Tulsa County taxpayers are on the hook for more than $500,000 as officials continue to settle lawsuits and amass legal fees involving the 2015 shooting of an unarmed black man by an ex-sheriff's deputy.
An analysis by the Tulsa World found that the county topped $550,000 in public costs after settling this week with a former sheriff's deputy who claimed he was wrongfully fired by then-sheriff Stanley Glanz.
Glanz left office in 2015 after being indicted for not releasing an internal report questioning the qualifications of the volunteer deputy who shot Eric Harris.
The ex-deputy, Robert Bates, is serving a four-year sentence for second-degree manslaughter. After Bates fatally shot Eric Harris, several sheriff's office employees claimed they were fired or forced to resign as fallout from the shooting grew.