Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Grand Jury Probes Death of Oklahoma Inmate Left Strapped to Chair for 2 Days

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Garfield County Detention Center in Oklahoma

ENID, Oklahoma — A grand jury is investigating whether officers at an Oklahoma jail are responsible for the death of an inmate who was found dead after being strapped in a restraining chair for two days.

Anthony Huff, 58, had been arrested for public intoxication in Enid, Oklahoma in June 2016 and placed in the chair two days after he was booked and was found dead 48 hours later. The official cause of Huff’s death was complications from chronic alcoholism, authorities said.

A civil rights lawsuit filed by his family last month said jail officials knew from prior arrests that Huff suffered from congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and other ailments, but left him in the chair without his medication or adequate food or water for two full days.

Anthony Huff

The Oklahoman newspaper said the grand jury is investigating whether officers committed a crime by leaving Huff in the chair for so long.

According to the suit, filed in federal court in Oklahoma City, Huff “died due to conditions related to his withdrawal from alcohol and the effects it had on his body and system.”

The suit names the  Garfield County sheriff, jail administrator, the county commissioners, the Garfield County Detention Center, the jail medical provider and a jail nurse for actual and punitive damages.

The suit says there had been a recorded pattern of abuse of inmates at the jail and that some guards had complained to the jail administrators about it. County officials, the sheriff and the jail administrator deny any wrongdoing.

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek Argument Ends In Oklahoma Knife Fight

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The age-old argument over which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek, took a bloody turn in Oklahoma when two nerds got into a knife fight.

Oklahoma City Police say Jerome Dewayne Whyte, 23, was arrested after a bloody brawl on July 1 which was sparked by a tense debate over which sci-fi franchise is superior.

Cops say the victim, who they did not publically identify, told investigators he became frustrated and stated “You’re just a trick” before walking out of the room, KOKH-TV reported.

Whyte then chased the man into the other room and shoved him to the ground, cops said.

The victim got back up and said: “You wanna replay that?” and was once again shoved to the ground, cops said.

Whyte then put his arm around the victim’s neck and began choking him. The victim said he was about to pass out when he pulled out a pocket knife. Whyte then let go and cut himself as he reached for the blade, and then fled the room.

Jerome Whyte

Whyte was later charged with assault and battery, possession of marijuana and on several older warrants, police said.

Hobby Lobby Owners Admit Being Tomb Raiders in Hunt for Biblical Antiquities

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Prosecutors say this ancient tablet was among a trove of artifacts Hobby Lobby illegally smuggled out of the Middle East

NEW YORK —  The owners of Hobby Lobby are quaint home ware and curio dealers by day, but were apparently tomb raiders by night.

Hobby Lobby’s evangelical Christian owners who have avidly collected biblical artifacts from the Middle East have agreed to forfeit 5,500 ancient cuneiform tablets they illegally smuggled out of Iraq in addition to paying $3 million in fines.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say the company paid $1.6 million for the tablets and clay talismans it acquired in 2010 from an unnamed dealer in the United Arab Emirates.

At the time, the company sent its president and an antiquities consultant to inspect the treasure trove that is thousands of years old, but ignored the opinion of a cultural property law expert who warned that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq. Extremist groups like ISIS have often traded in looted artifacts to fund terrorist activities.

The expert had told the Hobby Lobby execs that failing to determine the artifacts’ exact provenance could put them in violation of the law. Despite what prosecutors said were numerous “red flags” Hobby Lobby shipped the items back to its Oklahoma headquarters with false shipping labels identifying them as clay or ceramic tiles that had originated in Turkey.

The company’s owners began amassing their collection of biblical artifacts in 2009, and in a statement, admitted they had made mistakes because they were new to the process at the time they made the illicit deals in 2010.

“The company was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process.  This resulted in some regrettable mistakes,” said Hobby Lobby president, Steve Green. “We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled.”

The company deals primarily in home wares, knickknacks and arts and crafts materials and operates 600 stores across the country with about $4 billion in annual sales.

Over the years, Hobby Lobby’s owners have engaged in widespread efforts to promote evangelical Christianity by producing biblical-themed films, operating a chain of Christian bookstores and donating to Christian charities.

In 2014, the company made headlines when it was the defendant in a landmark Supreme Court case that found barred the Affordable Care Act from forcing family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception, saying it was a violation of religious freedom.

