Muskogee County DA Job Transition Not Smooth

Muskogee County's new district attorney says a mess left by his predecessor has already made his first week on the job difficult. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Chris Wright says Larry Moore says when

Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 10:14 am

By: News On 6

Muskogee County's new district attorney says a mess left by his predecessor has already made his first week on the job difficult.

News on 6 reporter Chris Wright says Larry Moore says when he arrived at the Muskogee County courthouse on Monday for his first day of work, he was surprised to find his office in complete disarray.

Larry Moore's first task in Muskogee County is to cleanup the district attorney's office, literally.

After defeating John David Luton in November's election, he officially started January 1st. Upon arriving at the courthouse, he says he found, among other things, guns strewn everywhere. "Multiple guns and property we're trying to determine what cases they go with, and to whom they belong."

Moore says the guns present a problem because many of them do not have proper documentation. He is not sure which guns are evidence in cases, which guns were seized in drug busts and which ones were involved in crimes. But Moore believes the mysterious guns are just the tip of the iceberg, it may take him even longer to decipher Luton's left over case files.

Moore says one of the major problems his office faces in a backlog in paperwork. There are piles of case files, hundreds of them, most of them about two years old, and his office will have to sort through all of them.

Charges have not been filed in most the cases, and Moore worries that the statue of limitations has expired on many of them. To make matters worse, he says Luton has not helped at all during the transition. "We had requested an inventory of the property and as of today I don't have an inventory yet."

As district attorney, Moore hopes to focus on tougher enforcement of drug and check fraud laws, but says he won't be able to do that until the mess is cleaned up. â€œIt's something that we have to give attention to, but what our position is of course, we're going to go forward with everyday work."

Moore has contacted the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Narcotics. He hopes those agencies will be able to help him figure out what to do with all the guns.

The News on 6 did place several calls to John David Luton's home, but were unable to get in touch with him.