A district attorney who previously investigated a Claremore police officer planned to file perjury charges before having the case reassigned to a different prosecutor by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, records show.
District Attorney Janice Steidley, who is the target of a grand jury petition seeking a probe into alleged misconduct, called a news conference Friday in Tulsa to dispute comments made Wednesday by Claremore Police Chief Stan Brown.
While announcing an intent to ask the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into allegations of wrongdoing by Steidley, Brown said that representatives of the AG’s Office had told the police chief that no perjury charge will be filed against Claremore Investigator John Singer regarding a 2011 rape case.
District Attorney Dennis Smith, who serves Beckham, Custer, Ellis, Rogers Mills and Washita counties, was assigned in August to investigate allegations of perjury by Singer.
But in a letter dated Wednesday to Bryce Lair, an assistant district attorney for Steidley, District Attorney Rex Duncan (Osage and Pawnee counties) wrote that he had intended to file a perjury charge before the AG’s Office reassigned the case to Smith on Aug. 12.
“My office was prepared to file felony perjury charges against Claremore Police Investigator John Singer, pending the completion of the OSBI investigation I requested,” Duncan wrote.
“To the best of my recollection, I’ve never met Stan Brown, and I don’t know where he got his information” about no agency pursuing a charge against Singer.
Steidley on Jan. 11 recused herself from the Singer case and asked the AG’s Office to appoint another prosecutor. Duncan wrote that he was appointed to the case January 24.
Singer, Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton and another Claremore police officer are among the six people who requested a grand jury investigation into Steidley and other Rogers County officials.
That petition was deemed sufficient for circulation last week by a Grady County judge, and a drive is underway to compile the 4,480 signatures necessary to convene a grand jury.
In January, Steidley introduced into the court record documents questioning Singer’s credibility, determining that alleged misstatements by him related to a criminal case constituted “impeachment evidence” that the prosecutor is required to disclose, records show.
A 1963 Supreme Court case, Giglio v. the United States, mandated that the prosecution in a criminal case should disclose any and all information that might be used to impeach the credibility of prosecution witnesses, including law enforcement officers.
In the grand jury petition, Singer claims that Steidley and Lair manufactured allegations of perjury against him after Singer publicly criticized her office and they learned that Singer’s wife was considering a run for district attorney.
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