Blog Archives

The Dan Sullivan Disgrace & Golden Hammock

6/30/2021

During A Saturday radio interview With OKC radio host, Scott Mitchell; Terrill talked about “reprehensible conduct” taking place at the Capitol involving House members, issues involving House members having sex with staffers and House members working on the House floor while drinking vodka and impaired voting.

“More than half-a-dozen members partake of a drink in late night sessions. Some have come back impaired after a late dinner – something that is specifically prohibited by House rules. Those found guilty of habitual drunkenness can be impeached,” noted Terrill.

Continued Terrill on the Scott Mitchell Show: “How about House members? Our majority floor leader Dan Sullivan who had sex, an extra-marital affair with his chief judiciary staffer, his chief attorney when he was chair of the judiciary committee before he became the majority floor leader and then subsequently arranged for her to have a job, ultimately on the state payroll regulating insurance companies.”

Terrill would later confirm with Red Dirt Report that the staffer who allegedly benefitted was a Tulsa attorney named Melanie Pouncey.

Pouncey, explained Terrill, was chief legal counsel to the judiciary committee when Sullivan was chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

“Dan Sullivan set her up with a job at the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. Then he cut a deal with (former Insurance Commissioner) Kim Holland, which explains why Sullivan was one of three Republicans to endorse Holland over Doak,” said Terrill.

Terrill said Sullivan then moved off the Judiciary Committee and became chair of the Economic Development Committee, all the while he was allegedly having the affair.

Dan Sullivan and Janet Sullivan have since divorced and he is now reportedly married to Pouncey, who had become pregnant.

And after the House leadership caught wind of Sullivan’s behavior, then-Speaker Chris Benge made sure that fraternization with a staff member was a big no-no. So, technically, Sullivan didn’t break any rules and the story was never picked up by the media.

Eventually, Speaker Kris Steele & his team were leveraged out of power. Dan Sullivan sought an opening to lead the Grand River Dam Authority, and was eventually named to that post. He spent the next several years in that cushy appointment.

The Judge Who Used Sex Toys In Court

6/29/2021

BRISTOW – Former Creek County Judge Donald Thompson was led from a courtroom in handcuffs in August of 2006, to immediately begin serving a four-year prison term for indecent exposure.

District Judge Charles Allen McCall formally sentenced Thompson to the maximum prison term – four one-year terms, all to be served consecutively.

In doing so, McCall rejected requests from Thompson’s Tulsa attorneys, Clark Brewster and Rob Nigh, that the retired judge be given a suspended sentence or that the four terms be concurrent, in essence a one-year prison term.

A jury on June 29 convicted Thompson of four felony counts of indecent exposure after he was accused of exposing himself by using a penis pump to masturbate during trials in Sapulpa.

The jury recommended a $10,000 fine and a one-year prison term on each of the convictions.

McCall also denied a request from defense attorneys that Thompson remain free on bail while his appeals are heard.

The judge ordered Thompson to be taken into custody immediately after the hearing, although he allowed him about 20 minutes to visit with his family and say his goodbyes.
This began a downward spiral of the ex-judge’s life, and several arrests for drug possession, driving without a valid license, and assorted other misconducts.

State Auditor Jeff McMahan Goes To Prison

6/28/2021

The Daily Oklahoman posted coverage of the McMahan scandal. Here is an exerpt:

Jeff McMahan was sentenced to eight years and a month for taking bribes from a southeast Oklahoma businessman. Wife, Lori McMahan, was sentenced to six years and six months on related charges.

“I am saddened when the political process is corrupted. Seeing people imprisoned generates mixed prosecutorial emotions,” U.S. Attorney Sheldon J. Sperling said Friday.

Jeff McMahan, a Democrat, was accused of showing favoritism as auditor to businessman Steve Phipps in exchange for cash, jewelry, campaign contributions, fishing trips, and trips to places like New Orleans and Boston.

The former state official was convicted of three felony counts June 14. He resigned two days later.

Sperling said after the sentencing that the McMahans were convicted of conspiracy to commit “dishonest public service mail fraud” and of racketeering through illicit interstate travel.

The charges stemmed from an investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the state Ethics Commission. Sperling said Friday he was “impressed” the prosecution led to legal reform.

"The state auditor’s office no longer has authority over abstract companies,” he said. "A huge temptation towards corruption has been statutorily removed.”

