Category: OKLAHOMA

Not guilty

America’s Most Wanted – and Acquitted! [Tulsa]

Posted by lawoffice on

Criminal Charge: Child Abuse
Case: State v. Earnest Jackson CF-02-5279
Court: [CF-02-5279, Tulsa County]
Result: Acquittal

Oklahoma State Courts Network
For more details on this case, open the Docket View.

Summary:

A harbinger of the career to follow, Haslam’s first jury trial was a court appointment to defend a dad featured numerous times on the television show “America’s Most Wanted”.  Compounding this challenge, the prosecutor, Dana Bogie Kuehn, had 75 jury trials under her belt as Chief of the Crimes Against Children Unit, moved on to be Presiding Judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and now sits on the Oklahoma Supreme Court. 

Tulsa County arrested Earnest and Kaia Jackson amid great publicity in their Tulsa home, living with their four kids. The 1988 New Jersey arrest warrants alleged they physically abused a fifth child fifteen years earlier.

After charging both Jacksons with abusing one of the four Tulsa kids, Jonathan, authorities returned them to New Jersey to stand trial on the 1988 charges – where each took a conviction. Thereafter, each returned to Tulsa to stand trial on the new Oklahoma charges involving Jonathan. In September 2002, a Tulsa County jury sentenced Kaia to thirty-five years in the Oklahoma penitentiary to be served AFTER she discharged her New Jersey sentence.

The Tulsa County District Court appointed Haslam to defend Earnest. The State offered Earnest – a 55-year-old man – 35 years to avoid trial. With little to lose, it was easy for Earnest to believe in his young lawyer, plead not guilty and take his story to a jury.  After five days of trial and eight hours of deliberation, his first jury hung up.  A single, brave juror refused to cave during hours of shouting and table pounding that could be heard in the hall outside the jury room.

At the retrial, the State listed DHS caseworker Joyce Porter as a witness.  Despite Haslam having uncovered an in-the-record lie by Ms. Porter in another child abuse trial he second-chaired a year earlier, Porter mounted the stand to testify.  Haslam confronted Porter – sitting 4 feet from the jury box – with this documented lie. In a true Perry Mason Moment, Porter locked up – and the prosecutor left her there, locked up for 60 seconds, silent – until she asked for “a brief recess”.  When Porter returned to the stand, Haslam cemented the impeachment.  This was the beginning of the end of this jury trial.

After seven days of retrial, THE SECOND JURY NEEDED 45 MINUTES TO RETURN A VERDICT OF NOT GUILTY.

Probation

State Offers 20 Years – Client Does 1 Month [Choctaw County, OK]

Posted by lawoffice on

Criminal Charge:
Case: State of Oklahoma v. Brandon Clark Self
Court: [Cf-14-78, CF-14-105][Choctaw]
Result: Judge Rejects State’s 20-Year Sentence for 1 Month and Probation

Oklahoma State Courts Network
For more details on this case, open the Docket View.
Oklahoma State Courts Network
For more details on this case, open the Docket View.

Perhaps because of his history of felony convictions, law enforcement was after Brandon.  They thought they finally got him with a traffic stop made after Brandon had been almost run off the road.  Claiming a gun and drugs recovered from his car, the State of Oklahoma charged Brandon with five serious felony counts and sought to put him away for decades. Haslam filed motions to suppress the bad traffic stop and searches on which these cases were founded, slowly chipping away at the “evidence” until pleas were negotiated that required a hearing – and a judge that would determine the sentences.

At the hearing, Haslam presented evidence of the bogus traffic stop, the mischaracterization of the recovered “drugs” as contraband when they were actually prescription meds, and – most importantly – some of the most emotionally moving testimony in my 25 years of trial practice by Brandon’s two young daughters. The Court sentenced Brandon to ten years in OK DOC with all but one month suspended.

Afterwards, the State intercepted tax refunds to collect $13,000 in court costs and fines. Haslam successfully defended these efforts as well. The Court waived almost every dollar. Brandon is now a successful business owner and has never violated probation.

Case Dismissed

Haslam Vacates Illegal Sentence [Bryan County, OK]

Posted by lawoffice on

Criminal Charge: 
Case:  State v. Prashan Shakya
Court: [CM-09-941][Bryan]
Result: Case Dismissed

As a young, out-of-state college student, Prashan was a passenger in a traffic stop when law enforcement found marijuana in the center console. In this country on student visas, both Prashan and the driver were intimidated by the prospect of American jail and relented to pressure to enter pleas for deferred, no jail time sentences. He returned to school, discharged his short probation easily, graduated and went to work. He thought it was over.

Years later, a successful young IT professional in North Dallas, Prashan learned the guilty plea could result in his removal from the USA.

Haslam inspected the old court proceedings and learned he was not represented by a lawyer and no record was made of the plea. After negotiations with the reasonable prosecutor, Haslam filed a motion, presented an agreed order to void the conviction to the judge, and the entire case was dismissed going back to the original sentencing.