A Tulsa County judge has denied a petition to impanel a grand jury to investigate the death of a 19-month-old girl who drowned in a garden pond last year in Sand Springs.
Gary Schooley, the father of the toddler, Gracie Schooley, filed the petition Friday.
In an order filed Tuesday, Presiding District Judge William C. Kellough denied the petition, finding it sufficient in part and insufficient in part.
"If the petitioner seeks to proceed, he may, within the time allowed by law, delete and abandon the allegations in the section entitled 'The Disqualification of the Entire Tulsa County District Attorney's Office' or stand on the petition as a whole and appeal," the judge wrote.
By law, Schooley has two days to amend the petition to conform to the order of the judge, who will then have two days to determine whether the document meets those requirements, said Carlene Voss, who heads the Civil Division of the Tulsa County Court Clerk's Office.
Schooley had alleged that the District Attorney's Office has a conflict of interest because it failed to charge anyone in connection with the March 27, 2012, death.
The judge found that no actual or apparent conflict of interest exists.
"The Oklahoma grand jury process is intended to allow citizens an opportunity to indict wrongdoers when the District Attorney has declined or failed to act," Kellough wrote.
"Therefore, the petitioner's allegation would be applicable in nearly all grand jury proceedings. Further, the District Attorney ... is required to serve as an advisor to the grand jury."
Kellough also found "vague" and "nonspecific" and "therefore legally insufficient" allegations that certain witnesses may be former or current employees of the District Attorney's Office and that the "grand jury's inquiry may necessarily involve an investigation into the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office."
The judge did find sufficient some circumstances surrounding the toddler's death, adding that they contained "reasonably specific identification of areas to be inquired into" that could lead to information that "would warrant a true bill of indictment."
On March 27, 2012, Gracie was staying at Nita Teague's house in the 1300 block of North Northridge Court when Teague, listed in the petition as Gary Schooley's aunt, "failed to provide proper supervision of Gracie by not monitoring her properly," the petition claims.
Teague found the unresponsive toddler in a small pond in the front yard, and the child was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Gracie's cause of death is listed as drowning, and the manner of death is labeled an accident, a spokeswoman with the state Medical Examiner's Office in Tulsa said.
Schooley asks that a grand jury look into possible charges and return an indictment against his aunt not limited to child neglect, second-degree murder or second-degree manslaughter.
Rhett Morgan 918-581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Judge rejects bid for grand jury in drowned-toddler case
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