The Grove Sun
October 22, 1996
Criminal element framed Walker?
TULSA – The trial of Ottawa County Sheriff Ed Walker, charged with taking pay-offs from area business establishments and gambling machine owners to keep quiet on their activities, got underway Monday in Federal Court in Tulsa.
Opening remarks reportedly raised the possibility of Walker being framed for cracking down on illegal gambling activities in Northeastern Oklahoma in recent months.
The trial, originally scheduled for last month, was delayed when Walker fired his attorney with the Stipe law firm out of Muskogee. He hired Tulsa attorney, Gary Richardson and the trial date was reset for Oct. 21.
The sheriff has been charged with 12 counts of extortion, illegal gambling and obstruction of justice in connection with last fall’s raid by federal agents against area business that had in operation on their premises, illegal video gambling machines.
Several business owners have testified against Walker and are accusing him of receiving money pay-offs to stay quiet. Throughout the case Walker has maintained his innocence, saying the charges are politically motivated.
“Is this a case where an honest sheriff went after the wrong people?” attorney Gary Richardson asked jurors on the first day of Walker’s corruption trial.
Attorney in the case completed jury selection and began testimony in the trial in which Walker is accused of strong-arming distributors of video poker and slot machines.
Walker, 48, is charged with five counts of extortion, four counts of aiding and abetting illegal gambling and three counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Richardson said the distributors who have agreed to testify against Walker originally denied paying bribes. They changed their stories only after being promised plea agreements “that greatly reduced their jail time exposure,” Richardson said.
“Do you think it possible that Ed Walker…because of his action against the corruption in Ottawa county…was framed by these vendors.” Richardson asked in opening statement to the jury of eight men and four women.
“I won’t ask you to answer that today, even though I’ve seen the evidence,” he said.
U.S. Attorney Steve Lewis said Walker made about $34,000 from five distributors between February 1994 and September 1995.
He said Walker “sold out for what people generally would consider walking-around money.”
Richardson described Walker as a career law officer who ran for sheriff in 1992 because the sheriff Therl Whittle “had developed a reputation for a lack of integrity.”
Not long after he defeated Whittle, Walker launched an investigation into claims that Whittle was present when a teen-ager was shot in a drug-related slaying.
The investigation resulted in a perjury charge against Whittle, who was acquitted.
As a Miami, OK. Police officer, Walker made that city’s largest drug bust and was named police officer of the year, Richardson said.
As sheriff, he helped infiltrated a huge cattle-theft operation and broke up a burglary ring responsible for 80 break-ins, the attorney said.
Walker concentrated on drugs and sales of alcohol to minors, and admits he could have taken a harder line on illegal gambling, Richardson said.
But no sheriff had taken action before to stop it “and now they’re accusing him of being on the take,” Richardson said.
He said it is curios that no busts ever took place at the local Elks lodge or Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge. Both places also had gambling devices that were supplied by the father of a local judge, Richardson said.
“The feds will say that the Elks club didn’t get busted because the feds simply ran out of manpower,” he said.
The real reason, he said is that “someone notified those clubs, and they were able to get their stuff out.”
Richardson said Walker sent out warning letters to local business men involved in gambling and told them, “I am being lenient with you, but clean up your act.”
In November 1994, Walker led a raid on several businesses and seized numerous gambling devices, Richardson said. He said District Attorney Ben Loring ordered the machines returned.
Asked later about Loring’s motivation, Richardson said, “I would like to hear Ben Loring answer that question.”
Loring, declined comment but said he expects to be subpoenaed.
“I’ll be glad to tell them everything I know,” Loring said.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Richardson said Walker’s current and former co-workers will testify that if he did take bribed, “he is not the man they knew and worked with for over 20 years.”
Walker has been on paid leave of absence form the county since his indictment by a federal grand jury last May. He continues to say that he will not accept a plea bargain if one is offered.
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