Published: April 22, 2008 10:29 am      

Morley report not sent to AG’s office

An investigative report by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation which a prosecutor needs to make a decision in a probe involving Pittsburg County Treasurer Cerita Morley has been located following a series of inquiries by the News-Capital.

The OSBI report has been languishing, so to speak, in District 18 District Attorney Jim Bob Miller’s office. The OSBI had delivered the sealed report to Miller’s office approximately three weeks ago.

The News-Capital finally learned of the file’s location after contacting the Muskogee County District Attorney’s office, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office and Miller’s office.

Miller had recused himself from handling the case, which involves Morley and Pittsburg County Jail escapee James Ryan Bever.

He previously said his office had forwarded the report to the attorney general’s office as soon as he received it.

As late as Monday afternoon, Miller still insisted that his office has sent the OSBI report to the attorney general’s office.

Then, after 5 p.m. on Monday, he called the News-Capital back with some new information about the report.

“We did not mail it; I thought we did,” Miller said.

“You can blame it on me.”

The News-Capital began trying to locate the report’s whereabouts on Monday.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore confirmed that the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office appointed him to look into the results of an investigation regarding the Pittsburg County treasurer.

“I’ve been told I’ve been assigned to the case, but we haven’t received the file,” Moore said.

He said he contacted both the attorney general’s office and the OSBI wondering about when he would get the OSBI’s investigative report.

“We still haven’t received anything yet,” Moore told the News-Capital late Monday afternoon.

That resulted in the News-Capital contacting the attorney general’s office to ask about the matter and to ask that the file be located.

The News-Capital spoke with Susie Thrash, who is Edmondson’s executive assistant. Thrash said she would try to locate the investigative report supposedly sent to the attorney general by Miller’s office.

She later called back with the results of her search.

“We do not have the report,” Thrash said.

That didn’t mean she thought it had been lost in the mail. Thrash said the attorney general’s office had received a letter of recusal from Miller’s office and information which said the OSBI report included two volumes.

She said she spoke with Mike Wooldridge, who should have received the report if it had been sent to the attorney general.

“We don’t think we ever got it,” she said.

The News-Capital then contacted Miller, to ask again about the report and tell him about Thrash’s contention that the attorney general’s office never received it.

Miller had initially said that First Assistant District Attorney Richard Hull had mailed the OSBI investigative report to the attorney general’s office soon after the OSBI turned it in to him.

“I’m sure he mailed it,” Miller said. “They should have it.”

Miller said the OSBI report had been sealed when it arrived at his office.

“I saw it,” he said. “We had to sign a receipt for it.”

Miller said he had no reason to keep the file in his office.

However, Miller apparently decided to check again on the matter, because he soon called again to say his office had not mailed the OSBI report to the attorney general’s office, after all.

“The attorney general’s office had sent a later saying don’t send the reports if we are recusing,” Miller said, saying that a district attorney’s employee had apparently not mailed the report because of the letter.

He said his office will now send the report directly to Moore at the Muskogee County District Attorney’s office.

“We’ll get it there,” Miller said.

“My bad.”

Miller had previously recused himself and his office from handling the matter because he said, as district attorney, he also serves as legal adviser to the county treasurer.

“We want to stay out of this as much as possible,” he said of the Morley case.

The report involves Bever, a Pittsburg County Jail inmate who escaped in December after being checked out in Morley’s custody. Bever had been checked out to work at the temporary county offices at the corner of Sixth Street and Choctaw Avenue.

Pittsburg County Jail Administrator Tom Steele, who arrived at the scene soon afterward, reported another trusty inmate who had been checked out along with Bever was intoxicated.

Pittsburg County Sheriff Jerome “Snooke” Amaranto then asked the OSBI to investigate the entire matter.

Bever, who had been captured several weeks after by U.S. Marshals, recently pleaded guilty to an escape charge and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.