City Of Tulsa Fined For Delay Of Fairmont Terrace Quadruple Murder Trial

The City of Tulsa did not argue about paying the $5,200 fine. It agrees it's a fair amount to pay because of the expenses incurred to delay the trial of Cedric Poore.

Wednesday, October 28th 2015, 1:14 pm

By: News On 6


A Tulsa County judge has ordered the City of Tulsa to pay a fine for delaying a murder trial.

Judge Kurt Glassco says that delay cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.

The City of Tulsa did not argue about paying the $5,200 fine. It agrees it's a fair amount to pay because of the expenses incurred to delay the trial of Cedric Poore.

Poole is charged, along with his brother, in the murders of four women at the Fairmont Terrace Apartments three years ago.

The delay happened when it was discovered hundreds of pages and dozens of discs of evidence had not been turned over to Poore's attorneys.

The city says homicide detective Kevin Hill is a decorated officer who simply overlooked the evidence that was in the property room.

10/16/2015 Related Story: Judge Postpones Trial After Evidence Overlooked In Fairmont Terrace Murders

Representatives for the city say it was a massive investigation, and a lot of the evidence was mentioned in other reports that were turned in. Some of the files are duplicates, and still others, were prepared by folks like the FBI, they say.

"A lot of it was gathered by agencies other than Tulsa Police Department, so detective Hill felt that information was given to the DA's office through those other agencies,” City of Tulsa’s Gerald Bender said.

Poore's attorney didn't want to talk on camera, but he said in court that they don't actually know the evidence was overlooked.

He questioned whether this is a policy of TPD to hide evidence or to deliberately not create a paper trail that could be followed. He thought the fine should come later when they know the full cost of the situation.

He said it will take many weeks to go through the hundreds of pages and 40 discs, and that costs money. Most of the discs are jail conversations and some are in Spanish, which will require hiring a translator.

Attorneys will get to question Hill in December. 

The city says the idea it was done on purpose is nonsense.

"It is in the best interest of citizens in the city and TPD to make sure our investigations are done completely and honestly and everything is turned over,” Bender said. “Because we do not want to be the factor that gets someone that needs to be convicted, have that overturned."

Right now, Poore trial has been set to begin  Feb. 1, and the judge does not want to delay that because he says it will already be more than three years until the suspects face a jury.
 

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