Read The Oklahoman’s Full account at: http://newsok.com/

OKGOP State Chairman, Gary Jones; posted this assessment:

>Anatomy of a Scandal

July 29, 2007

By Gary Jones
OKGOP Chairman

Larry Witt and Steve Phipps conspired to funnel corporate contributions into the 2002 State Auditor campaign of Jeff McMahan. FBI affidavits and witnesses have testified that such money was paid to them for the purpose making said contributions. Estimated totals range from $75,000-$100,000. These funds made up a large portion of McMahan’s total contributions and had a significant impact on the election results.
Steve Phipps met on numerous occasions in the office of the State Auditor with legislators including Mike Mass to discuss and arrange for state funds to be funneled into a scam non-profit foundation, Rural Development Foundation, located in an abstract company owned by Phipps and Gene Stripe in Antlers, Oklahoma. Both Mass and Phipps have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are now waiting sentencing to connection to the scheme.
After denying for months McMahan admitted to going on fishing and gambling trips paid for by Phipps. Such trips would constitute something of value received by an individual regulated by McMahan and his office and may be grounds for removal from office.
Duane Smith from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has reported that he was called into a meeting with the State Auditor Jeff McMahan, Mike Mass and Steve Phipps. During the meeting Smith said he was advised that Mass had put wording in the agency appropriation bill to funnel funds to a trust authority setup by Phipps to aid in selling water from Lake Eufaula. McMahan advised Smith to help get that done and he would make the audit look clean. In 2006 McMahan asked the governor to perform an audit on OFRW. The audit failed to reveal the connection between McMahan and Phipps the principle person being audited and also failed to disclose items which should have been reported and in effect provided the cover-up McMahan had promised.
Larry Witt (Ry-son Oil) is seeking to purchase shares in several abstract companies owned by Steve Phipps. The sale of Phipps’ shares can not take place without approval of Jeff McMahan, State Auditor.
Witt was named in the university housing bond scandal involving Senate president Pro-Temp Mike Morgan. Morgan is also said to responsible for funneling state funds to but Stipe and Phipps’ train that is sitting and rusting in Guthrie.
Jeff McMahan and his office should be removed from the approval process as there exist a clear conflict of interest by McMahan in this matter.
A cause of action should be filed against Phipps, Stipe and Witt to recover state funds illegally obtained. The corporate assets of Phipps Enterprises and Corporate Finance Group should be frozen until such action has been litigated.

Senator Jim Lane's Secret Life As A Ghost Employee

6/27/2021

When Gene Stipe’s political machine imploded, several other elected officials also paid a price for their corruption. Jim Lane was one of them.

The Tulsa World said;

Ghost employee: Former state Sen. Jim E. Lane of McAlester was sentenced in 2003 to three years probation and two months home detention for his role in funneling illegal money into Walt Roberts’ unsuccessful 1998 congressional campaign. Of the more than $200,000 in illegal money that ended up in the Roberts campaign, most was tied to Stipe, but Lane was directly tied to less than $70,000. Lane’s sentence in the Roberts case came only six months after he was released from prison where he served seven months of a five-year sentence for defrauding the state as a “ghost employee.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/political-famous-then-infamous-of-past-years/article_9b276ed7-2b5a-567d-80fe-4de30fc37d6c.html

Gene Stipe Dies In Prison

6/26/2021

After 50 years at the height of political power, Gene Stipe was taken down when term limits started bringing in Republicans to state government in sufficient volume to keep an eye on the “good ol’ boys”.
The Tulsa World said;

Gene Stipe: The McAlester Democrat is served a five-year probationary sentence for federal campaign violations and perjury and is in trouble again. After having served more than 50 years in political office, Stipe allegedly continued to hatch political campaign schemes by reimbursing “straw donors” who funneled money to Democratic campaigns.

In the long run, Stipe, 81, may not be remembered so much for his recent problems, at least in his old stomping grounds in southeastern Oklahoma’s “Little Dixie,” said Keith Gaddie, political science professor at the University of Oklahoma. At his height, Stipe “was such a colorful character,” Gaddie said. Stipe fit the role of “the old-line, rural politician, the cigar-chomping country lawyer” who had a charismatic quality inside the courtroom, he said.

The Gene Stipe Machine Crumbles

6/25/2021

Code Of Silence

In the first decade of the new millennia, an old political machine crumbled under the weight of it’s own corruption. The following is a summary of the Daily Oklahoman’s reporting from the Muskogee Federal Courthouse.

Read the full coverage at the Daily Oklahoman.

MUSKOGEE — Mike Mass, once an influential state representative and a past chairman of the state Democratic Party, became Wednesday the latest crooked Oklahoma politician to be sentenced to prison.

Ex-state Rep. Mike Mass, has written a book about his turbulent years in power and disgrace.

