Charges filed against current, former Lawton school, police officials

Wednesday, July 20th 2005, 5:32 pm

By: News On 6

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- Federal and state prosecutors Wednesday filed numerous theft charges against 20 people, including current and former Lawton police and school officials and Comanche County Sheriff's deputies and employees.

They're accused of running a scheme to collect money for school security work they did not perform.

The eight named in the federal charges are accused of cashing paychecks for a total of more than $140,000.

They include former deputy school Superintendent Willie Lee Anderson; former Lawton police officer and school security chief Mark McFarland and former police officers Russell Hampton and Robert Mullen.

Also charged are Comanche County sheriff's Deputy Steven Couey; former sheriff's supervisor James Nix; former Deputy Edgardo Maldonado; and former sheriff's dispatcher Wanda Byrd.

US Attorney Robert McCampbell says one of the eight, former security chief Mark McFarland, claimed to have worked as a security guard when he was actually serving in the military in Iraq.