Ex-Rogers County Official Arrested For Harboring Runaways For Drugs, Sex

A former Rogers County Commissioner who spent time in prison is in trouble with the law again.

Deputies arrested Randy Baldridge on Tuesday night.

Tulsa police say a witness has accused Baldridge of picking up runaway boys and giving them drugs, sometimes in exchange for sexual favors.

Someone else told police that Baldridge had given him methamphetamine and he later woke up naked in a field.

08/01/2007 Related Story: Former Rogers County Commissioner Sentenced

TPD turned over the investigation to Rogers County since the allegations were centered there.

The Rogers County THUG task force took him into custody. They say he had a 16-year-old runaway from Tulsa with him at the time.

The two were at a Rogers County home where deputies say they found syringes in the boy's backpack that tested positive for containing methamphetamine.

Deputies say they got permission to search Baldridge's vehicle and found a glass smoking device, several syringes and a silver spoon, all with a white, powdery substance on them that also tested positive for meth.

They say all this was found less than 200 feet from the Tiawah Elementary School.

"We had plenty of concerns this was an ongoing situation in Rogers County where outside or local juveniles were being harbored there, groomed and supplied with drugs in exchange for sexual favors," Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said.

An affidavit says Baldridge admitted supplying teenage boys with meth, but he first claimed he bought it as a way to keep the boys from going into those kinds of places.

It says he originally denied using meth himself, but later admitted, with tears in his eyes, that he did use it.

This appears to be a long downward spiral from where Baldridge was when voters elected him as a Democrat to be a Rogers County commissioner.

However, in 2007, a jury found him guilty of money laundering, mail fraud, obtaining money by fraud and other counts and a judge sentenced Baldridge to 37 months in federal prison.

The sheriff says when Baldridge was released from prison, he came back to Rogers County, got a job and things were quiet until his office received these recent complaints.

"The quest now becomes: Who may have been a victim?" Walton said. "Certainly, when we see situations like this, it's not just one. We believe there are multiple juveniles who were harbored there or other locations he had access to."

The affidavit says a second teenage runaway boy has been at Baldridge's home many times, for long periods of time, but he was dropped off at a Tulsa house and deputies are still searching for him.

The sheriff says if anyone has information about additional victims, they can call his department's tipline at 918-341-3620 and remain anonymous.