A man convicted in 1997 of manufacturing large quantities of meth - in part through multiple search warrants executed by convicted Tulsa police officers - asked a federal judge this week to expedite a ruling on his motion for post-conviction relief.
Jeffrey Dan Williams, 52, had been moved to the Tulsa Jail early last year for hearings on his motion. However, without any ruling in his case six months after it ended, Williams was shipped back to a federal prison in Indiana this week, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons records.
Williams was sentenced to 30 years in prison and is due for release in March 2028 when he will be about 67.
His attorney, William Widell, filed the motion to ask U.S. District Judge James Payne for a ruling before Williams left Oklahoma.
The hearings in Williams' case ended in June and final closing arguments were filed in September, according to court records.
In the hearings last summer, two alleged informants who were used in the 1990s federal investigation against Williams testified that they were coerced by Tulsa police officers to testify against Williams in 1997.
Many of the charges Williams was convicted on involved search warrants based on information supposedly from confidential informants.
The prosecutors in the Williams hearing worked to establish that investigators followed correct procedures in their 1997 investigation to show that the original sentencing was appropriate.
Leon Francis, a Drug Enforcement Agency agent who had led the investigation on Williams, said he believed the accounts the allegedly coerced informants provided. Francis, as the case's lead investigator, gave the only testimony at Williams' 1997 trial in which Williams entered a guilty plea.
Gregg Elliot Fillmore, one of the alleged informants, testified in early May that he lied to investigators after men who identified themselves as law enforcement officers coached him on what to say and told him to call Francis.
Fillmore had prior drug convictions and was charged in 1993 with the murder of his wife, but that charge was dismissed after he spent nine months in jail. The charge can be refiled, and the murder remains unsolved, according to police.
A second alleged informant, Edward Farner, testified in Williams' 2012 hearing that he had worked for former Tulsa police officers John K. "J.J." Gray, Jeff Henderson, Harold R. Wells and former federal agent Brandon McFadden from 1995 to 1999 selling drugs. Records show the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hired McFadden in 2002.
Farner said Gray was his main contact and any one of the officers would call him and ask him to pick up either methamphetamine, cocaine or marijuana and deliver it to an address.
Farner testified that in 1999, Gray asked him to steal a Tulsa Police Department van carrying seized money, drugs and guns to an Oklahoma City depository.
"I was to hijack the van and shoot the officers in it if they resisted," Farner said.
He said the plan forced him to flee Tulsa. "I thought they would set me up and bury me where they claimed to have buried others," he said.
Farner testified that Gray asked him to bring Williams in to work for the officers. Williams refused, so Farner was told to start informing on him, Farner said.
"I was required to keep an eye on Jeff (Williams) and report back when he was cooking ... so they could raid him," Farner said.
Under cross examination, Farner, who has prior drug convictions, said he didn't come forward earlier with information about the officers "for fear of my life."
"At the time, I was doing what I was told to do," Farner testified. "At the time, I didn't know who to trust, who was real or not."
Brief history of police corruption charges
The federal corruption investigation resulted in charges against six current or former Tulsa police officers and a federal agent, as well as accusations of criminal behavior against five officers who were not charged.
Three Tulsa police officers and the federal agent were convicted.
At least 48 people have been freed from prison or had their cases modified because of civil rights violations or potential problems with their cases stemming from the police corruption.
The law enforcement defendants:
- Jeff Henderson, who was hired by the Tulsa Police Department in 1995, was convicted on two counts of civil rights violations and six counts of perjury. Henderson was sentenced to 42 months in prison, which he is serving in South Dakota. Three months were added to that prison time Wednesday for contempt of court.
- Brandon McFadden, hired as an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2002, was sentenced to 21 months in a Texas prison after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy. McFadden cooperated with prosecutors.
- John K. "J.J." Gray, hired by the Tulsa Police Department in 1990, pleaded guilty to stealing money and was sentenced to four months in a Louisiana prison. Gray cooperated with prosecutors.
- Harold R. Wells, hired as a Tulsa police officer in 1975, was convicted on five counts, but a federal judge later dismissed one count. Wells was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, which he is serving in Minnesota.
- Three police officers - Nick DeBruin, Bruce Bonham and Bill Yelton - were acquitted on civil rights violations in two cases.
Jarrel Wade 918-581-8367
jarrel.wade@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Man convicted on drug charge asks sentence relief
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