Land pirates
Motor vehicles were being boarded in McIntosh County:
An Oklahoma sheriff and his deputy were sentenced to two years and three months in jail on Tuesday for the crime of stopping and searching motorists so that they could steal their cash. An undercover federal sting operation caught McIntosh County Sheriff Terry Alan Jones, 36, and Undersheriff Mykol Travis Brookshire, 38, red-handed. The pair were forced to resign their positions in May and plead guilty to Conspiracy Under Color of Law to Interfere with Interstate Commerce. “The court imposed the maximum permissible federal prison term, consistent with advisory federal sentencing guidelines,” United States Attorney Sheldon J. Sperling explained in a statement. “These sentences will not be subject to parole.”
A red flag goes up when I hear anyone at the federal level talking about “Interstate Commerce,” but these guys needed to be put away:
The sheriff’s office conspiracy came to light after Marco Delgado-Hernandez was stopped on Interstate 40 on November 5, 2007. Brookshire searched the man’s vehicle and found $7000 in cash. He then seized this money and allowed Delgado-Hernandez to go. The next day, the district attorney’s office refused to press any charges or authorize the monetary confiscation. Assistant District Attorney Scott Biggs specifically ordered the money returned.
Almost one year later, Delgado-Hernandez, who had not received his money back, began making phone calls. Sheriff Jones told him that it would take “several weeks” to process the paperwork. The district attorney ordered it returned immediately. This kicked off cooperation between state and federal officials to look into the matter.
There followed an elegant sting operation, in which six bundles of cash ($5000 each) were placed in the bait vehicle — five of which were reported to the DEA. Warrants were obtained, and the missing cash was found to have been split between the two.
Not that I think these guys have learned their lesson. While awaiting sentencing, Brookshire was charged with impersonating a police officer in nearby Cherokee County.
Jeffro »
26 September 2009 · 10:24 pm
In other news, it’s perfectly ok to extract larger speeding fines in construction zones with no construction what so ever going on, with no workers or equipment present. It’s all about safety.
Aaaand, good thing I look poor – I’ve been going through that area at least once a month or more for several years.
McGehee »
27 September 2009 · 8:36 am
Maybe the Feds should keep their eye on that county for a while. Where the two top cops are crooked, there’s almost certainly more corruption to be found.
Sheri »
27 September 2009 · 9:06 am
What the hell is an “undersherriff” anyway? Any land pirates try to grapple and board my big fat capitalist gas-guzzling SUV, the countermeasures launch, I think. Or maybe a warning message emanates via the numerous speakers aboard for the OnStar spies, I forget.
CGHill »
27 September 2009 · 10:15 am
Counties, in this state, are often a hotbed of corruption: in the early 1980s, a scheme between commissioners (three per county) and suppliers of road-maintenance equipment/materials managed to hit 60 out of 77 counties. (A book came out about it: Bad Times for Good Ol’ Boys, by Harry Holloway with Frank S. Meyers.) It probably doesn’t help that each of the 231 commissioners is granted something like a medieval fiefdom over his third of the county.
McGehee »
27 September 2009 · 1:35 pm
It appears to be one of those archaic held-over job titles that now means “chief deputy.”
I seem to recall Sacramento County had an undersheriff when I lived there, while Coweta County appears not to. The only other state I’ve ever lived in is Alaska, which has no sheriffs, let alone the under- variant.
CGHill »
27 September 2009 · 1:38 pm
No sheriffs? Were they all shot?
McGehee »
27 September 2009 · 5:57 pm
That wouldn’t explain why Alaska also has no deputies.
But seriously… The Frosty Founders decided the county model that was extant (at the time) in all of the other 48 (at the time) states wouldn’t work for Alaska, so all of the functions normally associated with county governance are performed by the state. Where a sheriff might otherwise be expected, Alaskans have the State Troopers.
There’s only one non-city government I know of that operates its own police department, and that’s the North Slope Borough. In the mid-1990s a group tried to split off a piece of the borough that includes Fairbanks, and part of their proposal included a sheriff’s department — which led to opponents calling the proposed new borough “Justus Township North.”
So, I suspect that if a sheriff did turn up in Alaska, getting shot might be a legitimate concern.