Tulsa World
Saturday, August 13, 1983
Prosecution Takes Nosedive on Draper
By Rob Martindale
Of the World Staff
MUSKOGEE – The government’s case against House
Speaker Dan Draper fell apart and appeared to be in ruins Friday when two key witnesses disagreed on whether the lawmaker was present when election ballots were illegally voted and notarized.
The prosecution of the powerful Stillwater lawmaker took a nosedive one day after a confident U.S. Attorney Gary Richardson said the government was primed to launch its strongest evidence of the trial.
But the government’s own witnesses put it on the defense Friday.
Six government witnesses went to the stand on the fifth day of testimony and prosecutors tried to impeach two of them by challenging
their testimony.
Draper and House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon are on trial here on charges of falsifying absentee ballots in a 1982 Adair County election involving Draper’s father.
The elder Draper lost the Sept. 21 runoff election in question.
The government tried to impeach former state Rep. Bob Parris and Deputy Sequoyah County Court Clerk Faye Newton, both of Sallisaw.
Mrs. Newton, accompanied to the courthouse by an attorney, and John Girdner both placed Draper at a rural grocery store, described by prosecutors as a small-scale bogus ballot mill, on Sept. 14.
Mrs. Newton said Draper was there, but not in the back room when she was notarizing bogus ballots, some of which were being illegally voted by Girdner.
Girdner said the House speaker was.
Mrs. Newton and Girdner said there was no wrongdoing by Draper in the back room of the Girdner family grocery store south of Stilwell.
Sources close to Bruce Green the House Speaker’s attorney, said he will make a vigorous bid for a directed acquittal when the government rests its case early next week.
Draper is believed to be the highest Oklahoma public official ever prosecuted while in office.
Any decision on a directed acquittal from the bench could put the presiding U.S. District Frank Seay in the hot seat because the case is politically sensitive.
The House speaker is a Democrat and the U.S. attorney is a Republican. Draper’s attorneys have claimed that the federal grand jury indictment was politically motivated, a charge called “ridiculous” by Richardson.
The government will try to revive its case Monday, when at least two other people who were in the back room of the grocery store are expected to be called as prosecution witnesses.
The government’s case got off to a shaky start Friday when Parris, named as an unindicted co-conspirator by the grand jury, followed his wife, Caroll to the witness stand.
Caroll Parris admitted to the court that she illegally notarized 42 ballots out of the presence of voters in the Aug. 24 primary election for Barney Girdner, a losing candidate in the same race involving Draper’s father.
Barney Girdner, who said his family controlled some absentee votes in Adair County, supported the elder Draper in the runoff.
Bob Parris said the House speaker called him about one week before the election and asked him to get a notary public for him. Mrs. Parris said she refused and told her husband, “Naw, I ain’t notarizing nothing, I’m going bowling.”
After calling the law offices of five attorneys, Parris said he called the Sequoyah County court clerk’s office and Mrs. Parris agreed to notarize the ballots at the grocery store.
Parris said he knew that there was a federal vote fraud investigation under way in Adair County and that it had been publicized.
Prosecutors claim that the House speaker and Barney Girdner were involved in a conspiracy to falsify ballots, and questioned Parris about why he didn’t stop Draper from going to the grocery store.
Parris said he knew that Draper had “better sense than to get involved in some ridiculous deal… there was nothing in the papers that the Girdners were involved in the investigation.”
John Girdner claims that Draper left the store with about 30 of the ballots after having a discussion with his father, Barney Girdner, about when to mail the ballots.
Mrs. Newton said Draper paid her $40 for notarizing ballots for his father’s campaign.
Barney Girdner pleaded guilty to one count of vote fraud conspiracy after the government agreed not to prosecute his son and wife.
Fitzgibbon, who is named with Draper in a 20-count indictment, was rarely mentioned in Friday’s testimony.
Defense attorneys made another motion for a mistrial Friday on grounds that the U.S. attorney had held an improper “news conference” with a reporter.
The judge asked attorneys to file briefs concerning the motion.
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