Barbara Ellison's quest for justice in lawless LeFlore County, Oklahoma took another strange twist in October, 2005. Over the course of three days, the tattered cloak of the LeFlore County 'justice system' was pulled aside to expose the true nature of the evil and corruption that lurks within. In this Part 7, of The Fence of LeFlore County, Oklahoma we will take you through a series of events which have galvanized public support in Ellison's favor and further angered those that seek to suppress the truth.
The Events of October 24, 2005
October 24, 2005 was a pivotal day in the latest developments in this ever widening scandal. The developments are archived in the LeFlore County Sheriff Department Communications Activity Report, hereafter referred to as 'Sheriff's Log', for that date. We are making available an extract of that report available here as Reference 81.
The Sheriff's Log indicates that at 10:35 AM the office received a call, from a Belinda Wolfe, reporting that Barbara Ellison was putting a storage building on her property.
The Sheriff's Log indicates that at 11:40 AM the office received a call, from a Mrs. Wolfe, reporting that Barbara Ellison had assaulted her by pulling her hair, scratching her and hitting her in the chest.
The Sheriff's Log indicates that at 12:16 PM the office received a call reporting that Sara Crase, the daughter of Belinda Wolfe, had come by screaming that Barbara Ellison would be carried out on a stretcher and then stated that Ellison would be carried out in a hearse.
From these three entries in the Sheriff's Log it is apparent that some type
of confrontation had occurred, that at least two alleged crimes were being
reported and that the sheriff's office would be responding in some fashion.
From the convoluted, difficult to read and obviously out of sequence Sheriff's
Log it appears that deputies 407 and 403 acknowledged the assault call at 11:40 AM,
the same time the assault report was made to the Sheriff's Office.
Likewise it appears that both 407 and 403 concluded their actions at the
Ellison residence at 11:42 AM and returned to service, as denoted by the 10-8
designation. According to the Sheriff's Log, it took the two deputies
only TWO MINUTES to interview one alleged victim, one alleged suspect and
three witnesses then collect statements from all individuals either involved
in or witness to the confrontation.
From the 'Sheriff's Log' it is equally apparent that the 12:16 pm call to
the sheriff's office, the call regarding threats making mention of Barbara
Ellison being carried out on a stretcher and being carried out in a hearse,
received no response what so ever.
This of course raises the question of why a call about a storage
building being installed and a simple assault resulted in the dispatch of two
sheriff's deputies while a call reporting threats of serious injury or death
received no response at all from the sheriff's office. Only those
in the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office can answer this question and apparently
they are not talking. What we do know is that according to Oklahoma law,
specifically,
Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Chapter 55, Section 1362
it is a crime to shout threats to do bodily injury or death to another person.
Evidently the LeFlore County Sheriff is unfamiliar with the Oklahoma Statutes or
simply does not care to uphold the law.
As a result of the dispatch of the two deputies to the scene of the alleged assault, a six page 'Incident Report' was created. We are making a copy of that report available here as a series of references: Reference 83, Reference 84, Reference 85, Reference 86, Reference 87 and Reference 88. This to ease the download burden of dial-up users wishing to see this document. We are also making available Barbara Ellison's handwritten and official statement regarding the incident, this as Reference 89
The Incident Report indicates that it was created by Deputy Roy Duggan at 1:26 pm on October 24, 2005. The report reveals that Deputy Duggan and Deputy Wesley Ritter were the two LeFlore County Sheriff's Deputies who responded to the call.
This Incident Report is both revealing and troubling in various ways. The first page of the report indicates the 'Case Status' is "OPEN". The second page also indicates the 'Case Status' is "OPEN" but also contains within the 'Charge From' section, the words "DISTRICT ATTORNEY". Please keep this in mind as we will return to it later.
The fourth page, under the heading 'Victim Information' lists Belinda Wolfe as the alleged victim and the 'Type of Injury', as "NONE". Please keep this in mind, we will return to it later also.
The fifth page contains Deputy Duggan's narrative revealing the who, where, when and what of the case wherein Duggan reduces to his own words the actions he and Deputy Ritter took, the content of witness statements and so forth. Of particular interest is Deputy Duggan's narrative as it applies to a statement Duggan received from Barbara Ellison. Below is an extract of that portion of Deputy Duggan's narrative:
Within Deputy Duggan's narrative he states that Barbara Ellison in her statement to him indicated that she "removed her from her property by shoving her down" and in a second action "shoved her down again".
