Henderson gets three more months for false testimony
BY JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
2/27/13 at 3:55 PM
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered former Tulsa police officer Jeff Henderson be held in contempt of court for false testimony last year and added three months to his prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge James Payne added three months to Henderson's previous 42-month sentence as part of his 2011 conviction in the Tulsa police corruption trial for six counts of perjury and two counts of civil rights violations.
The testimony in question was in June during the case of Tony Becknell Jr.'s petition for release, which he was later granted and his sentence was vacated.
Henderson was brought back to Tulsa from federal prison in South Dakota to testify about the alleged informant he used against Becknell during Becknell's 2005 arrest.
After Henderson identified a man he alleged to be the informant, Becknell's attorney proved the man was incarcerated in the Tulsa Jail at that time and could not have been the informant.
In his order, Payne said Henderson's testimony was "emphatic as to the identity of particular (informants), and he projected an infallible memory of the facts from numerous TPD investigations."
The federal investigation of Tulsa police officers and a federal agent began as early as 2008 and resulted in charges against six current or former Tulsa police officers and the federal agent, as well as accusations of criminal behavior against five unindicted officers.
In addition to Henderson, two other Tulsa police officers and one federal agent were convicted in the corruption probe.
At least 45 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.
At least 14 lawsuits have been filed against the city and individual police officers as a result.
Read more in Thursday's Tulsa World.
Associated Images:
Jeff Henderson
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