In light of recent events, it would seem that recent efforts by Oklahoma State Representative Jason Murphey to allow college students (and I assume any others) over 21 and with a concealed carry permit to carry on college campuses might be welcomed. The House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee passed the bill 14-2. It is opposed by Rep. Paul Roan.

Guess the party affiliations of Murphey and Roan.

Okay, folks, since this issue has come close to home this last couple weeks, weigh in with your comments.

The Tulsa World has the story.

I’m noticing a lot less reliable service from AT&T wireless than I did when it was Cingular. It’s good to see they are working somewhere though:

The signs are courtesy of Billboard Liberation Front. Hat Tip: Boing Boing.

First, happy leap year! Pity those poor kids born and couples married today.

Just a quick post to mention that I have installed a new plugin that will allow you to print posts and pages on the site. I had never really noticed it before, but my boss blogging platform (that would be WordPress) does not include print-friendly options. I had a request by someone experiencing problems with their Internet to fax a couple of my posts today, and I realized the problem. So, now each post includes a “Print this Post” link at the top (to the right of the author and date). Regular pages also have a print option at the top. They take you to a handy-dandy print-friendly version. It even prints at the bottom of the page a list of the URLs linked to in the article. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. I can’t take credit though. Props to lesterchan.net for the WP-Print Plugin.

Also, I can configure it to print comments or not. Right now, it does not print comments. Is that how you, my wonderful readers, prefer, or would you rather I set it the other way? Leave comments, and I will decide.

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***[Original Breaking Report]***

I just returned from the Rogers County courthouse, where Judge Smith, citing the potential threat to the community, set Tywone Park’s bond at $750,000 (plus restrictions that could include instructions to avoid certain individuals and the RSU campus).

***[Follow-Up Report Based Upon My Notes]***
Every Effort Has Been Taken Ensure Accuracy. I Reserve the Right to Modify Based Upon Transcripts.

At 11:40 AM today, Tywone Parks’ bond hearing commenced before Judge L. Joe Smith in Division IV of Rogers County Court. Parks had been brought into the courtroom a few minutes before, wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles. As I waited in the hallway for the hearing to begin, I saw RSU President, Joe Wiley, and RSU Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance, Tom Volturo, and some other RSU folks I recognized, though I do not recall their names. They all attended the bond hearing, after a pre-hearing confab with the Assistant D.A. in the law library.

In the bond hearing for the case of The State of Oklahoma v. Tywone Parks, the state was represented by First Assistant District Attorney Ray Hasselman, and Parks was represented by Jack Zanerhaft.

Judge Smith noted that Parks was arrested on a warrant issued by Judge Steidley, who stipulated that no bond would be set without a hearing.

Testimony was given by Claremore Police inspector John Singer. It was consistent with what was stated in protective orders filed against Parks and reported elsewhere.

A few items testified by Inspector Singer:

• Parks admitted to severing the dog’s head and leaving it on a doorstep.
• The rest of the dog, which was partially skinned, was recovered near Oologah Lake based upon Parks’ directions to it.
• Police recovered a splitting maul, which Parks stated he had used to decapitate the dog, from Parks’ apartment with Parks’ consent.
• Parks text-messaged an associate asking if he knew where to hide a body. Thinking it was a joke, the individual replied, “How big?” Parks replied that it was the size of a small boy.
• Singer stated on cross examination that the dog in question was a full-grown Labrador retriever and that it would be consistent with the size of a small boy.
• Police recovered three weapons, at least two loaded, from Parks’ apartment and vehicle. There was one spent shell casing found on the floor of Parks’ apartment.
• Parks’ writings referenced an “RSU Massacre,” wherein he wrote about entering Preparatory Hall on the RSU campus and shooting eight people.
• Parks admitted to police that he has struggled with violent thoughts and homicidal desires since he was a small child, and that he has had urges, when passing a random woman at Wal-Mart, to stab her.
• In one of Parks’ writings from Jan. 27, 2008, he records a desire, upon seeing a 12-year-old girl at Warehouse Market, to throw her in his trunk, take her home, and rape her for days.
• Parks admitted a history of torturing animals.

The defense argued:

• The police had no evidence, other than Parks’ admission, that he had fired the weapons recovered from his apartment.
• The mental professionals who examined Parks’ determined that he should undergo outpatient treatment.
• Parks has no record of violence.
• Parks is a good student with family support and a connection to the community and that he had, to the police’s knowledge, not acted on his writings.

