By KWGS News
Tulsa, OK – Acting United States Attorney Thomas Scott Woodward announced today that a second
former City of Tulsa Public Works official has been sentenced to prison this week.
Larry Wayne Baker, age 53, formerly the Design Engineering Manager for the Public
Works Department was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terence Kern to 44 months
confinement in federal prison and was ordered to make restitution to the City of Tulsa in the
amount of $134,000. Assets forfeited by Baker in the amount of $134,000 will be restored to
the City of Tulsa.
Baker was originally charged in a Grand Jury indictment unsealed in January 2009 for
his participation in a bribery scheme involving a Tulsa public works project. Baker pled guilty
on April 9, 2009, to a charge of Bribery. Baker admitted that he paid another city employee
approximately $9,000 between November 2006 and November 2007 to influence his vote in
awarding an inspection contract. Baker is the fourth defendant to be sentenced to federal prison
in this case. All six defendants that were charged have pled guilty. The remaining two
defendants are scheduled to be sentenced over the next several months.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Clinton J. Johnson, Joseph F. Wilson and Catherine J. Depew
prosecuted the case for the government. This public corruption scandal involving the Tulsa
Public Works Department was first revealed to the public on January 22, 2009, when the
federal indictments were unsealed and an announcement was made at a news conference by
former U.S. Attorney David E. O=Meilia, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge James E. Finch, and
IRS Criminal Investigations Division Special Agent-in-Charge Michael P. Lahey. They
jointly announced at that time that two former managers at the City of Tulsa Public Works
Department and four area businessmen were charged by a Grand Jury for their participation
in bribery and fraud schemes involving millions of dollars intended for city streets, bridges
and other public works projects in the City of Tulsa.