We have no way of knowing if Deputy Duggan's memory was faulty, if he could not read Barbara Ellison's statement right before him or if something more sinister was at play. In any case Deputy Duggan's narrative as it regards Barbara Ellison's statement in reference to shoving is simply wrong. No where in Ellison's statement does she indicate she shoved Belinda Wolfe "down". The words Ellison's statement contain are "I removed her from my property by shoving her off it" and "so I shoved her again". No where in Barbara Ellison's official statement to Deputy Duggan does the word "down" appear. Don't believe us? Check for yourself, her official statement is available as Reference 89.
Two little words, "down" and "off", but a BIG difference in implied intent associated with an action. If you are attempting to remove a person from a specific location what would you achieve by shoving them "down" on that location? Granted they would no longer be upright but they would still be there. On the other hand shoving a person "off" a location does result in removing them from that location.
Owing to this glaring error in Deputy Duggan's narrative, legitimate questions arise as to what other 'mistakes' he may have made in transcribing witness statements into narrative form for his official report. We have the ability to check Duggan's accuracy as it applies to Barbara Ellison's statement and as shown above it comes up lacking. When Barbara Ellison sought to obtain copies of the statements from other witnesses she was told she would have to pay for the copies, which she did. However no additional statements from the witnesses could be found in the Sheriff's Office, although Ellison informs us that her money was not refunded.
The sixth page contains the continuation and conclusion of Deputy Duggan's narrative. This page is also noteworthy. Here is an extract from that page:
Notice the marked difference between the two paragraphs? The final paragraph appears much more BOLD and emphasized. It also appears disjointed with the word 'arm' dangling on a line all by itself. While no one except Deputy Duggan can state as fact that the second paragraph was not 'added later' it certainly appears different, doesn't it? And why would Deputy Duggan mention alleged injuries in his narrative when on the fourth page under the heading 'Victim Information' in the area assigned for 'Type of Injury' he wrote "NONE"? It just doesn't make sense.
Nor does it make sense that back on page 2, the 'Case Status' is "OPEN" but the 'Charge From' section, contains the words "DISTRICT ATTORNEY".
Maybe it is simply a matter of watching too much "Law and Order" on TV, but I thought that the police investigate alleged crimes and then prepare a report of their findings. A report which is then turned over to the district attorney who determines if charges are to be filed. This Incident Report suggests the opposite took place; the district attorney decided to file charges and then an Incident Report was created to support those charges. Once again only Deputy Duggan knows for sure, however the Incident Report says what it says.
The Events of October 25, 2005
For two years Barbara Ellison has been attempting to obtain justice in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Ellison's repeated contacts with the Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's office reporting crimes committed against Ellison, her mother and her property have not resulted in charges filed against anyone and in several cases her calls for assistance have been totally ignored. On 10/25/05 the other side of the coin was revealed.
The District Attorney's Office sought and LeFlore County Special Judge Jeff Mixon granted an arrest warrant for Barbara Ellison on a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery. This for her actions the previous day in removing a trespasser from her property. Judge Mixon, a former assistant district attorney, become involved in this scandal a year earlier when under the letterhead of the District Attorney's office he penned a letter to both Barbara Ellison and her neighbors. A letter which arguably encouraged the construction of the Fence of LeFlore County. We are making available here a copy of the arrest warrant as Reference 90
Shortly after obtaining the misdemeanor arrest warrant for Barbara Ellison, LeFlore County Undersheriff Bruce Curnutt and Deputies Wesley Ritter and Roy Duggan in two patrol cars traveled to Barbara Ellison's home where she was arrested on the afternoon of October 25th.
Why in LeFlore County, one of the poorest in Oklahoma, where the sheriff whines to the news media about manpower shortages and the high cost of gasoline, the Sheriff felt it necessary to send three deputies in two patrol cars to arrest a fifty year old woman would have driven herself to the courthouse and surrendered, had they bothered to call her on the phone, was not explained.
One possible explanation for this action on the part of the Sheriff's Office came to light upon Ellison's arrival at the courthouse. As Deputy Roy Duggan was removing the handcuffed Barbara Ellison from his patrol car and escorting her into the courthouse an unidentified person, described as 'an old woman accompanied by a young boy' began taking pictures of Ellison and continued doing so as Ellison was escorted into the building.