A judge ordered Mass to spend two years in federal prison for taking kickbacks to divert taxpayer money to a gaming machine company and a dog food manufacturing company. A prosecutor said Mass, 57, of Wilburton, has a gambling addiction and left his family destitute. The judge ordered Mass to get treatment, if necessary, and to stay out of casinos while on supervision after his release.

Businessman Steve Phipps was sentenced Wednesday to one year and one day in federal prison for paying kickbacks to Mass and two other legislators. Phipps’ companies illegally received almost $2.8 million and he agreed to pay legislators 10 percent in kickbacks. Both Mass and Phipps had faced up to five years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Ronald White showed leniency to Phipps for his “extraordinary” cooperation in an ongoing federal probe of political corruption. The judge said the corrupt things Phipps testified about doing “made my skin crawl.” Phipps said, “I am ashamed of my conduct. I have tarnished the political process … I have tried to make amends.”

The judge ordered Phipps and Mass to together pay $279,258 in restitution to the state of Oklahoma. Phipps, 54, of Kiowa also must pay a $50,000 fine.

Phipps’ supporters included Oklahoma country singer Reba McEntire. The two were classmates in Kiowa schools, beginning in the first grade. "It is not often that people admit their mistakes. It is less often they do something to rectify the problem. Steve Phipps will always be my friend,” she wrote the judge May 17.

Testimony key in federal case

Phipps pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2007, admitting then he paid kickbacks to three legislators. He also has admitted other wrongdoing, including using straw donors to give excessive contributions to the state auditor’s race and to other campaigns. He was not charged further under a plea agreement with prosecutors that required him to cooperate.

Phipps’ testimony was considered crucial to the conviction of former state Auditor Jeff McMahan. His cooperation also led to criminal and civil proceedings against former state Sen. Gene Stipe and a guilty plea in a criminal case against Stipe’s younger brother, Francis.

"Prince of Darkness,”

In court papers, Phipps’ attorney described him as a business partner and protégé of the "Prince of Darkness,” Gene Stipe. The defense attorney wrote Phipps refused to become one of Stipe’s "fall guys.” Prosecutors said Phipps is one of the few individuals from southeast Oklahoma "who has had the wherewithal to break an apparent ‘code of silence.’” Mass also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2007. Randall Erwin, a second former state representative implicated in the kickback plot, was acquitted at trial in April. Jerry Hefner, the third former state representative allegedly involved, was never charged. Prosecutors would not comment Wednesday about Hefner. Prosecutors said Mass "received the bulk of the $279,258 in kickbacks paid for financial favoritism.”

The judge also showed leniency to Phipps because he suffers from a rare medical condition that would be difficult for prison officials to treat long. A urologist reported Phipps might not survive prison. The judge also said he was concerned Phipps’ companies would fail and his employees lose their jobs if he was in prison for long.

After the sentencing, Phipps’ attorney, Dan Webber, said, "Steve is a strong person. I believe he will get through it. He and his wife will do whatever it takes to keep those businesses open.” Phipps sought probation and a fine.

Prosecutor Prosecutes Himself

6/24/2021

Occasionally an elected official gets caught. But in this case the criminal comes forward on his own. Paul Anderson did just this, in 2002.

The Tulsa World said;

In Payne County, District Attorney Paul Anderson shocked the legal profession in 2002 when he admitted embezzling $84,000 over five years. He pleaded guilty to three counts of embezzlement and was sentenced to two years in prison. He served less than nine months but made full restitution.

Fallin's Scandalous Affair

6/23/2021

Lt. Gov’s bodyguard quits amid allegations of affair

December 8, 1998 AP

Trooper Greg Allen

OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma Highway Patrol bodyguard for Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin has resigned after admitting ”unprofessional conduct” amid allegations by her estranged husband that she had an affair with a bodyguard.

Mrs. Fallin, a Republican who was elected to a second term in 1996, filed for divorce a few weeks after the election. At a hearing, Fallin’s attorney raised an allegation about the lieutenant governor having an affair with an unidentified bodyguard.

In a statement Monday, Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks said rumors surfaced in early September about ”alleged unprofessional conduct between a member of the executive security detail and the lieutenant governor.”

The statement said the trooper first denied the allegations, but was again questioned late last month and ”admitted to unprofessional conduct and was permitted to resign. That resignation was accepted last week. His admission did not indicate that sexual activity was involved.”

The Lost Ogle posted this photo of Mary Fallin’s
first marriage being planned at
Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion

The trooper was not identified and Ricks was reported unavailable for further discussion of the matter.

Lana Tyree, Mrs. Fallin’s attorney, later issued a statement saying the lieutenant governor would have no comment.

