from such act, shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a felony. The violator shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than five (5) years, or by a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment."
Obviously, a felony conviction and the possibility of 5 years in prison is not something to take lightly. However, sexually explicit images of anyone under the age of 18 is considered child pornography. Making or possessing clandestine video of a minor taking a shower or in various states of undress, when these are for the sexual stimulation of the viewer, is a felony sex crime punishable by decades in prison and sex offender registration.
Under 21 O.S. § 1021.1, manufacturing child pornography carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison:
"Any person who shall procure or cause the participation of any minor under the age of eighteen (18) years in any child pornography or who knowingly possesses, procures, or manufactures, or causes to be sold or distributed any child pornography shall be guilty, upon conviction, of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty (20) years or by the imposition of a fine of not more than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) or by both said fine and imprisonment."
Add to the defendant's four counts of manufacturing child pornography the four counts of possession of child pornography, each of which is punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
If that's not enough, the suspect also faces 2 years to life in prison for possession of meth with intent to distribute.
Shortly before Christmas, we wrote of the dismissal of rape charges against a former Tipton High School teacher accused of having sex with two students. The reprieve for former teacher Laura Cowan, 34, was short-lived. On January 21, Tillman County prosecutors refiled second degree rape charges against Cowan.
You may remember that Cowan was initially charged last summer following an investigation that began in April 2014. Last spring, the superintendent of Tipton Public Schools called police to investigate an apparent inappropriate relationship between the teacher and one of her students. Cowan, who began teaching in 2010, resigned amid the allegations.
Police say she then admitted to having sex with two different students: one in her car and in her classroom, and another in her car and at a motel.
Cowan was charged with 3 counts of second degree rape, also known as statutory rape, for her alleged relationships with the students. Under Oklahoma law, no school district employee aged 18 or older may legally have sexual contact with a student under the age of 20 who attends the same school system.
The second degree rape charges were dismissed on December 9, after key witnesses failed to appear to testify at her preliminary hearing. However, prosecutors retained the right to refile charges, and on January 21, Cowan was again charged with three counts of second degree rape.
Oklahoma statutory rape laws are often misunderstood. This is one reason why anyone questioned by police about his or her sexual relationship with another person should absolutely protect the right to silence. Answering questions in a way you think may serve to exonerate you or lessen the charges can actually incriminate you and make your situation much, much worse.
For example, saying, "I thought she was 18," is simply an admission of statutory rape. Second degree rape is a per se offense, which means that if sex occurred with a minor, a crime occurred--regardless of any misconceptions about the "victim's" age, regardless of the minor's willingness to engage in sex, and regardless of any future plans for the relationship.
Likewise, many people think that the age of consent is 18 (it is actually 16), but a sexual relationship between two consenting adults is likely against the law if one of those adults is in supervisory capacity over the other. In one Oklahoma case, a teacher waited until her student turned 18 to engage in a physical sexual relationship, but the law expressly prohibits sex between students aged 19 and younger with school system employees aged 18 or older. In that case, former Kellyville High School teacher Kalyn Thompson, 25, was sentenced to 6 years with all but one year suspended. She will be required to register as a sex offender for life.
In 1983, a sock-footed Tom Cruise slid across a hardwood floor to the opening notes of "Old Time Rock and Roll." Wearing a pair of sunglasses, a button down shirt, and his dance scene quickly became one of the most recognizable scenes in movie history, and Risky Business became a movie that glorified prostitution, pandering, and operating a brothel as a high school student's creative entrepreneurship.
Unfortunately for teenage boys in Oklahoma, being a pimp or running a brother is not a legal form of entrepreneurship, and facilitating prostitution is not, perhaps, the finest way to fund one's college education.
Earlier this month, police arrested a 24-year-old University of Central Oklahoma student on a complaint of running a brothel in his Edmond apartment. Ali Hussain Al Yousuf was arrested after an undercover police officer responding to a Craig's List ad met a woman at Yousuf's apartment, where she agreed to have sex in exchange for $150.
Under Oklahoma law, it is a misdemeanor to "[keep] any disorderly house, or any house of public resort by which the peace, comfort or decency of the immediate neighborhood is habitually disturbed" (21 O.S. 1026). Subsequent statutes prohibit a person from allowing his or her home to be used for prostitution:
"It shall be unlawful in the State of Oklahoma . . . [to] knowingly abet the crime of prostitution by allowing a house, place, building, or parking lot to be used or occupied by a person who is soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit an act of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution or who is engaging in prostitution, lewdness, or assignation on the premises of the house, place, building, or parking lot" (21 O.S. 1028).
While the UCO student is looking at a misdemeanor charge for allegedly allowing prostitution in his home, an 18-year-old Tulsa man is in much more serious trouble. Police responding to a domestic abuse call in which a woman said her boyfriend threatened her and her mother with a gun during an argument discovered an alleged case of human trafficking. During their investigation of 18-year-old Dashawn Patrick Hervey, two minor girls came forward and said that the teen had forced them to have sex with "multiple men" in exchange for money. They said he threatened violence against them if they did not go along with the prostitution, and that he confiscated all the money after the acts were accomplished.