Both the State and the Defense argued that the subject of bond hinged on the question of whether Parks is a threat to the community. The State argued that Parks poses a great potential threat; the Defense argued that he is no threat.

Judge Smith asked if the State had a requested bond amount, to which D.A. Hasselman stated that due to the potential threat to the community and that the statutes allow Parks to be held without bond, that was the State’s request. Judge Smith informed the D.A. that he has a belief that only defendants charged with first-degree murder deserve to be held without bond and that he would be setting a bond at the hearing. The D.A. then requested a bond of $750,000 plus certain restrictions. The Defense, citing the U.S. and Oklahoma Constitutions, argued that that bond amount was excessive and unfair. The Defense asked for a “reasonable bond” of $5,000, stipulating certain conditions.

Judge Smith stated that this case is one of the most concerning set of allegations he has seen in his 30-year career, and that though the bond amount is high, he believes it is justified due to the potential threat posed to the community by Parks. He then set the bond amount at $750,000 cash or property plus certain restrictions to be set by him if Parks can come up with the bond. The judge also indicated that he intends to accelerate the case and specially set the preliminary hearing or sounding docket. He also stated that he will allow the Defense to re-urge its motion for a lower bond as the case progresses and charges are finally filed. He further directed that charges, or good cause as to why they are not, should be filed before the next hearing, which is before Judge Smith at 9:00 AM, March 6, 2008. Parks was then remanded to the custody of Rogers County Sheriff’s Department in lieu of bond.

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UPDATES IN RED

But that’s old news, which has not been reported anywhere that I can find. In fact, on February 22, the Claremore Daily Progress quotes Claremore Police Department Assistant Chief Stan Brown as saying:

“This person is not under arrest — he never was.”

Here are the incident reports from Claremore Police Department.

The first report, dated 2/18/2008, indicates the initial call regarding the decapitated dog’s head at Deer Run Apartments at 22:00 (10:00 PM). The second report, dated 2/19/2008, states that the case was cleared by arrest at 18:06 (6:06 PM). I emailed Assistant Chief Brown and he provides the following clarification:

The transporting officer give [sic] dispatch the wrong code and she entered it on the card that way. … The officer’s report for this situation reflect [sic] that subject Parks was detained specifically for a mental health evaluation.

From everything I hear about Assistant Chief Brown, he is a stand-up guy, and he has been responsive and helpful in regards to my inquiries. I’ll buy his clarification.

Parks was taken to Grand Lake Mental Health for observation. He has since been released and, as of 2/22/2008, is in Rogers County jail with a charge of Planning to Perform Act of Death. I am researching exactly what that charge indicates. Assistant Chief Brown informs me that Parks was booked into Rogers County jail on 2/22/2008 on an arrest warrant for violation of: Devising a plan to cause serious bodily injury or death in violation of 21 O.S. 1378(c):

C. Any person who shall devise any plan, scheme or program of action to cause serious bodily harm or death of another person with intent to perform such malicious act of violence, whether alone or by conspiring with others, shall be guilty of a felony, punishable upon conviction thereof by imprisonment for a period of not more than ten (10) years.

I know, I know. Mentioning Ann Coulter just confirms my status as a right-wing nutjob, but when the gal’s right, she’s right. After brilliant analysis, she concludes:

What a bizarre coincidence that a few years after the most draconian campaign-finance laws were imposed via McCain-Feingold, our two front-runners happen to be the media’s picks! It’s uncanny — almost as if by design! (Can I stop now, or do you people get sarcasm?)

By prohibiting speech by anyone else, the campaign-finance laws have vastly magnified the power of the media — which, by the way, are wholly exempt from speech restrictions under campaign-finance laws. The New York Times doesn’t have to buy ad time to promote a politician; it just has to call McCain a “maverick” 1 billion times a year.

It is because of campaign-finance laws like McCain-Feingold that big men don’t run for office anymore. Little men do. And John McCain is the head homunculus.

This underscores the necessity of electing more than a president. We must elect people to Congress who will deal with and repeal this nonsense. The rest of your ballot has always been important, but it is ever so important this year.

You want Reagan back? Restore the right to free speech, and you will have created the conditions that allowed Reagan to run.

As a conservative who is not so sure about the wisdom of some tort reform efforts, I was thrilled to see the Denver Post report that that federal judge Richard Matsch (remember him from the Timothy McVeigh trial?)

recently got so infuriated by the conduct of two highly regarded trial attorneys that he overturned a jury’s $51 million verdict, then ordered the lawyers to pay the fees and costs of the opposing lawyers, a sum that could total several million dollars.