”Out of legitimate concern for the privacy and welfare of her minor children through the Christmas holidays, Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin, having denied the allegations, will not respond to or debate these issues in the media and will make no further public comment,” the statement said. Mrs. Fallin, 43, and her husband have two children, ages 11 and 8.

In court, Mrs. Fallin had said the allegations of an affair with a bodyguard were a rumor started by her husband. At last week’s hearing, District Judge Jerry Bass prevented Fallin’s attorney from pursuing questions about an alleged affair.

In response to a question from his wife’s attorney, Mr. Fallin said he had hired a private investigator to follow her.

Another hearing in the divorce case is set for next Monday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sex scandal roils Oklahoma politics:

Official accused of having affair with trooper

Gov. Keating Accused of Hypocrisy

December 12, 1998 Kansas City Star (MO)
TULSA, Okla. – The debate over precisely what constitutes sexual relations has spread from the nation’s capital to this heartland state, where the lieutenant governor is accused of an improper relationship with a state trooper.
The situation has Republican Gov. Frank A. Keating battling partisan charges of hypocrisy for refusing to publicly criticize his second-in-command, Mary Fallin, while condemning President Clinton’s conduct with Monica Lewinsky as “outrageous” and calling for Clinton’s resignation.
“We have to handle this fairly and professionally and in a nonpartisan fashion, fully independent of what is happening nationally,” Keating said in an interview. “We can’t let the winds of the Washington scandal blow us to the right or left. ”
The governor added that there was no evidence that sexual intercourse had taken place between Fallin and Greg Allen, a member of her security detail. Keating has nonetheless ordered the state Public Safety Commissioner to leave “no stone unturned” in an official review.
Fallin and Allen – who resigned after acknowledging that he engaged in “unprofessional conduct” – have denied a sexual relationship.
However, Allen admitted that on more than one occasion he had held Fallin’s hand and had comforted her as she wept on his shoulder over her troubled marriage.
He also said that they had kissed – “but merely as you would kiss a friend,” explained his attorney Gary James. For that, James said, Allen initially thought it was best to resign. Allen, who is married, is now asking for his job back.
The firestorm erupted Dec. 4 when Fallin, 43, considered an up-and-coming Republican political figure, announced that she was seeking a divorce. At a sensational court hearing that day, she accused her husband of 14 years of abusing her, of using drugs and of hiring a private investigator to follow her. Joseph Fallin, a dentist, denied the abuse and drugs but admitted hiring the investigator.
“This is about you having an affair with one of your bodyguards, isn’t it?,” Joseph Fallin’s attorney, Bill Liebel, asked Mary Fallin in open court. “That was a rumor started by my husband,” she responded.
The judge quickly called a recess and then barred further reference to the matter. But the cat was out of the bag. A few days later, Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks confirmed that Allen had been “permitted to resign,” although the trooper had denied that any “sexual activity” had occurred.
“In all honesty, none of us wanted to know any details,” Ricks said in an interview. “Who wants to go into this salacious area? ” Keating, who is chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association and who has presidential aspirations, is among those who would rather not be dealing with this. But state Democrats seized on the scandal to attack Keating, while avoiding any judgment of Fallin and her marital woes.
“He is a leading critic of the president, and what he is practicing nationally he is not practicing locally,” said Pat Hall, executive director of the state Democratic Party.
A spokesman for Keating responded that the governor’s judgments about Clinton were made after the president admitted an improper relationship with Lewinsky.

Competing Nominees For Corporation Commission

6/22/2021

Charles R. Nesbitt

Lame Duck Appointee Attempt:

Since 1990, the Republicans controlled the commission when they held 2 of the 3 seats. When Commissioner JC Watts was elected to congress in November of 1994, the lame duck governor, David Walters; sought to give the Democrats control of the Commission by appointing former state attorney general Charles Nesbitt as a temporary successor to JC Watts. Gov. Elect, Frank Keating intended to name Ed Apple to the temporary post. The case ended up being argued before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Oklahoma’s governor is sworn in a week after the US Congress swears in their members to a new term.

