Board asks prosecutors to consider misdemeanor charge against sheriff

Friday, March 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(OKLAHOMA CITY) - Oklahoma County prosecutors have received a request by a board scrutinizing the operations of the Oklahoma County Jail to consider a misdemeanor criminal charge against Sheriff John Whetsel.

The request was included in a letter from the Community Oversight Board to Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane. The board cited health code violations and a recent civil lawsuit in which Debra Smith, a former prisoner, alleged that her child died because Smith didn't get appropriate prenatal care during her 1998 incarceration.

A federal jury ruled against Smith earlier this month, but Smith's attorney announced on Monday that he would appeal the verdict.

In the letter to Lane, board member Carolyn Scatena said testimony at Smith's trial revealed that jail staff didn't report the death of Smith's baby so that it could be investigated by the Health Department.

Witnesses at the trial also testified that some documents pertaining to Smith's incarceration also had been shredded before the civil trial.

Scatena cited a statute she said the board wanted prosecutors to consider filing against Whetsel. The statute read that any county official ``who willfully fails or refuses to perform the duties of his or her office according to law, is guilty of a misdemeanor.''

``We want the district attorney to do his job for the people of this county, and we don't feel like that is to protect elected officials when they have committed crimes,'' Scatena said. ``It is to protect the public.''

Whetsel could not be immediately reached for comment. But sheriff's spokesman Rickey Barrow told the Edmond Sun that he believes justice was done when the federal jury ruled against Smith in her civil lawsuit.

Debbie Forshee, a spokeswoman for Lane's office, said the prosecutors who would handle the board's request were out of town this week.

After the trial, Smith was arrested and charged with permitting sexual abuse to a child in 1998. She has been released on her own recognizance.

Her boyfriend, who is charged with first-degree rape and other sexual assault counts in the 2001 incident, is in the Oklahoma County Jail in lieu of $115,000 bond.