Grand jurors assemble this morning to begin an investigation of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
"This is a win for the county of Tulsa," said Marq Lewis, organizer of We The People Oklahoma, the activist group that began the petition drive calling for the grand jury. "This is a win for the citizens. I mean, hope. Anything is possible. This is what we have done. This is what we kept pushing our message for."
The petition lists 20 areas of interest, including discrepancies in volunteer deputies' training records.
"Sheriff Glanz was well aware of the issues with Bob Bates' training, inappropriate behavior and enhanced risk that Mr. Bates posed to the public, yet, as the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office admits, Sheriff Glanz took no action," said Dan Smolen, the attorney for the family of the man killed by former volunteer deputy Robert Bates.
Bates donated thousands of dollars in cash and equipment to the sheriff. Part of the petition asks jurors to look into how such donations affected the treatment of reserve deputies. Other areas of inquiry include the safety of undercover operations and Glanz’s compliance with the state’s Open Records Act.
The grand jury convenes at 9 a.m. in District Judge Rebecca Nightingale's courtroom.