Shortly thereafter one of these pictures appeared in a post to an internet forum hosted by Cyberlink Rural Telecommunications Inc. of Poteau, OK. This posting was made by an unknown individual using the pseudonym of 'Ndmember'. Additional pictures of Ellison being escorted into the LeFlore County Courthouse appeared on another internet forum, OklahomaForums.com where the forum's few members seemed to take great glee in Ellison's arrest. One unknown individual there using the pseudonym of 'Starbright' posted a 'news bulletin' announcing Ellison's arrest to the forum shortly after it took place. Within approximately a half-hour an unknown individual using the pseudonym of 'Tigger' posted on the same forum three pictures of Ellison being escorted into the courthouse by Deputy Roy Duggan.
The glee of the Ellison's detractors was short-lived however when shortly after the pictures were posted, Barbara Ellison herself was back home and posting to one of the forums. Ellison's bond on the misdemeanor assault and battery charge was $1,000. Owing to fast action on the part of Ellison's mother and some of Ellison's friends, her bond was posted before she set foot into the LeFlore County Jail.
Within days of the publication of the pictures of Ellison being escorted into the courthouse, and in the midst of a fire storm of criticism over those pictures, they were hurriedly removed from the forums where they had been so boisterously posted days earlier. Along with the pictures, numerous forum discussion threads pertaining to The Fence of LeFlore County scandal were deleted in what could only be considered a 'cleansing' of embarrassing posts from the forums. Evidently Ellison's detractors did not wish for their vile misdeeds to become known to the world outside LeFlore County. Unfortunately for them numerous complete threads from both forums were archived before they could be deleted and will again see the bright light of day in the form of a Bubbaworld special report detailing the remarkable degree of hate, scorn and threats which Barbara Ellison has endured at the hands of a small but hard core group of liars, frauds and hate mongers.
Following Barbara Ellison's arrest on what many consider a 'trumped up charge' a bond hearing was set for November 16th. As the hearing date approached several LeFlore County residents announced their intent to meet with Barbara outside the LeFlore County Courthouse for a prayer circle prior to the hearing and to attend the hearing afterward. Owing to legal maneuvering, the hearing was passed. The next hearing date in the case is set for January 26, 2006.
The Events of October 26, 2005
On October 26, 2005 Barbara Ellison made the all too familiar trek to the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office to turn in witness statements and file a complaint. Since the Sheriff's office has apparently stopped answering calls for assistance to the Ellison residence her only recourse is to personally travel to the Sheriff's Office when the assistance of county law enforcement is needed.
On this date, Ellison's concern centered upon the threats allegedly made against her on October 24. To document her complaint Ellison took with her four signed statements, one from herself, one from her mother and one from each of the workmen that were installing the new storage barn on the Ellison property at the time of the confrontation. Since it had been two days since her call for assistance, as documented in the official Sheriff's Log, it was apparent that no deputy was coming unless Ellison's neighbors did the calling.
LeFlore County Deputy Sheriff Wesley Ritter interviewed Barbara Ellison, received her witness statements and proceeded with the typical LeFlore County Sheriff's Department 'Keystone Kops drill' when it comes to anything involving Barbara Ellison and her quest for justice. We are making available here a complete copy of the report prepared by Deputy Ritter and witness statements as a series of references: Reference 91, Reference 92, Reference 93, Reference 94, Reference 95, Reference 96 and Reference 97 . This to ease the download burden of dial-up users wishing to see these documents.
In spite of having available Barbara Ellison and four witness statements, three of which named one Sarah (Sara) Crase as the individual shouting threats to Barbara Ellison on October 24, 2005 Deputy Ritter managed to name the wrong person as the 'suspect' when filling out his official report.
On the first page of the report, Reference 91 Deputy Ritter named as the suspect one 'Sandra Crase'. He did manage to enter Barbara Ellison's name as the 'Report Person'.
On the second page of the report, Reference 92 Deputy Ritter evidently still had 'Sandra Crase' on his mind as he again listed the 'suspect' as Sandra Crase. Once again he got Barbara Ellison's role correct by listing her as 'victim'. So his average on getting names correct is still 50 percent.
References 93 through 96 are the witness statements from Barbara Ellison, Mark B. Zdrahal, Sam Sinclair and Maxine Weller respectively. The Ellison and Weller statements indicate the threats were made by Sarah (Sara) Crase. The Zdrahal statement references the threats screamed by 'a woman' and the Sinclair statement identifies the woman as Sarah (Sara) Crase.
