Rape, assault charges are filed in violent attack
A Tulsa man was charged Tuesday with raping a woman earlier this month.
Richard Thompson, 52, is charged in Tulsa County District Court with first-degree rape, forcible sodomy, and domestic assault and battery by strangulation, filings show.
The 44-year-old woman told police that he demanded to have sex with her at a residence in the 3800 block of East 28th Street on Feb. 16.
She said that when she refused, Thompson "became violent and threw her to the ground" before removing her clothing and forcing her to engage in oral sex, according to an arrest report.
During the struggle, the victim bit Thompson's genitals in an effort to stop the attack, the report says.
Police said Thompson punched the woman in the head, face and body while he raped her.
Officers noted that the woman had injuries consistent with having been strangled and also had "a black eye, bruised face, swelling on her head and a busted lip."
Thompson is in the Tulsa Jail with bail set at of $130,000.
- KENDRICK MARSHALL, World Staff Writer
Man charged with using a stun gun on 5-year-old
A Tulsa man was arrested Tuesday on an accusation that he used a stun gun to discipline a 5-year-old boy he was baby-sitting.
Phillip Hudson Jr., 24, was charged that same day in Tulsa County District Court on three counts of child abuse by injury.
Prosecutors allege that Hudson injured the child with a stun gun at a residence in the 1900 block of Southwest Boulevard sometime between Feb. 19 and last Thursday.
Police were contacted Thursday after the boy complained to a teacher at Eugene Field Elementary School that his arm and shoulder were hurting after being struck with a wooden board, Cpl. Greg Smith said.
In interviews with Department of Human Services social workers and police, the boy said Hudson hit him with the board on the shoulder and elbow and shocked him with a stun gun for failing to do his homework.
The boy had 15 to 20 burn marks all over his body, Smith said.
Police said Hudson had been baby-sitting the child while the boy's mother was at work.
Hudson is in the Tulsa Jail with bail set at $300,000.
- KENDRICK MARSHALL, World Staff Writer
Two women are injured in blaze at Tulsa home
Two women were injured in a house fire early Tuesday.
Firefighters were dispatched to the 600 block of East 27th Place North just after 3 a.m., Capt. Spencer Yeager said. Flames were visible in a bedroom of the home when they arrived.
Firefighters rescued two women from inside the house, Yeager said. One other occupant had already gotten out of the house safely.
A 68-year-old woman was taken to Hillcrest Medical Center in serious condition, and a 62-year-old woman was hospitalized in fair condition, EMSA spokeswoman Kelli Bruer said.
Yeager estimated that 75 percent of the 1,200-square-foot home was damaged.
The cause of the fire was being investigated, but it did not appear to be suspicious, he said.
- AMANDA BLAND, World Staff Writer
Creek Turnpike bridge work to affect Memorial Drive
At least one lane of Memorial Drive will be closed under the Creek Turnpike bridge as repairs are made to the bridge starting Thursday evening, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority announced Tuesday.
Construction crews will begin work on the bridge at 8 p.m. Thursday to repair damage caused when an oversize load struck the bridge on Friday afternoon, Turnpike Authority spokesman Jack Damrill said.
One southbound lane under the bridge is expected to be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the repair work, and both southbound lanes will be closed temporarily at various times, Damrill said.
The work should be completed by Sunday morning, he said.
- KENDRICK MARSHALL, World Staff Writer
OSU provost set to lead University of Wyoming
STILLWATER - The University of Wyoming's Board of Trustees unanimously selected Oklahoma State University Provost and Vice President Robert Sternberg as its 24th president on Tuesday.
Sternberg, 63, will take office July 1, taking the place of retiring President Tom Buchanan. Pending the finalization of his contract, Sternberg will have an annual base salary of $425,000 for the next three years.
"I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to come to Wyoming and help the university continue moving toward its goal of becoming even more widely recognized as one of the top land-grant institutions in the country," Sternberg said.
Sternberg joined OSU in 2010, and his duties included serving as the university's chief academics officer.
He previously worked at Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he was the dean of the School of Arts and sciences from 2005 to 2010, and he held multiple jobs at Yale University from 1975 to 2005.
- SAMANTHA VICENT, World Correspondent
Day-care worker sentenced for abuse with hot sauce
OKEMAH - A former Creek Nation day-care worker was sentenced to eights months in the Okfuskee County Jail for deliberately putting hot sauce on a toddler's green beans and laughing while he cried out in pain, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Rosie Hicks, 50, of Okemah pleaded guilty Thursday in Okfuskee County District Court to one count of child abuse by injury and no contest to another count of child abuse by injury. The state dropped a third count of attempted child abuse, according to Assistant District Attorney Maxey Reilly.
Tracy Owens, 37, of Boley, a co-worker, was also charged with child abuse in the March 2012 incident.
She is scheduled to go to trial March 11.
Owens reportedly told police that she bought a bottle of habanero hot sauce at Hicks' request and watched her put the sauce on the toddler's lunch plate.
- SHEILA STOGSDILL, World Correspondent
