Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris
A Bubbaworld Editorial
Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris is a man of 'accomplishments'. Unfortunately most of them bad. That's not just the opinion of the Bubbaworld editor but also that of all ten Fraternal Order of Police lodges in Tulsa County which have endorsed Harris' opponent Brett Swab in the July 25th Republican primary which will determine the chief law enforcement officer of Tulsa County for the next four years.
Harris is no stranger to the pages of Bubbaworld. We took issue in a report titled, "The Pedo Preacher of ORU" with Harris' refusal to prosecute officials at Oral Roberts University for failing to notify authorities of a child rapist in their midst, a child rapist of which the ORU administration was aware and who continued sexually abusing young boys after his crimes came to the attention of campus officials. The fact that Harris is an ORU graduate and frequent guest speaker at the university may have unduly influenced his decision to 'give them a walk'. Only Harris can say for sure and this is an issue he does not wish to address in public.
The 'Pedo Preacher of ORU' case is but one of Harris' failings, there are
more, many more such as:
Only filing charges in 'slam-dunk cases' to keep conviction rates high.
Allegedly in a meeting Harris told staffers, "We file way too many criminal
charges, and from now on the standard of proof in the office of filing a charge
is proof beyond a reasonable doubt." The typical standard is
"probable cause". Jenks Police Detective Don Selle was quoted in
the Tulsa World as stating, "They won't file a charge unless it's trial-ready,
and we have to live with that." In most jurisdictions the
police turn cases over to the DA's office and the DA's staff get them 'trial-
ready'. Not in Tulsa County.
Refusing to assist and advise police departments on getting cases 'trial-ready'.
Police officers are not lawyers and certainly not prosecutors. In
most jurisdictions police and DA's work hand-in-hand. Tulsa DA
Tim Harris has a policy of refusing to assist/advice police officers.
Harris' official policy is, "None of the law enforcement agencies works for us
or at our direction. We do not tell them when they have 'probable
cause to arrest' or 'probable cause to search and seize.' Those
are police decisions. We do not answer hypothetical questions for
the police or give legal opinions based upon hypothetical factual situations."
The case of Chad Stites who, while a member of the Oklahoma Legislature, also
served as an appraiser for Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz. Stites
purchased properties that he had appraised, an open and shut violation of state
law yet Harris refused to prosecute a fellow Republican during an election
campaign.
Spending $350,000 of the taxpayers' money to furnish his new offices with
walnut desks and credenzas, tables, chairs and mobile storage units and
thousands of dollars for 'art works' to decorate the walls, while complaining
that his office was under funded and he was begging the legislature for more money.
While increasing staffing costs by 23 percent the number of cases filed by
Harris' office has decreased by 27 percent and Tulsa County's crime rate has
been increasing every year Harris has been in office. Tulsa's
murder rate has gone off the charts in 2006 with over 41 homicides as of mid-July
and practically every year of the Harris administration has been a record
setting year for homicides in Tulsa.
But we have to admit that Harris' claim of an 84 percent conviction rate sounds impressive. At least until one realizes that his office only accepts 'slam-dunk cases'. Then one has to wonder how his office manages to lose 16 percent of those 'slam-dunk cases'. If one files charges in only cases that are 'trial-ready' and which have proof beyond a reasonable doubt why then is not the conviction rate 100 percent?
In light of Tim Harris' many shortcomings, failures and outright refusal to assist police departments is it any wonder that every FOP lodge in Tulsa County has endorsed Harris' opponent? Likewise it is any wonder that Buddy Fallis, the 'Dean' of former Tulsa County Districts Attorney has endorsed Brett Swab? In endorsing Harris' opponent Fallis stated that he has sadly observed an "ever-increasing disconnect" between the office of District Attorney Tim Harris and "our other crime-fighters."
Tulsa County voters need to send Tim Harris packing to the back of the unemployment line. They need to do this for themselves, their children, their grandchildren and their neighbors. If they fail to do so, odds are some of them will not be around for the next election as they will have become victims of crime and a District Attorney that goes out of his way to leave criminals on the street while relaxing in his high priced office and staring at his expensive artwork.
