Sheriff among four charged with felonies

Kent Bush
The Tuttle Times

CHICKASHA October 06, 2006 10:08 am

— Judge C. Allen McCall broke a restive silence as he wrestled with the envelope which contained four indictments sealed by the state’s multi-county grand jury last Friday.
The indictments were related to the illegal gambling investigation and eventual raid of the Chickasha Elks Lodge.
A crowd of media members, deputies, and other interested onlookers crowded into Courtroom No. 1 in the Grady County Courthouse to hear the decision of the multi-county grand jury.
Sheriff Kieran McMullen, his wife Helen - a Chickasha Po-lice Sergeant, Deputy Robert Cacy, and recently retired Chickasha Police Lieutenant Jerry Tyler were named in the indictments. Each was charged with three felony charges and two misdemeanor counts. The charges were:
• Peace officers engaging in illegal gambling,
• Conducting illegal gambling,
• Conspiracy to commit crimes and bad acts,
• Permitting gambling on premises, and
• Willful neglect of duties
When the charges were announced Judge McCall allowed defense attorneys several minutes to read and consider the charges against their clients.
After the attorneys were ready to proceed, each of the defendants made their initial appearance in front of Judge McCall.
District Attorney Bret Burns asked for a bond of $10,000 to be set on each defendant. Each defense attorney argued for the suspects to be released on their own recognizance because of their status as Grady County residents and law enforcement officers.
Judge McCall repeated in each case that he was “not inclined to issue an OR bond on felony charges” but he felt that $10,000 was too high. McCall settled on a bond of $2,000 for each defendant.
All four were processed as any other defendant would be and were released on bail Tuesday afternoon.
Each defendant also had a trial date set for October 23, 2006. This date is dependent on motions and possible continuances in the proceedings.
Three of the four defendants’ attorneys filed motions to quash the indictments in court Tuesday. No date has been set to hear those motions. Judge McCall told the attorneys that he had signed the search warrant so he would be willing to appoint a different judge to hear the motions in the case if they preferred.
District Attorney Bret Burns said after the proceedings that this case was not just about illegal gambling.
“This case is a little bit about illegal gambling,” Burns said. “But it is really about corruption. It is about public officials who abused their power.”

The charges...
Three felony counts and two misdemeanors filed against four defendants
Sheriff Kieran McMullen, Helen McMullen, Jerry Tyler and Robert Cacy were all charged with three felony counts and two misdemeanors. They include:
• Peace officers engaging in illegal gambling - a felony. Upon conviction, this charge is punishable with one-to-10 years in the state penitentiary and a fine of $500 - $10,000. It also includes immediate removal of office and disqualification from holding any office of profit or trust in the State of Oklahoma.
The indictments charge that all four suspects are peace officers who participated in or assisted or encouraged other people in the crime of illegal gambling. They are alleged to have either played the games themselves or provided a security operation to allow others to play the illegal games. These games included gambling machines, illegal poker tournaments, blackjack games and illegal cash drawings.
• Conducting illegal gambling - a felony. Upon conviction, this crime is punishable by from one-to-10 years in the state penitentiary and a fine of $500 - $2,000.
All four defendants are charged with conducting or carrying on illegal gambling games on machines, poker games, and other illegal gambling games.
• Conspiracy to commit crimes and bad acts - a felony. Upon conviction, this crime is punishable with up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and a fine of up to $5,000.
According to the indictment, the defendants and other unindicted co-conspirators conspired to commit a series of crimes injurious to the public health, morals and for the perversion or obstruction of justice.
The conspirators allegedly used their positions as law enforcement officers to secretly obtain a 911 communication of an Elks Lodge member reporting what he believed to be illegal activity by a fellow Elks Lodge member. Tyler, reportedly, at the request of Helen McMullen, used his position as a police Lieutenant to obtain a confidential 911 recording of a witness who called the police department. Tyler reportedly gave that recording to Helen McMullen who, in turn, gave the information to Sheriff Kieran McMullen. Sheriff McMullen, along with other Elks, used this information to suspend the Elks member on the tape. This suspension had a dramatic effect on the ongoing gambling investigation.
The officers also allegedly maintained a table outside a private room where illegal machines were reported to have been played. Defendant Cacy used this position to intercept and deny access to the room to anyone who was not an Elks Lodge member. One of the people who was reportedly denied access to the private room was an undercover ABLE agent.
The final conspiracy charge involved Sheriff McMullen interfering with a subsequent ABLE inspection of the Elks Lodge. The sheriff was called by an ABLE agent and alerted to a pending inspection of the lodge. He alerted other Elks Lodge leaders who reportedly asked several members to stop playing the illegal games. They also turned off the light in the room and shut the door. Video evidence reportedly shows Helen McMullen leaving the gambling room and telling friends at a table that ABLE was coming. Other members of the Elks leadership are alleged to have mislead the ABLE agents about the nature and frequency of use of the gaming machines. When the agent left the lodge, the secret room was immediately reopened.
• Permitting gambling on premises - a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, this charge carries a penalty of 30 days to 6 months in the county jail and a fine of $100-$200.
The defendants are accused of permitting illegal gambling machines and tables in the Elks Lodge for the purpose of illegal gambling.
• Willful neglect of duties - a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, the count would be punishable with imprisonment in the county jail for 30 days to one year and a fine of $250-$1,000. Conviction also carries with it removal from office and ineligibility to again hold public office for two years from the date of conviction.
All of these counts are reportedly based on video and audio evidence collected by confidential informants.

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