Okla. Jail Guard Busted For Sneaking Drug-Stuffed Burrito Into Work

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Kevin Mayo,

TULSA, Oklahoma — A jail guard was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs he stashed inside the burrito he had brought to work for lunch.

The Tulsa County Sheriff’s office say they began investigating 20-year-old Kevin Clevon Mayo after receiving a tip he was sneaking contraband into the Tulsa Jail.

As he arrived for work last Friday, Mayo was stopped and his bag searched. Inside, officers found a Tupperware container containing fried chicken and the burrito.

Concealed inside the burrito was about four grams of marijuana, some crushed-up hydrocodone pills and two grams of methamphetamine, the Tulsa World reported.

They also found two cell phone chargers, rolling papers and three cigarette lighters and a cell phone battery. And stuffed inside Mayo’s sock was a cell phone still in its packaging, authorities said.

Mayo initially denied knowing how the drugs in the burrito ended up in his bag or why he had a cellphone in his sock, cops said.

He later admitted meeting with the friend of an inmate at the jail who gave him the phone to bring to the inmate. Police say he also said he successfully brought a phone into the jail a few weeks earlier.

Mayo, who started on the job in March, was charged with carrying contraband into a jail, possession of drug paraphernalia, conspiracy to commit a felony, possession of marijuana with intent and two counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent.

He has been placed on administrative leave without pay.

Video Captures Two Bumbling Crooks Getting Outsmarted by Runaway Truck

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Thieves Battle Runaway Truck

 

OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s almost as if the truck didn’t want to be stolen.

Cops are hunting for a pair of bumbling crooks who were caught on camera attempting to steal a pickup truck from an auto lot in Oklahoma, but failing miserably when the vehicle rolled away from them.

The two men walked onto the lot of Reynolds Ford in Oklahoma City late in the night on March 27 with their eyes on a white Ford F-150.

Cops say the criminals managed to unlock the vehicle’s transmission before they managed to get inside, which set the truck rolling backwards across the lot in neutral.

One of the men is seen frantically trying to stop the vehicle rolling by yanking on the driver’s side door handle. The other wannabe thief then opened fire at the side window with a pellet gun, presumably so they could get inside to stop the truck, but the glass didn’t break.

Eventually, the truck stopped by itself after rolling several dozen feet, but by that time, the two exasperated criminals had given up and fled. Police say the vehicle was later taken from the lot but has since been recovered.

Although the two unidentified men remain at large, cops said they appreciate the comic relief they have provided.

“As police officers, we see all sides of life. We have a front row seat to the terribly sad and the extremely funny. That being said, this video falls into the category of the extremely funny,” the Oklahoma City Police department said.

Ex-Oklahoma Football Player Charged With Pimping Out Cheerleader Gal Pal

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Parker (r) is charged with selling herself for sex at the behest of her boyfriend, Moore (l)

OKLAHOMA CITY — A former University of Oklahoma football player has been charged with pimping out an ex-cheerleader who is the daughter the team’s cheer coach, police said.

Undercover cops busted former cheerleader Micah Parker, 23, on March 30 after arranging online to meet her at an Oklahoma City motel to have sex for $200, KOCO-TV reported.

They say Parker attempted to throw several cell phones down the toilet as officers entered the room. They also found burnt marijuana and pharmaceutical drugs.

After her arrest, police say they busted 22-year-old Lawrence “LJ” Moore when he came to the hotel to pick up her car. A search of social media and jailhouse phone conversations between the two suggested that Moore was working as Parker’s pimp, police said.

Moore, who hails from California, had signed on to join the Oklahoma team as a cornerback in 2013 but played in only two games before leaving the team. Parker had been a cheerleader at the time Moore was on the team. JohnTV — an Oklahoma media outlet that focuses on vice crime — reported that Parker’s mother had once been the team’s cheerleading coach.

Parker was charged with destruction of evidence, offering to engage in an act of prostitution, and two counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Moore, who has felony assault arrests in California, was hit with charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, pandering, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, and possession of marijuana.

Parker during her cheerleading days

 

Moore during his brief stint on the Oklahoma team

 

 

Corrupt Oklahoma Sheriff Pleads Guilty to Letting People Smoke Meth in His House

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Joe Russell ran Love County with and iron hand since 2001

MARIETTA, Oklahoma — Boss Hogg lives!

The former sheriff of Love County in Oklahoma has pleaded guilty to corruption charges stemming from letting people smoke meth in his home and not arresting his son’s fugitive girlfriend while she stayed with the family but slapping the cuffs on her after they broke up.