The Daily Oklahoman recapped the drama this way…

A brief accompanying Nesbitt’s petition claims Watts’ commission seat “was vacant at the latest on Jan. 3, the date of commencement of the congressional term for which Commissioner Watts was elected,” thus allowing Walters to appoint a replacement. Watts says he did not officially resign his commission seat until Jan. 9, after Keating became governor and gained the right to appoint Apple.
“This is a political controversy,” Nesbitt charged. “The Republican Party undertook a power play. They did a real sloppy job of it, but it’s for the Supreme Court to decide whether it was effective enough,” he said.
Keating, Apple and Watts are Republicans, while Walters and Nesbitt, who served as energy secretary in Walters’ Cabinet, are Democrats.
Watts has said that partisan politics did not motivate him to delay his commission resignation. Watts said he announced months ago that if elected to Congress, he would remain on the commission until whoever was elected as the new governor could appoint his successor.
Watts and Commissioner Bob Anthony on Jan. 6 approved a resolution recognizing Keating’s appointee as the rightful new commissioner. Nesbitt said that resolution is “invalid” and “illegal. ” “As far as the corporation commission is concerned, Mr. Apple is our duly appointed commissioner,” commission General Administrator Jay Edwards said Tuesday. “Unless the courts turn that around, that’s the way we’ll continue to perform. ” Since being sworn in Jan. 9, Apple has been participating in commission hearings and voting on and signing orders along with Anthony and commission Chairman Cody Graves.

Corporation Commission Bribes

6/21/2021

The watchdogs over the state-sanctioned monopolies are called “Corporation Commissioners”. But too often they become cozy with the very corporations they are supposed to be watching.

The Tulsa World said;

Bribery scandal: Another Tulsan, Bob Hopkins, a former state corporation commissioner who represented Tulsa County for 28 years in the state Legislature, was convicted in 1994 of accepting a $10,000 bribe from a Southwestern Bell attorney. In return, Hopkins had voted to allow the telephone company to use $30 million in overcharges. Hopkins died in 1997 at age 68.

Lame Duck Appointee Attempt:

Since 1990, the Republicans controlled he commission when they 2 of the 3 seats on the Corporation Commission. When Commissioner JC Watts was elected to congress in November of 1994, the lame duck governor, David Walters; sought to give the Democrats control of the Commission by appointing former state attorney general Charles Nesbitt as a temporary successor to JC Watts. Gov. Elect, Frank Keating intended to name Ed Apple to the temporary post. The case ended up being argued before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Oklahoma’s governor is sworn in a week after the US Congress swears in their members to a new term.

The Daily Oklahoman recapped the drama this way…

A brief accompanying Nesbitt’s petition claims Watts’ commission seat “was vacant at the latest on Jan. 3, the date of commencement of the congressional term for which Commissioner Watts was elected,” thus allowing Walters to appoint a replacement. Watts says he did not officially resign his commission seat until Jan. 9, after Keating became governor and gained the right to appoint Apple.
“This is a political controversy,” Nesbitt charged. “The Republican Party undertook a power play. They did a real sloppy job of it, but it’s for the Supreme Court to decide whether it was effective enough,” he said.
Keating, Apple and Watts are Republicans, while Walters and Nesbitt, who served as energy secretary in Walters’ Cabinet, are Democrats.
Watts has said that partisan politics did not motivate him to delay his commission resignation. Watts said he announced months ago that if elected to Congress, he would remain on the commission until whoever was elected as the new governor could appoint his successor.
Watts and Commissioner Bob Anthony on Jan. 6 approved a resolution recognizing Keating’s appointee as the rightful new commissioner. Nesbitt said that resolution is “invalid” and “illegal. ” “As far as the corporation commission is concerned, Mr. Apple is our duly appointed commissioner,” commission General Administrator Jay Edwards said Tuesday. “Unless the courts turn that around, that’s the way we’ll continue to perform. ” Since being sworn in Jan. 9, Apple has been participating in commission hearings and voting on and signing orders along with Anthony and commission Chairman Cody Graves.

FRONT PAGE • OKLAHOMA NEWS • EDITORIAL • SOONER ISSUES • STATE GROUPS • SOONER ANALYSTS • LAWMAKER'S JOURNAL • NATION • NATIONAL COMMENTARY • CARTOONS •

918 . 928 . 7776

SoonerPolitics.org is committed to informing & mobilizing conservative Oklahomans for civic reform & restored liberty. We seeks to utilize the efforts of all cooperative facets of the Conservative movement... Content of the diverse columns are solely at the discretion of the dozens of websites who create the content. David Van Risseghem is the founder of this platform.
Sooner Politics News is a platform, not a media site. All our bloggers get their feeds promoted regardless of content. As soon as We suppress or delete even one posting, we become an endorser of whatever We didn't censor..The publisher doesn't (and could not) logically agree with all the content, so we would not expect any rational reader to agree, either. What we do hope, is that readers will think for themselves, and at least be better informed of the issues, events, and values that our citizen journalists work hard to provide for free.. We automate much of the tasks so that our sources' content gets as much exposure as possible. We encourage constructive discussion & debate. The solution is more free speech, not less.