Oklahoma Criminal Defense Blog

Since Oklahoma banned the unregulated sale of pseudoephedrine in 2004, the availability of methamphetamine declined for a while. Now it’s coming back.  Last year, 743 meth labs were discovered, and this year is on track to exceed that at 300 labs seized to date.  Most of the labs were of the one-pot lab variety, also called “shake-and-bake” process of cooking or concocting meth.  Most of them have been located in Northeast part of the state or around the Tulsa area.

Last May, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control found one one-pot lab in Oklahoma City, while 23 were discovered in Tulsa.  The ingredients are cheap: one 20-ounce bottle of water, pseudoephedrine, camp fuel, chemical ice packs and some other easily-obtained materials are all it takes to make some meth with this method.  Recipes can be found online, along with step-by-step videos explaining how to do it.

So far this year, the state’s Medical Examiner has identified 26 deaths associated with meth, from overdoses of meth to burns from accidents in the cooking process.  Nathan Knapp of Luther was one of those, burned with third-degree burns from an accidental fire and later died.  No chemists are needed to try this process, no laboratory, and they usually yield only enough for the cook’s own addiction.  But sometimes several people will contribute pseudoephedrine to share in the product.

In the year before the regulation of pseudoephedrine went into effect, the number of labs exceeded 1200.  The number shrank by 90% until the one-pot labs started springing up in 2008.  Mexican cartels brought their product to Oklahoma to meet the demand with ice, a crystallized, smokable meth.  Last month, agents arrested one Albert Gomez-Gomez, whom they claim is a member of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, here to establish an operation to rival the established Juarez Cartel.

The OBNDD claims 20% of the meth consumed in Oklahoma comes from Mexico, brought overland on the highways.  The agency also claims to have b locked 54,349 sales of pseudoephedrine since enactment of the law last November that requires a would-be purchaser to provide his date of birth and Oklahoma driver’s license.  They claim that prevents those previously convicted of meth-related crimes from purchasing pseudoephedrine for up to 10 years.  They are still pushing to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug.

Ingestion of meth triggers release of dopamine, a neurochemical in the brain.  Meth causes high amounts of dopamine to collect in the brain, causing a rush of euphoria.  It makes the user wanting more.  Too much dopamine in the brain causes schizophrenia, a condition characterized by delusions, hallucinations and bizarre behavior.  Too little pseudoephedrine causes Parkinson’s disease and affects motor areas of the brain.

A meth addict will do whatever he can to get more.  Well known is the addictive aspect of meth, psychologically, of course, but also physiologically and neurologically, such that, once use of meth is stopped, the user should have medical supervision.  That’s for those lucky enough to quit.

Two off-duty Oklahoma City Police department sergeants have been charged with “Drive-by Shooting.”  Sgt. Diron Carter and Sgt. Michael McKethan  were arrested, posted $25,000 bond each and were released.  Carter is a eight-year veteran and McKethan is a seven-year veteran of the police force.

The law against “drive-by” shootings was the result of gang shootings and was enacted to punish them.  From the facts made public about these charges, it doesn’t look a “drive-by” shooting took place at all.  It looks like the police officers are overcharged here, but that is par for the course for state prosecutions.  Criminal defense lawyers face this every day.  Unlike federal prosecutors, Oklahoma at least, state prosecutors routinely file charges that stretch to the absolute maximum penalty any charge possibly supportable under the law.  It is called “overcharging” because the charge does not fairly describe the nature of the offense.  The police are very much aware of this and usually involved in it.  So these police officers, who have participated for years in this  practice of over-charging and have no doubt enjoyed thus using this leverage to squeeze bad guys, to intimidate them to plead guilty, are now facing its wrath.

What happened in this ?  The facts alleged are that Carter and McKethan, off-duty at the time, went to Night Trips, a local strip club.  McKethan reportedly spoke to one of the strippers, whose child may be the child of McKethan. Police received a call that shots had been fired outside the bar, and witnesses reported that a man in a white sport utility vehicle was throwing  bottles as he drove through the stip club parking lot.  When the witnesses confronted the two men in the sport vehicle about their conduct, an argument ensued.  Eventually, the passenger, allegedly Sgt. Carter, is reported to have leaned out of the sport vehicle with a handgun, saying  “You want to see my baby Glock?”  He then fired a single shot.

Investigators later recovered a .40 caliber shell casing in the street, which allegedly came from a “baby Glock,” which is firearm carried by off-duty policeman.  Further verification of the event was obtained when investigators also recovered a slug they dug out of a metal wall at a nearby laundry supply business.  The prosecution alleges the shot was fired “in the direction of several bystanders.”  This will be the critical fact that will fuel the charge, the essential factoid that takes the charge beyond a mere technical violation and lights a fire under the jury.  True, no one was hurt, but someone could have been killed!  That will be the prosecutor’s argument.

Later Sgt. Carter admitted to being at the club that night but denied being involved in anything relating to a shot being fired.  Still later, Carter is reported to have told a fellow officer that “it was an accidental shooting.”

Both Carter and McKethan are on administrative leave while facing the charges, paid at all times by the faithful tax-payers of Oklahoma City.   Of course, they are presumed innocent of the charges until a jury finds them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.   But many other people are charged with a crime and are immediately fired.  No one pays them to make their way through the legal system.  Any criminal defense lawyer would want that for his client.  No doubt this status of being on administrative leave with pay while awaiting disposition of the criminal charges comes from the police contract with the City of Oklahoma City.  The Fraternal Order of Police negotiates the police contract every few years, and the contract always contains provisions like this.