Use of force or fear to coerce prostitution is human trafficking. However, even if the girls had not been threatened in order to compel them to engage in prostitution, any person under the age of 18 engaged in commercial sex is considered to be a victim of human trafficking.
While maintaining a house of prostitution is a misdemeanor, human trafficking of a minor is a felony punishable by 15 years to life in prison.
A former Kellyville High School teacher has been sentenced for a second degree rape conviction related to a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student.
Reports say Kalyn Thompson, 25, was given a sentence of 6 years with all but one year suspended. Because second degree rape is a Level III sex offense, Thompson will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
The case started when Thompson, a first-year English teacher at Kellyville High School began texting a 17-year-old student. The text messages soon took on sexual overtones and discussed "getting high." Shortly after the student turned 18, the pair began having sex. The young man allegedly confessed to having sex with his teacher twice: once at a lake and once at a hotel. Investigators discovered a receipt for the hotel stay in Thompson's possession.
Before her arrest, rumors circulated about Thompson's involvement with the student. School officials say she was warned as early as January 2013 not to contact the student outside of school after the two were seen having dinner together. The teen's mother asked Thompson to refrain from contact with her son outside of class after she discovered text messages between her son and his teacher.
Finally, school officials were given more concrete evidence of an inappropriate relationship when two students saw Thompson and the student in his truck off-campus, took cell phone images of them, and reported it to school officials.
Thompson resigned from her position in April 2013 and was arrested in May.
In Oklahoma, the age of consent is 16--not 18 as many people assume. Still, even though the student involved was 18 and two years beyond the age of consent, that does not matter when it comes to sexual relationships between students and school district employees, between inmates and corrections employees, or between DHS wards and DHS employees.
In fact, sexual relationships between teachers and students under the age of 20 are against the law according to 21 O.S § 1111 (A-8).
The reason for this is that teachers are in a position of authority over their students, and could coerce sexual behavior in exchange for good grades or other favors at the school; alternately, a teacher could "punish" a student for refusing sexual advances by giving bad grades. In Thompson's case, she is accused of inflating the student's failing grade to a near-perfect 98 percent A in her class.
In a recent case in Arkansas, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of teacher David Paschal's appeal which said that a rule prohibiting sex between consenting adults who happened to be teachers and students was unconstitutional.
An Oklahoma attorney filed a similar challenge to the law in the case of Tyrone Nash, a teacher convicted of having a sexual relationship with a student, even though she had reached the age of consent in Oklahoma, she initiated the contact between the two by taking his phone and getting his number to begin texting him, and she was not a student in any of his classes and therefore not under his direct supervision or authority.
That challenge failed.
An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty in Tulsa County District Court this week to two counts of child sexual abuse.
When Robert Wayne Crow, 61, of Broken Arrow, pleaded guilty on Monday, he waived his right to a trial. For each count of child sex abuse, Tulsa County District Judge William Musseman sentenced Crow to 25 years, with 10 years suspended. He is to spend 15 years in prison with credit for time served, and upon release, he will be required to spend an additional 10 years under the supervision of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. As a convicted child molester, Crow will be required to register as an Oklahoma sex offender for the rest of his life.
Crow's criminal record includes a misdemeanor conviction from 2006, when he was convicted of domestic assault and battery in the presence of a minor child. In that case, he was given a one year suspended sentence, with all but 4 days to be served in the Tulsa County jail and credit for time served.
The sex abuse allegations against Crow came in November, when a 12-year-old relative told her mother that the man had been touching her under her clothing for about two years. The girl said the molestation occurred "too many times to count."
Another female relative also accused Crow of sexual abuse, saying he molested her approximately three years ago, but Crow has not been charged in that case.
In Oklahoma, there are two very similar laws that deal with child molestation. These are Child Sexual Abuse (21 O.S. § 843.5) and Lewd or Indecent Proposals or Acts to a Child Under 16 (21 O.S. § 1123). Both statutes prohibit sexual contact with minors, both carry heavy penalties--up to life in prison under certain circumstances, and both are Level III sex offenses which mandate lifetime sex offender registration.
In general, the difference between child sexual abuse and lewd acts with a minor lies in the relationship between the child and his or her abuser. If a parent or other relative is accused of molesting a child, the charge filed will likely be child sexual abuse. If the person accused of sexually assaulting the child is not a relative, the charge is typically lewd acts with a minor.
Child sexual abuse carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. If the child is under the age of 12, the offense brings a minimum sentence of 25 years. While the lewd acts statute defines a "child" as anyone under the age of 16, child sexual abuse includes sexual contact with a minor under the age of 18.
Lewd or indecent proposals or acts to a child under 16 typically involves a child who is unrelated to the defendant. It is punishable by three to 20 years in prison, unless the victim is under the age of 12. In that case, as with child sexual abuse, the minimum penalty is 25 years.
An Oklahoma City man is behind bars, facing multiple felony charges after he allegedly forced his way into a woman's home and brutally assaulted her.
