Miami News-Record
Sunday, November 3, 1996
Defense opens for Walker
By Ron Holmes
Miami News-Record
TULSA – The action began Friday morning, even before the jury was brought into the courtroom, with a discussion of an apparently garbled tape and of a subpoena for a federal agent in the 2-week-old trial of Ottawa County Sheriff James “Ed” Walker. Walker is charged with 12 counts of illegal gambling extortion and obstruction of justice in connection with the raid by federal agents last fall of several area businesses and the seizure of video gambling devices.
Federal Judge H. Dale Cook, who had listened to the tape the night before in order to determine whether he would allow it as evidence, upheld an objection by the defense, saying, “I don’t think the jury could tell who was actually talking without some guidance. I played it over and over.” The judge did say, however, that portions of the tape which were audible concerned a discussion of Walker and the alleged 10-percent payoffs.
Defense attorney Gary Richardson told the court that he planned to subpoena the federal agent who executed the Sept. 14, l995 search warrant on the establishment of Commerce vending machine operator Hubert East. East testified Thursday that a list of purported, payoffs to Walker was in his establishment at the time of the raid but were not seized by federal agents. East presented the list to federal authorities several months after the raid and testified as part of a plea bargain. Throughout the trial Richardson has questioned the veracity of the federal witnesses, maintaining there was a conspiracy among the vendors and bar owners to frame Walker.
When U.S. Attorney Steve Lewis indicated he might not have the authority to produce the agent, Cook told Richardson, “Get your subpoena, I’ll sign it. I’m sure that the FBI and the IRS will cooperate.”
After the jury was brought into the courtroom, Richardson performed some damage control, cross-examining IRS Agent John Gillette who testified Thursday regarding the numerous telephone calls exchanged between the machine vendors and the Walker residence or the sheriff’s office. Richardson whittled away at the number of calls, showing that many could not have represented actual conversations because of their brevity, that most originated from the vendors, and that they did not necessarily continue throughout the time frame of the alleged payoffs.
Gillette, who analyzed the phone calls based on long-distance toll records, also testified that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had made the decision to not look for calls past the date of the raid. He said that he did not recall seeing any calls made the day of the raid or later.
As its first witness, the defense called Terry Durborow, Emergency Management director of Ottawa County and former undersheriff under Walker. Durborow told the court that he and Walker. Durborow told the court that he and Walker met with the district attorney to discuss using an undercover agent to investigate illegal gambling.
“Did Walker ever do anything to obstruct or prevent you or any deputy, or interfere in any way with your handling of video gambling?” Richardson asked.
“No sir,” Durborow said.
But under cross-examination by Lewis, Durborow said he was aware of only one person making an official contribution to the Sheriff’s Department while he was there and said that Walker had made several large purchases, including a house and a van.
Lewis asked Durborow, perhaps more for the benefit of the jury than to elicit additional information, whether he was aware that Walker had made false statements on bank loan applications, had been suspended for three days from the Miami Police Department for a false sick-leave claim and had filed false insurance claims.
“Not that I’m aware of,” said Durborow.
Ottawa County Undersheriff Mike Smith then testified, telling the court that Walker had never interfered with any matter concerning video gambling. But under cross-examination, Smith said that he had not investigated gambling machines in Ottawa County and had not been aware of any problems.
Ricky Dale Estep, Walker’s brother-in-law, testified that he worked briefly for vending machine operator Mike Roberts, and that he never heard any discussion of payoffs. He said that while he was present when the money from the gambling machines was counted, he never saw Roberts separate out 10 percent as Roberts had testified he had done. Estep also told the jury that he had taken the money to the bank a couple of times and said that he might have telephoned Roberts from Walker’s residence.
Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma Police Chief Bill Neely and Wyandotte Chief of Police Terry Butterfield both testified that acting on the instructions of Walker they had visited a bar in eastern Ottawa County and told the owner that there had been complaints of illegal gambling machines and to get rid of them or, "we’ll be back.”
But both also admitted they had written their reports of the incident following the September raid
Throughout his direct examination of Friday’s witnesses, Richardson suffered strings of sustained objections to his questions. “The questions I was asking was an effort to give the jury the opportunity to know the man,” he said following Friday’s session. “You don’t just judge someone, you judge the person. I was trying to present evidence to help them know who the man is.”
He trial resumes Monday and closing arguments are expected by Wednesday.
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