Published: April 16, 2008 10:13 am      

Stipe jury into day three

MUSKOGEE — Some of the jurors in the Francis Stipe trial were starting to look a little weary on Tuesday evening after deliberating the case for approximately 12 hours over a two-day period.

A few minutes earlier, they had sent U.S District Judge Ronald White a note asking him if they could break for the day at 5 p.m. and resume deliberations this morning.

After a night’s rest, jurors in the federal trial of Stipe were ready to start a third day of deliberations early today at the Eastern District of Oklahoma Courthouse.

They had deliberated a full eight-hour day on Tuesday without arriving at a verdict. Prior to that, they had deliberated for approximately four hours on Monday evening, for a total of 12 hours over the two days.

“I appreciate your hard work,” White told the jury before dismissing them for the evening around 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

With the jurors out of the courtroom, White told attorneys in the case that the jurors had not told him they were deadlocked.

Questions the jurors sent from the jury room to the judge on Tuesday concerned things such as requests for smoke breaks for the smokers on the jury — which appeared to be three — to a request to order lunch around 12:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, Stipe, who turned 77 on Monday, said he had a dinner with his family and friends at a Chinese restaurant on Monday, where they presented him with a birthday cake.

No doubt what he would like best is an acquittal on the federal charges against him.

The seven-man, five woman jury is trying to determine whether Stipe is guilty or innocent of charges in a four-count grand jury indictment accusing him of conspiracy, mail fraud, witness tampering and improper monetary transactions.

In closing arguments at the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gay Guthrie and Ryan Roberts had tried to convince jurors to convict Stipe of all four charges, contending they had proven the elements in each of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.

Defense attorneys Warren Gotcher, of McAlester, and John Carwile, of Tulsa, had a different opinion, telling the jury the government had failed to prove any of the charges against Stipe.

Charges revolve around allegations that Francis Stipe and his brother, former state Sen. Gene Stipe, of McAlester, conspired to have funds steered from the state legislature to the McAlester Foundation, whose members call it a private non-profit group devoted to economic development.

The alleged conspiracy: To spend the state money to buy property belonging to Gene Stipe for a proposed National Pet Products dog food plant in McAlester. Prosecutors contend Gene Stipe had been a secret part-owner of the plant.

Then-District 17 state Rep. Mike Mass succeeded in having $419,000 steered from the state legislature to the Kiamichi Economic Development District of Oklahoma in 2002 and KEDDO sent the money to the McAlester Foundation — whose members included Francis Stipe.

Francis Stipe, through his membership on the board of the McAlester Foundation, had been one of three board members who signed a check for $191,609.78 to purchase Gene Stipe’s land for the dog food plant on Oct. 22, 2002, according to court testimony.

Mass received a $48,000 kickback that day from Gene Stipe, according to allegations in the indictment.

Prosecutors contend another object of the alleged conspiracy had been to recoup a $50,000 loan made to the failed Walt Roberts congressional campaign in 1998.

Francis Stipe’s attorneys contend that he had not been involved in any conspiracy and that no witnesses have said he had anything to do with paying a kickback to Mass.

They also said the McAlester Foundation had no rules in place in 2002 which prohibited Francis Stipe from voting to buy his brother’s land.

On the witness tampering charge, prosecutors allege Francis Stipe had intimidated Mass — who later became a federal witness — by purchasing the mortgage of his homestead in Higgins last year.

Mass has testified that when he called to inquire about making payments on the mortgage, Francis Stipe had said he wanted the full amount owed and would not set up a payment plan.

Francis Stipe’s attorneys contend it had been a simple business deal. Federal prosecutors countered that Stipe could have bought the property outright from Mass instead of buying the mortgage.

Jurors in the case are trying to decide those issues and others as they continue deliberations in the trial.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.