A Monday letter from City Attorney David O’Meilia to Tulsa County officials demanded an immediate cease and desist regarding the county’s recently suspended spokesman connecting the city’s police chief to former Reserve Deputy Robert Bates.
Bates is a 73-year-old reserve deputy charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Eric Harris on April 2. The incident has unfolded into a controversy that has thus far resulted in two resignations from top officials at the Sheriff’s Office.
Bates had a personal relationship with Sheriff Stanley Glanz and other Sheriff’s Office officials.
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Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan was told that Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Shannon Clark was encouraging local media outlets to write about Jordan’s time at the Sheriff’s Office before being named chief, according to O’Meilia’s letter.
On Monday, Sheriff’s Office officials announced Clark was put on administrative leave while his job performance was evaluated. It is not clear whether the letter, also sent Monday, and the announcement were related.
Before Jordan was named Tulsa’s Police Chief in 2010, he worked at the Sheriff’s Office and was in charge of the reserve-deputy program, among other responsibilities.
However, O’Meilia pointed out that Jordan was promoted and put into a supervisory role over the reserve deputy program several months after an August 2009 investigation questioned Bates’ training and was resolved by other Sheriff’s Office officials.
O’Meilia called the information an “obvious attempt at character assassination and an attempt to deflect attention and current scrutiny away from TCSO.”
“Mr. O’Meilia said everything that I wanted to say in the letter,” Jordan said Wednesday evening but offered no further public comment.
Terry Simonson, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, was not available for comment Wednesday night.
The letter was addressed by O’Meilia to Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler and Meredith Baker, the Sheriff’s Office general counsel.
“Please notify your client, Sheriff Glanz, that the city of Tulsa demands that he order Shannon Clark to … as well as anyone else at the TCSO, immediately cease and desist from engaging in these reprehensible tactics attempting to shift media focus to Chief Jordan and the Tulsa Police Department,” O’Meilia said in the letter.
O’Meilia explains in the letter that Jordan was assigned to the Tulsa County District Courthouse as a sergeant until his promotion to captain in October 2009.
In that position, he supervised the reserve-deputy program and SWAT team until he was appointed Tulsa police chief in January 2010.
“At no time was he ever responsible for any training of reserve deputies, including Bob Bates, nor did the chief sign off on or attest to any training records,” O’Meilia’s letter states.
Field training was under another chain of command at the Sheriff’s Office, according to O’Meilia.
“The only action Chief Jordan ever took regarding Bates was to try to ensure that, as a reserve, Bates’ had received FTO (field training officer) training, and at that time, Chief Jordan was assured by then-Chief Deputy Tim Albin that Captain Huckeby had handled that training and training requirements,” according to the letter.
Former Undersheriff Tim Albin resigned effective May 1, and Maj. Tom Huckeby is set to resign Aug. 1 after using vacation time, the Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.
O’Meilia warned that the actions taken by Clark may affect efforts between the city and county to “reach an accord with respect to a jail contract” — an ongoing negotiation that has been under scrutiny from the city for months.
