Mayor G.T. Bynum is set to consider a contract arranging for the city to fund private legal counsel for former Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby in federal civil rights litigation over the death of Terence Crutcher.
City legal personnel said in a motion on Oct. 22 that they have a conflict of interest preventing them from aiding the city of Tulsa, Shelby, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan and Officers Tyler Turnbough and Jason Roy. The document did not specify what the conflict of interest is, and spokeswoman Michelle Brooks said the city would not comment on its nature.
Shelby, Jordan, Roy and Turnbough are defendants in their individual capacities related to their actions on Sept. 16, 2016, when Shelby fatally shot Crutcher. A representative of Crutcher’s estate filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in June 2017.
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Scott Wood, one of Shelby’s criminal trial lawyers, entered an appearance Sept. 21 on her behalf in the civil case, along with co-trial counsel Shannon McMurray. The two took Shelby’s first-degree manslaughter case to trial, which resulted in an acquittal in May 2017. Shelby now works as a Rogers County sheriff’s deputy.
Wood said Wednesday that he and McMurray agreed to enter into a contract after being approached with an offer to represent Shelby at the city’s expense.
“And then I think the mayor signs it and then we’re all hunky-dory,” he said of the matter.
Brooks confirmed Thursday night that the contract will go to Bynum’s signing agenda.
“After (the) mayor signs, it completes the process,” Brooks said. “This does not require council approval.”
Councilors voted last year to approve the city’s representation of Shelby and the other defendants. The decision is typical when the city faces litigation alleging current or former police officers committed wrongdoing while on duty.
Bynum said in a statement: "City Council voted to provide representation. Our city's legal department can no longer provide that representation. So I plan to sign agreements for outside firms to represent those parties."
The Tulsa World requested a copy of the contract, which hadn’t been provided by Thursday night.
The World also asked to speak with someone in the City Attorney’s Office or an individual with knowledge of the case, but the city did not make anyone available.
Wood said he isn’t sure exactly why the city reached out to him and McMurray, as they “didn’t say much” when gauging their interest in taking the civil case. He said the other defendants, including the city, have representation from an Oklahoma City-based law firm.
“Over the past 10 or 15 years, there’s been a handful of other cases where the city of Tulsa has hired me to represent an officer in a lawsuit,” Wood said of the situation. “It’s not unheard of, but it’s not an everyday occurrence.”
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the Crutcher family, said that “we don’t know anything” about why there was a change and questioned the timing of the conflict disclosure. When told about Wood’s statements, he said it’s “an affront to the citizens of Tulsa” for the city not to explain its rationale in approaching outside attorneys.
“We were surprised, obviously. The city has been involved in this since the beginning,” Solomon-Simmons said Thursday. “I think it’s highly unusual that more than two years later, the city all of a sudden has a conflict. You would think if there was some type of issue, it would have been able to be resolved.”
Mike Manning, the administrator of Crutcher’s estate, filed an amended complaint Sept. 6 saying the shooting violated Crutcher’s civil rights. Crutcher, who was black, was unarmed when Shelby, who is white, approached him after spotting his vehicle abandoned in the middle of 36th Street North near Lewis Avenue.
The lawsuit cites multiple potential causes of action, including excessive force and deliberate indifference, as well as violations of equal protection and due process rights.
Joey Crutcher, Terence Crutcher’s father, speaks out regularly about reform efforts in light of Shelby’s acquittal. He has said he thinks Shelby “got away with murder.”
McMurray and Wood filed an answer to the complaint this week, saying Shelby is entitled to qualified immunity. They say Shelby takes the position that the incident was “solely and proximately caused” by Crutcher’s “wrongful and criminal conduct.”
In the response, Shelby says she did not tell Crutcher he was under arrest and that he wasn’t in the process of committing a violent crime, nor was he a fleeing felon. However, she asserts that she suspected Crutcher of being under the influence of PCP, and the response therefore denies the claim that there was no evidence of Crutcher’s intent to cause officers or civilians bodily harm.
Her defense pointed to PCP found in Crutcher’s system at his autopsy as proof that she was right to regard him with caution.
Shelby, in her response, also said she followed Crutcher while his hands were up and while he walked away from her. But she denied claims from Crutcher’s family that he was shot while his hands were in the air, and she has said before that she fired because she saw him reach through a window into his vehicle.
Turnbough, Shelby’s backing officer, deployed his Taser at almost the same time Shelby fired her gun at Crutcher and said in trial that he reinitiated the electrical current after five seconds. A Tulsa World analysis of video footage indicates that Crutcher fell to the ground roughly 10 seconds after being struck.
Crutcher died at the scene, which family members said is the fault of police who chose not to render medical aid.
The lawsuit additionally casts doubt on the quality of the investigation by detectives and makes a case — as prosecutors did in trial — that Shelby received special consideration by police who did not interview her until three days after the fatal shooting. Shelby’s team denies claims of preferential treatment.
More broadly, the family argues that policies of what it calls “rubberstamping of police use of force,” including deadly force disproportionately against people of color, is unconstitutional. Crutcher’s estate argues in the lawsuit that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation should conduct independent inquiries into incidents involving police and calls for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office to handle prosecutions of officers when warranted.
Kevin Canfield contributed to this story.
