Who ever said, communist Russia and China are the only countries that practice corruption by imprisoning innocent people? They probably learned it from the forty years of Republican leadership in the USA. When in Rome...
Posted: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 8:03 pm
Posted: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 8:03 pm
Updated: 10:43 pm, Wed Jan 29, 2014.
The city of Tulsa has settled for $425,000 (click here) a federal lawsuit filed by a man who was freed from prison as a result of corruption within the Tulsa Police Department, attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit confirmed Wednesday evening.
Larry Wayne Barnes Sr. was released from prison after serving 16 months of a 66-month sentence he received when he was convicted in April 2008 of two drug crimes.
While U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled in favor of the city on some issues, he found that Barnes offered sufficient evidence to create a fact dispute as to whether the city’s policymakers “can reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent to the need for further supervision” over its police officers.
Barnes had alleged that the city had notice of prior misbehavior by former Officer Jeff Henderson and other officers yet failed to take appropriate steps to supervise them.
The judge decided that the case could proceed to trial on Barnes’ malicious prosecution claim, his First Amendment retaliation claim and his negligence claims against the city.
On Wednesday, a settlement conference was held in Oklahoma City before U.S. Senior District Judge Lee West. Besides attorneys on each side of the lawsuit, city spokeswoman Michelle Allen confirmed that Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett was in attendance.
Previously, Barnes’ daughter, Larita Barnes, reached a $300,000 settlement with the city. She was convicted in April 2008 of two drug charges and was sentenced in October 2008 to 10 years in prison. She was freed July 2, 2009, as a result of a court order resulting from the police corruption investigation....
