Setting It Straight
In "DA Farley Ward's Double Standards", LeFlore County News questioned why District Attorney Farley charged Barbara Ellison with assault and battery for defending herself and her property and yet has thus far refused to charge Sara Crase with death threats against Barbara Ellison.
An anonymous comment in reply to that article stated:
The reason is there are no terroristic threatening laws in Oklahoma. But there are laws against Assault and Battery.
As far as it goes that statement is true. There is no 'terroristic threatening law' per-se in Oklahoma.
There are however laws against making threats, including threats of serious injury or death.
For example in the Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Chapter 55, Section 1362 it states:
If any person shall willfully or maliciously disturb, either by day or night, the peace and quiet of any city of the first class, town, village, neighborhood, family or person by loud or unusual noise, or by abusive, violent, obscene or profane language, whether addressed to the party so disturbed or some other person, or by threatening to kill, do bodily harm or injury, destroy property, fight, or by quarreling or challenging to fight, or fighting, or shooting off any firearms, or brandishing the same, or by running any horse at unusual speed along any street, alley, highway or public road, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed thirty (30) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the same.
Also in the Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Chapter 55, Section 1362 it states:
If any person shall make use of any profane, violent, abusive or insulting language toward or about another person, in the presence or hearing, which language, in its common acceptation, is calculated to arouse to anger the person about or to whom it is spoken or addressed, or to cause a breach of the peace or an assault, every such person shall be deemed guilty of a breach of the peace, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine in any sum not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed thirty (30) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the same.
Either of these two Oklahoma laws qualify as the basis for charges against Sara Crase for the alleged threats against Barbara Ellison on October 24, 2005.
Of the two laws referenced above, the first appears the most applicable as it contains the phrase or by threatening to kill, do bodily harm or injury and the allegations by Barbara Ellison and witness statements specifically mention such threats.
The second law referenced above also could be applied as what would be threats of grave bodily injury or death if not violent, abusive?
Yes, it is true that Oklahoma does not have a 'terroristic threatening law' per-se. It is also true that threats of injury or death are illegal under both of the laws referenced above.
If a layman can find these laws in the on-line reference to the Oklahoma Statutes and you the reader can click on a link and view them for yourselves, why is it that District Attorney Farley Ward can not seem to accomplish this same task?
Is DA Farley Ward that incompetent?
Or is something more sinister going on here?
Could it be that Sara Crase has one of those 'Friends of Farley' - stay out of jail free cards?
An anonymous comment in reply to that article stated:
The reason is there are no terroristic threatening laws in Oklahoma. But there are laws against Assault and Battery.
As far as it goes that statement is true. There is no 'terroristic threatening law' per-se in Oklahoma.
There are however laws against making threats, including threats of serious injury or death.
For example in the Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Chapter 55, Section 1362 it states:
If any person shall willfully or maliciously disturb, either by day or night, the peace and quiet of any city of the first class, town, village, neighborhood, family or person by loud or unusual noise, or by abusive, violent, obscene or profane language, whether addressed to the party so disturbed or some other person, or by threatening to kill, do bodily harm or injury, destroy property, fight, or by quarreling or challenging to fight, or fighting, or shooting off any firearms, or brandishing the same, or by running any horse at unusual speed along any street, alley, highway or public road, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed thirty (30) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the same.
Also in the Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Chapter 55, Section 1362 it states:
If any person shall make use of any profane, violent, abusive or insulting language toward or about another person, in the presence or hearing, which language, in its common acceptation, is calculated to arouse to anger the person about or to whom it is spoken or addressed, or to cause a breach of the peace or an assault, every such person shall be deemed guilty of a breach of the peace, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine in any sum not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed thirty (30) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the same.
Either of these two Oklahoma laws qualify as the basis for charges against Sara Crase for the alleged threats against Barbara Ellison on October 24, 2005.
Of the two laws referenced above, the first appears the most applicable as it contains the phrase or by threatening to kill, do bodily harm or injury and the allegations by Barbara Ellison and witness statements specifically mention such threats.
The second law referenced above also could be applied as what would be threats of grave bodily injury or death if not violent, abusive?
Yes, it is true that Oklahoma does not have a 'terroristic threatening law' per-se. It is also true that threats of injury or death are illegal under both of the laws referenced above.
If a layman can find these laws in the on-line reference to the Oklahoma Statutes and you the reader can click on a link and view them for yourselves, why is it that District Attorney Farley Ward can not seem to accomplish this same task?
Is DA Farley Ward that incompetent?
Or is something more sinister going on here?
Could it be that Sara Crase has one of those 'Friends of Farley' - stay out of jail free cards?
posted by LeFlore County News @ 6:52 AM
6 Comments:
At 11:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
from what I hear the whole family has a friend of farley card. i also heard that it may soon be getting canceled. friends of farley ain't supposed to cause problems for farley and these people been causing way too many problems lately.
At 3:29 PM,
Anonymous said…
Farly Ward is a fair man. The statues you have put on this site are misdemeanor and an officer CAN NOT make an arrest on a misdemeanor not committed in his presence. A report should be made and presented to the DA for the DA to get a warrant if the DA believes there is enough evidence to prosecute the offender.
At 11:15 PM,
LeFlore County News said…
On the one hand Farley Ward had an alleged victim statement and that of one additional witness and filed the assault and battery charge.
On the other hand Farley Ward had an alleged victim statement (which the victim had to hand carry to the Sheriff's Office when it refused to dispatch a deputy) and statements from THREE additional witnesses regarding the alleged death threats and Farley Ward has yet to file charges.
And in what way is this is indicative of a 'fair man'?
At 7:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
It appears that LeFlore County has removed Barbara Ellison's case from the docket this week. One can't help but wonder why. Could it be that there is just a bit too much "public interest" in the case and the Court is feelin a bit threatened by public scrutiny?
Here's my thoughts on this and my post regarding it on Twisted Sister:
Hmmmm....wondering why it was removed from the docket?
I remember a similar situation in Washington when I was a Guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. The sentencing for a convicted child molester continued to be postponed because the judge knew that there would be a large group of "victim rights" advocates present.
The judge kept postponing it, and those who supported the harsh sentencing of a child molester kept making arrangements to be in attendance. The judge finally had to "belly up to the bar" and impose a sentence. No, it wasn't harsh enough, but it beat letting the creep off entirely.
Do you reckon that is what is going on here? Waiting/hoping for public interest to die down? If so, it isn't going to happen!!
At 6:21 AM,
truthspeaker said…
"Farly Ward is a fair man. The statues you have put on this site are misdemeanor and an officer CAN NOT make an arrest on a misdemeanor not committed in his presence."
Barbara Ellison was charged with misdeamonor assault and battery, so you are wrong about an officer not being able to make an arrest on a misdemeanor charge not committed in his presence. Both allegations involved misdemeanors.
At 11:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
Did anyone have the thought that maybe nothing has been done in the "Case" file because maybe Farley hasn't been there??? Maybe it's on his desk, it's been my experience that he is hardly every there....... He's not the one running that office. And if someone has a prior offense and they don't like them in the DA's office no matter how stupid or farfetched the complaint is... they'll file charges. We have seen it over and over.
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