There are good lawyers around (if you look really hard), but the bulk (as necessary as they are) understand one thing: Money. And it’s almost always other people’s money. Lawyers love their fees, and they love being awarded fees in judgments. But having to pay another party’s fees? Unheard of. Therefore, I’m sure these lawyers are sitting up and taking notice.

And keep in mind, lawyers have a leg up in that if one chooses to be frivolous on his own behalf, he has free access to the system because he’s not racking up huge fees when he works for himself, yet if he wins, he can be reimbursed huge fees for his work on his own behalf. Civilians don’t get to charge $250 an hour for the time they took to prepare their responses and work with their counsel. Everything a bad apple attorney files must be answered in some manner, costing his opposition lots and lots of money (even if they are in the right).

As for tort reform, we all pay the price for huge verdicts. However, we all have a right–and rightly so–to sue for damages when companies make dangerous products or a professional exhibits gross negligence. It can sometimes be attractive to think about limiting awards in tort cases, but any reform that is to be done must allow for people to be made whole and for punitive damages that are indeed punitive. It’s a big issue, and both parties should tread carefully.

But this gets me to the nub of the issue. When the legal community gets better about self-regulation and judges throw out obviously frivolous suits, like Judge Matsch did in this case, it may help to stop knee-jerk tort reform overreactions.

But how groundbreaking is Matsch’s ruling?

“In 42 years of litigation, I’ve never seen a judge set aside a verdict, then award fees to opposing counsel,” said local attorney Robert Miller, of Perkins Coie LLP. “There are times when a verdict is set aside, and times when lawyers are sanctioned. But I’ve never heard of them happening in one case.

“Judge Matsch does some things that are out there, but he’s usually right. Very infrequently is he reversed on appeal.”

And such was this case:

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals … affirmed Matsch’s decision to overturn the verdict.

Kudos to Judge Matsch. Here’s hoping others will follow his lead.

—

For some enlightening fiction on the tort issues, I highly recommend John Grisham’s The King of Torts and The Appeal.

UDATES IN RED

I initially posted a PDF of the pages from the protective order petitions filed in this matter. I was contacted by a purported friend of the young women in question and told that they were hurt by having the documents and their names posted online. While the documents are public records which anyone can get at the Rogers County Court Clerk’s office, I have no desire to add any further hurt or trauma to these young ladies’ lives. Therefore, I have redacted the only name I had mentioned from this post and removed the original PDF of the whole scanned pages and replaced it with a PDF that shows just the ladies’ narratives of why they believed they were justified in receiving an emergency protective order. They suffice to document my posts and research.

In a previous post, I noted that Tywone Parks had been on the receiving end of three emergency protective orders applied for and granted last week. I have been to the courthouse this morning to get copies. Protective order applications are basic fill-in-the-blank and tick-box forms, so I have not scanned the entire documents. There is, however, a space for the applicant to describe the incidents which led them to apply for the protective order against the defendant. I have scanned those pages of the applications.

According to the three young ladies who applied for and received emergency protective orders, Tywone Parks:

• threatened to harm his ex-girlfriend
• stated that all of his ex-girlfriends are dead
• stated that he knows where to hide bodies
• stated that all women need to be taught a lesson
• threatened suicide
• decapitated a dog and left the head on a doorstep and blood on a door
• has confessed to other animal mutilations
• stated that he wanted to decapitate an individual, store her head in his freezer, and feed her to her sisters
• has weapons, namely rifles, shotguns, pistols, and an axe
• has asked fraternity brothers where he can hide bodies
• wrote on his apartments wall that “all women are whores and need to be taught a lesson”
• told individuals to live each day as if it were their last
• keeps track of certain individuals’ schedules
• can see into a certain individual’s bedroom

Yet, the RSU lockdown was just a “precaution” and the incident may have been predicated on “embellished” information? Something doesn’t add up.

Also, RSU spokesman Brent Ortolani was quoted int he Progress as saying

the student in question was never on campus.

That statement is at odds with the application for protective order filed by [Redacted by Request], who states that Mr. Parks was on campus (and gave her a hug) at approximately 2 PM, Monday, Feb. 18. I have emailed Mr. Ortolani asking him to clarify his statement. I will post any response I receive here.

Read it all for yourself here:

Tywone Parks Protective Order Narratives (PDF)

OK, his bit on SNL was funny. I do have to give him that.

