TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A grand jury should review operations at an Oklahoma sheriff’s office that sent onto the streets a 73-year-old reserve deputy who shot and killed an unarmed and restrained suspect, a judge ruled Tuesday.
District Judge Rebecca Nightingale ordered a grand jury to convene on July 20 after denying a motion by attorneys for Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz to disqualify the petition because circulators didn’t attach a 33-page summary of specific allegations against the sheriff to the signature pages. Glanz, who was attending the National Sheriffs’ Association annual conference in Baltimore, said in a statement that he would explore his legal options when he returned to Tulsa.
The petition was signed by more than 6,600 voters who want a grand jury to investigate whether Glanz neglected his duties and whether reservists who gave gifts to the sheriff were given special treatment. Only 5,000 signatures were required.
Nightingale ruled from the bench after a daylong hearing that there was nothing in the law requiring that the court-approved grand jury petition and signature pages be attached to each other. She said that if she were to dismiss the petition filed by the civil rights group We The People Oklahoma it would be putting “form over substance.”
The petition drive began after ex-volunteer deputy Robert Bates shot and killed Eric Harris on April 2 after Harris ran from authorities during a gun-sales sting operation. Bates has said he confused his handgun and stun gun and has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Harris’ death.