Memo shows special treatment for deputy in Tulsa, lawyers say

Associated Press

TULSA, Okla.

Several members of an Oklahoma sheriff’s department raised serious concerns years ago about the performance and training of a volunteer deputy now charged in the fatal shooting of a restrained suspect, according to a report released Friday by lawyers for the dead man’s family.

Lawyers for Eric Harris released a Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office memo outlining an investigation into Robert Bates, 73, who says he confused his handgun for his stun gun during an April 2 sting involving gun sales. Bates has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Harris’ death.

Bates is a longtime friend to Sheriff Stanley Glanz, serving as his insurance agent for 25 years and his re-election campaign manager in 2012. Bates is white and Harris was black, but the victim’s brother has said he doesn’t believe the shooting was racially motivated.

The 2009 report says Bates, who had joined the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office less than a year earlier, had argued with a dispatcher, improperly used a personal vehicle on the job and had inadequate training for a role as an advanced reserve deputy.

The report concludes Bates didn’t receive special treatment for admittance into the program because no advanced deputy had fully met internal standards. It did, however, find that Bates received special treatment that included department leaders’ ignoring complaints about his performance.

An attorney for the sheriff’s office, Meredith Baker, said in a prepared statement Friday that no action was taken as a result of the report but that the document’s existence “demonstrates this office’s willingness to investigate and review any allegations of policy violations.”

Baker also said the report’s release was unauthorized and that the office was looking into the leak.

Bates had 63 hours of state-mandated training in his first 11 months with the sheriff’s office. In the year after the report, he completed just 47 hours, according to records Bates provided last week from the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

Records obtained from the sheriff’s office show Bates has donated tens of thousands of dollars in cars, SUVs and equipment to the sheriff’s department over the past 10 years. The report released Friday says at least one donated vehicle was his own car — handed over after a complaint he was driving his personal vehicle while on-duty and which was subsequently assigned to him.

Sgt. Randy Chapman told investigators no other reserve deputy had such an arrangement.