Court reports indicate that a woman filed a protective order against Michael Don Brown, 27, last month in Oklahoma County. On Friday, Brown was accused of violating that protective order by going to the woman's home, waiting for her to return from running errands, forcing her into her home, and assaulting her.
The woman told police that she had been in a relationship with Brown for about a year and a half before taking out the protective order. She said that after he pushed her into her home last week, the two began arguing, and the man choked her with a chain until she blacked out.
She says that when she regained consciousness, she was lying on the floor. Brown allegedly then bound her hands behind her back with the padlocked chain. She says he took her car keys and money from her purse and left in her car.
He allegedly returned half an hour later, removing the chain from her hands and apologizing for the assault. The woman says that he asked her for a ride, and after she dropped him off, she went to a friend's house to call police.
Brown was arrested on multiple criminal complaints, including first degree burglary, domestic abuse by strangulation, kidnapping, first degree robbery, and violating a Victim's Protective Order causing injury. All of the crimes, with the exception of violating a protective order, are felonies.
Oklahoma, unfortunately, ranks high in domestic violence and violence against women. Often, an argument fueled by intense emotion can quickly escalate to violence when people do not have the tools to adequately deal with a frustrating situation. However, turning a verbal disagreement into a physical altercation does not solve anything; rather, it makes the situation worse by adding the possibility of serious criminal charges to the mix. Learn more about Oklahoma domestic violence laws.
An Oklahoma County Jail nurse with access to prescription medications was arrested on numerous drug complaints after the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) received a tip. According to news reports, the tip came from a disgruntled former boyfriend.
Candice Deann Carter, 32, was a former "Employee of the Month" at the Oklahoma County Jail, and the tipster reported that a bathroom in her home had a package of synthetic urine sitting beside her Employee of the Month parking pass.
The man reported that he discovered drug paraphernalia, including used syringes, and drugs including hydromorphone and morphine when he was cleaning a bathroom in the woman's home. He also told police that Carter had previously been fired from a hospital in Arkansas after allegedly stealing drugs.
Drug agents say that at this point in the investigation, they are unsure whether the woman stole drugs from the jail and whether she was using or selling the prescription medications allegedly found in her home. Whether or not the nurse stole drugs from the Oklahoma County Jail, says OBN spokesman Mark Woodward, it "certainly is concerning that somebody with drug related issues would be in the position to have access to them,”
As of this writing, Carter has not been formally charged, and agents say the investigation is ongoing.
In Oklahoma, the penalties for simple drug possession vary depending on the type of drug in question. Hydromorphone, for example, is a Schedule II drug, and possession of a Schedule I or II drug without a valid prescription is a felony punishable by 4 to 20 years in prison. Possession of a Schedule I or II narcotic with intent to distribute is a felony punishable by 5 years to life in prison.
Simple possession of marijuana, although it is a Schedule I drug, is penalized along with possession of Schedule III or IV drugs. As a first offense, it is a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail. As a second offense, however, it is a felony punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison.
Possession of drug paraphernalia, such as syringes used for injecting drugs, is a misdemeanor. Conviction brings a maximum of one year in county jail.
If it is determined that Carter was using her position as a jail nurse to access and steal prescription medications for personal use or resale, she will likely face additional charges, which may include larceny or embezzlement. Depending on the value of any misappropriated property, she would face additional misdemeanor or felony charges.
The second degree rape case against a former Tipton High School teacher has been dismissed after witnesses failed to appear for a preliminary hearing.
Last April, Tipton Public Schools superintendent Shane Boothe contacted police and the Tillman County Sheriff's Office about concerns over an "inappopriate relationship" between a teacher and a student.
As a result of that investigation, Laura Cowan, 34, was arrested and charged with three counts of second degree rape involving two students.
Investigators say Cowan admitted to having sex with one student in her classroom and in her car, and that she also confessed to having sex with a second student at a motel and in her car. The students allegedly confirmed that they had sex with the teacher while they were students at Tipton High School.
Cowan was arrested in July and charged with the felony sex crimes in Tillman County District Court. However, at a preliminary hearing earlier this month, the witnesses failed to appear to testify against her, and the judge dismissed the case.
Although the case has been dismissed, Cowan isn't in the clear yet. Prosecutors can still re-file the charges against her.
In Oklahoma, it is considered rape for a teacher to have sex with a student in the same school system in which the teacher is employed. It is second degree rape, or statutory rape, for a teacher to have sex with a student, even if the student is older than the age of consent, even if the student willingly agrees to a sexual relationship (or even instigates it), and even if the student is not in the teacher's class.
Sex between a teacher and student is defined as rape in 21 O.S. § 1111:
"Rape is an act of sexual intercourse involving vaginal or anal penetration accomplished with a male or female who is not the spouse of the perpetrator . . . Where the victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or under the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school, or public vocational school, and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system."
Second degree rape is a felony punishable by one to 15 years in prison upon conviction. Although in most cases, statutory rape deals with seemingly consensual sex, it is classified in Oklahoma as a Level III sex offense--the same category as first degree rape and child molestation. Conviction mandates lifetime sex offender registration in accordance with the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registration Act.
