Former Tulsa Police Officer Wrongly Convicted, Family Says

The immediate family of retired Tulsa police Corporal Harold Wells hasn't talked about his indictment, trial and conviction, until now.

They want people to know he is not the man being portrayed by federal prosecutors and they believe in his innocence.

Wells retired as a corporal after 35 years on the Tulsa police department. He was one of the officers tried during the police corruption trials.

Wells was found guilty on five the 10 charges he faced and was sentenced this week to serve 10 years in prison.

12/06/2011 Related Story: Four Convicted In Tulsa Police Corruption Trial Sentenced Tuesday

Harold and Ronda Wells developed a crush when she was 12 and he was 14. It blossomed into love, they married young and are still going strong, 39 years later.

They have two sons, Matt and Michael and now, six grandchildren.

Wells served in the Army and National Guard before becoming a Tulsa police officer in 1975. He worked in many areas, but busting drug dealers became his passion.

His family says that passion was twisted in court into a driving force to make money, but say that's just not him.

"Growing up, I saw my dad contribute 10 percent of his paycheck to whatever church we attended, every pay period, without fail, even times when I pulled a wagon to the grocery store because we didn't have money for gas," said Harold's son Matt Wells.

They say he cares about others. That he's driven informants to the doctor's office and prayed with them, he also bought groceries for people he met on police calls, all done quietly. They say he's not a dirty cop.

"He was never even accused in 35 years of taking money from anybody or receiving any kind of ill-gotten gain, not one time in 35 years," Matt said.

They say he's only been accused by officers trying to save their own skins and cut the best deal they could, officers who are admitted drug dealers and liars.

They say Wells has not been accused of stealing or selling drugs, that his drug conspiracy conviction involves actions that are common among officers: to let go the small time dealers, in order to arrest the big ones.

"What he's being accused of is allowing informants to stay in the drug trade while they're informing on other drug dealers," Harold's son said.

They also disagree with his conviction for stealing money. They say the video of the FBI sting operation at a Tulsa hotel, proves that.

"The one person, who never concealed any money in that drug deal, was the one who was convicted. That doesn't make any sense to me," Matt said.

They don't know where Wells will serve his time, but want him to be protected since he was an officer.

They say they'll go to the ends of the earth to visit him, except Ronda. She plans to move there, so she can visit him as often as possible.

"We've never been apart," said Harold's wife Rhonda Wells.

The Wells' family says their faith in the justice system has been shaken and they pray the appeal is successful.

In the meantime, they'll keep having fundraisers to pay for his defense and they take comfort in what the judge told Wells during the sentencing: that he thought highly of Wells and his career and things might've turned out differently, had his trial been before a judge and not a jury.

The federal prosecutor believes Wells was convicted because he is guilty.