Joe Russell, 63, resigned from office last October after serving as sheriff since 2001. Russell was arrested in July and booked into his own prison on a variety of corruption charges, mostly revolving around him looking the other way as people took drugs in his house while he was home on two occasions in the spring.

He was also accused of his son’s girlfriend, Sara Bamburg, who had multiple warrants out for her arrest, stay at his house for a couple of weeks last year.

She told investigators that the sheriff’s son, George “Willie” Russell had told her “As long as you are here dating me, you are not going to get arrested.”

Sure enough, when the couple broke up a short while later and she moved in with someone else, she was arrested.

The younger Russell was sentenced to federal prison last year for selling meth to an undercover agent.

Russell’s office had been the focus of an FBI probe related to his son’s conviction and an episode where the sheriff allowed his nephew, James Conn Nipp,  who had been arrested for leading cops on a high-speed chase and has been eyed in the disappearance of two local teens, meet with relatives unsupervised in a room where evidence in his case was being kept.

Nipp had since been sentenced to 10 years for the police chase.

Russell pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of willful omission to perform a duty and was sentenced to one-year on probation.

 

Drunken Creep Offers Girl Scouts Booze in Exchange for Cookies

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Jerry Swanson thought a bottle of booze in exchange for Girl Scout cookies was a fair trade

ARDMORE, Oklahoma — A drunken stumblebum became one creepy cookie when he approached a group of Girl Scouts and offered to trade them his vodka for a box of Girl Scout cookies.

Police in Ardmore, Oklahoma say 45-year-old Jerry Swanson was busted after making the cringe-worthy request at a shopping mall on Saturday.

“They were trying to sell their girl scout cookies and apparently a male subject approached them, asked them if he could trade vodka for Girl Scout cookies,” Ardmore Police Captain Keith Ingle told KXII-TV.

The girls were unharmed, but when cops got to the scene they say Swanson was so drunk, he could barely stand.

“He didn’t have anything to say about it, he didn’t even know what they were talking about. He was unsteady on his feet and basically had to place him in the police car and barely able to walk,” Ingle said.

When Swanson was arrested, cops didn’t find any bottles of alcohol on him, but say he smelled strongly of booze. He was charged with public intoxication and booked into the Carter County jail.    Court record show that Swanson has at least two prior arrested for domestic abuse.

“You shouldn’t say things like that to underage kids anyway, even if you are joking,” Ingle said.

 

 

Choir Class Takes Indecent Turn With Teacher’s Commando Cartwheel

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Lacey Sponsler got this one all upside down

PAWHUSKA, Oklahoma — If she had just been teaching an anatomy class, this all would have been fine.

Police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma arrested a substitute school teacher after she allegedly flashed students by performing a cartwheel in front of them while wearing no underwear beneath her skirt.

“It was alleged that a substitute teacher had performed a cartwheel, with no under garments on, which caused her to expose herself to the students in this class,” Chief Scott Laird said.

Officers busted 34-year-old Lacey Dawn Sponsler on indecent exposure charges after the episode on Tuesday in front of a choir class.

Police say a student filmed the incident on his cell phone.

Sponsler initially denied the incident, police said, but when she was told about the cell phone video, she stated she “did not remember performing a cartwheel” or exposing herself, according to the arrest affidavit.

Ex-Oral Roberts Prof Holds Saleswoman Hostage, Chases Her Naked Down Street

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Karan Rebitzke had a captive audience to her ranting about God

OWASSO, Oklahoma — She probably regrets getting her foot in this door.

A door-to-door saleswoman was held hostage by an unhinged homeowner who then chased after her naked when she managed to escape.

Owasso, Oklahoma police say Karan Rebitzke, a one-time English professor at nearby Oral Roberts University, invited the salesperson into her home and then started ranting about religion and God.

The saleswoman said she grew uncomfortable and tried to leave several times, but Rebitzke, 44, blocked her from getting out the door.

After an hour, the woman managed to escape, but Rebitzke stripped her clothes and gave chase through the streets, KJRH-TV reported.

Rebitzke eventually gave up and went back to her house. When officers arrived at the home, Rebitzke allegedly opened the door naked and then slammed it in the deputies’ faces several times.

She eventually was arrested and  taken to the Tulsa County Jail. She was charged with kidnapping, assault and resisting arrest and held on $25,000 bond.