Criminal Charge: Child Abuse
Case: State v. Lallan Holt
Court: [CF-02-5666, Tulsa County]
Result: Case Dismissed
Mr. Holt was charged with sex abuse of a minor child in both Creek and Tulsa Counties in November 2002. Tulsa charged him first, then Creek County charged him, but only Creek County arrested him. So for the next 2+ years, Tulsa County sat around and did nothing else until the Creek County charge was dismissed. Then Tulsa arrested him and started its own prosecution.
Almost immediately, it became apparent the case was weak. The Tulsa prosecutor tried to disclose little evidence and Haslam filed a writ of mandamus to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to force disclosure of all the evidence Lallan was entitled to. In a bad decision, the OCCA denied the writ and the case proceeded to preliminary hearing. Under Haslam’s cross examination, the State’s only witness – the 15 year old alleged victim – admitted she had denied the allegations many times and had falsely accused another man of the same crime. Still, the judge bound Lallan over for trial.
Once in front of the trial judge, Haslam moved to dismiss the case because the 27 month delay in bringing the case in Tulsa violated Lallan’s statutory and Constitutional rights to a speedy trial.
After numerous evidentiary hearings, Judge Thornbrugh GRANTED THE MOTION TO DISMISS and Lallan WAS FINALLY RELEASED FROM JAIL.