The Tulsa Tribune
Friday, August, 19, 1983
Draper, Fitzgibbon convicted
By Jim Gipson
Tribune State Writer
MUSKOGEE – Dan Draper 
and Joe Fitzgibbon appeared confident just after lunch Thursday, striding the hallways of federal court when a jury began deliberating their guilt.
Seven hours later, the speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and his floor leader sat like statues.
Their children cried.
With 20 guilty verdicts, jurors labeled the powerful lawmakers convicted election tamperers.
Draper, D-Stillwater, became the highest ranking Oklahoma politician to be convicted of a felony while in office.
Draper and his friend Fitzgibbon, of Miami, could face political ruin, prison
and fines.
Looming before Draper is possibly a maximum 55 years in prison and $18,000 penalty.
An appeal is certain.
Jurors believed evidence presented by U.S.Attorney Gary Richardson.
They ignored impassioned pleas of innocence shouted in closing arguments by defense attorneys Bruce Green and state Sen. Gene Stipe, D-McAlester.
The indictments alleged the lawmakers tried to cheat Adair County voters of a fair election in September 1982 by helping a family of admitted election fixers get votes for 73-year-old Dan Draper II.
They did it, jurors unanimously agreed, by helping the campaigners mail absentee ballots which had been illegally obtained, marked and authenticated in a race Draper’s father lost.
Testimony showed the influential men began working with the Girdner family, the matriarch of which testified fraudulent absentee balloting has flourished unchecked in Adair County for three generations.
“It was obvious the jury looked at the evidence piece by piece,” said Richardson.
“This is proof that our system works,” he said, “Nothing is more important to our system of government than to have fair elections.”
The prosecution’s theme centered around Assistant U.S. Attorney Donn Barker’s statement to jurors that “nobody is above the law.”
The legislators – Draper stonefaced and Fitzgibbon forcing a smile past watery eyes – refused to comment after their trial.
While Richardson stood in the noon-hour brightness of television lights outside the courthouse, the speaker and majority leader were interviewed by federal probation and parole officers.
The jury began deliberating at 12:20 p.m. after hearing closing arguments and instructions from U.S. District Judge Frank H. Seay.
Jurors stayed about five minutes before asking to go to lunch. They returned at 1:26 p.m. and the vigil began.
Chatting with friends, the powerful Democratic legislators seemed satisfied nobody would believe they fixed absentee voting.
But hour after hour, the 12 eastern Oklahoma jurors stayed in their tiny room, shielded by opaque glass and a stern U.S. marshal from the beehive of hallway conversations.
Grins and pats on the back turned to tight-lipped frowns and tiny…
U.S. Attorney Gary Richardson, who prosecuted the case, said the system had worked.
He again called defense charges that he had prosecuted the case for political reasons – “ridiculous.”
“That (politics) doesn’t happen in the federal system,” he said. “We have a grand jury system that returns indictments and asks the U.S. attorney’s office to prosecute.
“This case was handled by U.S. postal inspectors, who are not connected with this office.
“I get no joy out of prosecuting anybody,” he said.
Draper left the courthouse and was immediately surrounded by reporters.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” he said. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I’d like to be excused, now,” he said. “I’d like to visit with my mother and father.”
As the horde of reporters and photographers trailed him down the street, he repeated his plea. Most of the newsmen turned back.
Fitzgibbon left the building a few minutes later.
“I have no comment at this time,” he told the waiting reporters.
During the closing arguments Thursday, defense lawyer Gene Stipes told the jury that they would soon forget the decision they would make.
“But Dan Draper and Joe Fitzgibbon and their families will have to live with it the rest of their lives,” he said.
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