Fired Deputy Feels Vindicated By Grand Jury, Will File Suit Against Tulsa County

Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz went before a judge on Thursday for the first time since a grand jury charged him with two misdemeanors.

The judge did not set any bond, but she told Glanz to be back on Nov. 10 for his next court date.

Tulsa County grand jury recommended Glanz be suspended and indicted him on Wednesday for willful violation of the law over travel stipends and violating the law for not releasing an internal report.

TCSO Reserve Deputy Shooting Controversy

In the meantime, a former sheriff’s employee fired by Glanz plans to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the county.

Shannon Clark worked at the sheriff's office 15 years. He was a Major, the public information officer and over the jail when he was fired.

He says he was told different things by different people for why he was fired but didn't know the real reason until reading the grand jury documents.

"Based on the grand jury report, now I know in Glanz' mind, he terminated me because he believed, without any factual data, that I released that 2009 report," Clark said.

Reporter: "Did you?"

Clark: "No, I did not."

He says once he became aware of the 2009 report showing complaints about the training of reserve deputy Bob Bates, he urged the sheriff to at least address it during that first major news conference after Bates shot and killed Eric Harris, but he says the sheriff refused. Glanz is now charged with a misdemeanor for not releasing that report. However, Glanz' attorney says the law is clear that internal affairs reports are not public record and he plans to ask for that charge to be dismissed.

As for Clark, he says being fired was a total shock to him.

"In one minute, I was on top of the world, and three weeks later, I was unemployed,” Clark said.

Clark says he feels vindicated by the grand jury's work that they found no wrongdoing on his part, and other than filing a wrongful termination lawsuit against the county, he will only say about his future that he's keeping all doors open.

He had talked openly about running for sheriff before all this happened, but, now he says he will have to wait and see. He believes the new sheriff will face a big task.

"Whatever sheriff gets in there, they'll have administrative issues and a lot of litigation that's going to come from all this and will have to reunite the sheriff's office,” Clark said.

Even though the grand jury's work is complete and Glanz has resigned, the Oklahoma State Bureau of investigation is still building a case as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office.

People have been asking questions about the sealed indictment from the grand jury.

The grand jury wanted to indict someone else from the sheriff's office for a recent incident but did not have enough votes to do so.  It takes nine yes votes to get an indictment, so since there was no charge, the judge sealed those documents.