Normally, I pick up on those things.

We’ll see if this stays up:

UPDATES IN RED

Okay, I have had my ear to the ground for information on this since I first reported the incident about the RSU lockdown yesterday. I have some information that I want to confirm; however, the individual in the Records Division at Claremore Police Department told me today that the police report for the incident would not be released because of HIPAA requirements related to the mental health issues involved.

I have been advised that HIPAA will allow the police to redact certain information, but the police report remains a public record and should be made available. I have requested a redacted version from the police. I will see how that goes Monday.

Now, as for the incident itself. I am getting inquiries. I am receiving information. However, the police will not confirm the identity of the person who is at the center of the investigation. And, according to a story in today’s Claremore Progress, Claremore Assistant Chief of Police, Stan Brown, says that the information that led to the lockdown might have been embellished.

“Young people being young people, information about what did or didn’t happen just flew — and it’s not uncommon for that information to get embellished in the process,” Brown said.

Well, the public is not getting to determine whether the information was embellished or not, as the information is not being released. This situation is not dissimilar to the recent incident, largely reported in the Oologah Lake Leader, when mental patient Randy Thweatt walked away from his group’s day trip to Oologah Lake. In that case, the escape was not reported to local authorities or the public for two weeks, and then only due to the watchful eyes of John Wylie at the Leader. (The Leader does not archive its stories online, so here’s a link to the KOTV story about it.)

I am not alleging that RSU did not notify the proper authorities. I think it’s plain that the university did. What is at issue here is whether the public has a right to know of a threat in a community and on a campus, or whether some requirement in the HIPAA law keeps every bit of the incident report private. Taken to its logical extreme, we could all keep our public records private by alleging that we’re nuts or acting crazy when reports and investigations happen.

I submit that when there is enough of a threat to put a state university campus on lockdown (according to the RSU Campus Emergency Plan, there is either “lockdown” or “modified lockdown,” the former being more severe), the public deserves to know the nature of the threat–even if it is just “precautionary” and as a result of “embellished” information.

However, since the authorities will not (or believe they cannot) inform the public, I will share the information that I have received. And, I preface this with the disclaimer that I have done my best to confirm the information, though I regret any errors I may make. I will correct any and all as soon as I get better information.

Now, the identity of the individual taken for evaluation is Tywone Parks. An RSU alumnus, Parks still has many friends and acquaintances who are regularly on the RSU campus. A Google search shows that Parks seems to have been a good student and involved with many campus groups. Friends on Xanga say nice things about him.

However, an image hosted on Facebook also shows this:

I will be the first to say that owning and holding a gun does not make one a threat. However, someone who was taken to a mental facility for evaluation having access to weapons does concern me and, I believe, the public. Combine that with reports of other issues, and people can get scared. Scared people panic. When people panic, they overreact. A little bit of information can allay the situation.

So, for everyone’s benefit, authorities needs to make some things public, and these issues can be addressed without revealing anything that would put them at odds with HIPAA. They include:

• Was a severed dog’s head left on someone’s doorstep or not?
• Was a hit list found or not?
• Did RSU’s administration advise individuals on campus not to attend meetings this week and to reschedule prescheduled meetings and weekly events or not?
• Did RSU employ its recently announced Emergency Notification System or not? If not, why? According to Tulsa’s FOX23:

…in this case it was not used because there was never an on-campus threat.

• Was a search warrant issued and executed or not?
• Was a cache of weapons found or not? Again, according to FOX23:

Police say the student was taken into custody at his off-campus apartment. Inside, they found weapons and journal entries that prompted police to start an investigation.

“I will tell you that what was found at the scene is considered disturbing, but at this point we only consider it a mental health issue”, said Assistant Chief Stan Brown with the Claremore Police Department.

What I can say for sure is that three individuals asked for and received emergency protective orders against Tywone Parks Wednesday, and Deer Run apartments filed forcible entry and detainer against him yesterday.

That’s the information I have right now. One more personal comment:

Whatever threat existed earlier this week has been compounded by a lack of communication and transparency by authorities at RSU and Claremore PD. It’s nothing new for the Wiley administration at RSU (again, we look forward to the forthcoming Rice administration), but I have always believed Claremore police to be a better organization than that. Releasing too little information because of a misunderstanding of HIPAA is just as bad as releasing too much personal medical information.

Further, I sayeth not (for right now). Updates will be forthcoming as I have new info.