Reference 97 is the final page of Deputy Ritter's three page report and on this page he actually gets the name of the suspect correct; Sarah (Sara) Crase. Unfortunately for his 'batting average', Deputy Ritter manages to get the name of a witness, Mr. Zdrahal, wrong by entering it as 'Zoleahal'.
It has been over one month since Barbara Ellison filed her complaint regarding threats of serious injury and death allegedly made against her by Sara Crase, the daughter of Belinda Wolfe. To this date no action has been taken by District Attorney Farley Ward or any of his assistants to bring justice to this case. This in spite of DA Ward's office filing charges against Barbara Ellison in less then twenty four hours when Ellison's neighbor Belinda Wolfe alleged that Ellison pulled her hair, scratched her arm and pushed her 'down'.
One is left to question; is this inaction on the part of the DA's office due to the incompetence of Deputy Ritter in filling out an incident report? One wherein he named the wrong person as the suspect. Has the DA's office filed charges against Sandra Crase? On-line court records do not reveal any such charges. Does the DA's office plan to do so? And how does Sandra Crase feel about being named as a suspect in a death threat case when she was not the person that made the threats against Barbara Ellison on October 24, 2005?
The above failings of the LeFlore County Sheriff's Deputies if taken on their own and singularly would not be so damning. However, when they are viewed in the harsh light of Barbara Ellison's experiences with the Sheriff's Office, experiences which we have documented throughout this series, they are very damning indeed.
The handling, or more accurately mishandling, of both of these cases involving Barbara Ellison raise grave doubts about both the competence and integrity of the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office and its personnel.
On the one hand in the criminal case charging Barbara Ellison with misdemeanor assault and battery, Deputy Duggan in his written report mis-stated the contents of Barbara Ellison's statement. How much, if any, Duggan's falsehood influenced the District Attorney to file charges against Barbara Ellison is unknown. How much, if any, Deputy Duggan mis-stated the contents of the statements of other witnesses to the alleged assault and battery is also unknown as copies of their statements were denied to Barbara Ellison and this in spite of the Sheriff's Office charging for copies of them. Possibly the Sheriff used the money to purchase gasoline, seeing as how so much of it was wasted when three deputies traveled in two patrol cars from Poteau to Summerfield to arrest Barbara Ellison on October 24.
On the other hand in the case of the alleged threats of violence against Barbara Ellison by Sarah (Sara) Crase, how much if any did Deputy Ritter's naming an innocent person as the suspect influence the District Attorney to not file any criminal charges? Or will it cause the District Attorney to file criminal charges against the wrong person? While the odds of District Attorney Farley Ward filing criminal charges against anyone threatening or actually harming Barbara Ellison are in my opinion nil there is still the fact that Sandra Crase has been falsely named as a suspect in a criminal matter. One can not help but to question if there are other innocent persons that Deputy Ritter has 'accidentally' named as suspects in criminal cases.
While Deputy Ritter's naming the wrong suspect in his official report is serious, his conduct is not as reprehensible as that of Deputy Duggan who for whatever reason or cause rewrote statement contents in a manner that makes the alleged offense sound more grievous. The conduct of both deputies is deserving of investigation by an impartial outside authority and if their actions in these two cases is found to be intentional both should be disciplined.
And who among us has ever heard of a sheriff's office that does not make 'house calls'? When Barbara Ellison called the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office at 12:16 PM on October 24, 2005 reporting death threats made against her she had every right to the same 'service' that was afforded Belinda Wolfe when she called in her assault and battery complaint at 11:40 AM on the same day. Why does the one caller receive preferential treatment with two deputies dispatched to handle the complaint and yet Barbara Ellison's call was totally ignored? These troubling questions deserve answers. Is anyone going to hold their breath waiting for an explanation from the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office?
Over the course of three days in October those sworn to uphold the law in
LeFlore County have through their actions involving Barbara Ellison raised a
serious question with their gross mishandling of this entire fiasco.
That question being:
As always, anyone wishing to comment upon articles published on Bubbaworld, offer praise, curses, hate mail or threats of law suits are free to do so by e-mailing The Bubbaworld Webmaster . All such contributions become the sole property of Bubbaworld.com and as such may be published on this site at the sole discretion of the Webmaster. Reader comments, which in the opinion of the webmaster contribute to the discourse on this article, are being made available on a Reader's Comments Page