Professional Documents
Culture Documents
undercover deputy. Almost as soon as the gun was out of his possession, an unmarked car
swerved into the background.
A startled Harris quickly exited the vehicle and ran north, fleeing up an empty sidewalk and into
the street, where a pursuing deputy tackled him. Seconds later, the 73-year-old Bates appeared
for a brief instant and yelled Taser! Taser! before firing a single gunshot, which struck Harris
under the right arm.
Bates said Oh, I shot him. Im sorry, and Harris could be heard crying out in shock and pain.
After Harris was shot and said he was losing his breath, one deputy yelled fuck your breath at
him. He died later that day at a Tulsa hospital.
Bates pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges Tuesday, and was granted permission to
take a planned vacation to the Bahamas, something that drew criticism from Harris family and
their attorneys.
The shootings immediate aftermath
Following the shooting, sources began to reach out to reporters, alleging that Bates had not
received the training necessary for the responsibilities he was given. However Maj. Shannon
Clark said Bates was classified as an advanced reserve deputy, a designation requiring more
than 400 hours of field training.
Bates, who became an insurance agent after serving one year as a Tulsa Police Department
officer in 1964, was a longtime friend of Glanz and assisted the sheriff when Glanzs son was in
a traffic collision years ago. He now owns Commercial Insurance Brokers Inc.
Clark said Bates had helped fund the violent crimes task force, buying guns, Tasers and
vehicles for it over the years.
That gave Bates a lot of impunity inside TCSO, sources said, though the sheriffs office has
denied that allegation.
Glanz said previously he was not aware of any prior allegations that Bates lacked necessary
training, and Clark said that perhaps Bates training records had been misplaced. TCSO policy
requires field training records to be placed directly into at least two separate files.
The Sheriffs Office produced a handful of records at an initial press conference, where they
showed video of Harris shooting. But summary documents released at that time failed to prove
that Bates had received the required training.
On Saturday, attorneys for Bates sent CNN and other media outlets more documents they
claimed were Bates training records. However, it is unclear how authentic or official those
documents were, as they included notes scrawled on Bates corporate letterhead and covered
only a fraction of his field training.
Clark has said it was possible that Bates never had that training, because Glanz had authority to
waive it.
In addition to 276 hours of basic training, advanced reserve deputies must complete and
document 480 hours of field training with a supervisor. They must also receive qualifying scores
at the firearms range. Advanced reserves are the only classification of reserve allowed to
perform duties such as arrests alone without direct supervision.
The IA investigation
Years before the fateful day -- despite Glanzs insistence he was unaware of any internal
allegations Bates lacked the necessary training -- then-Undersheriff Brian Edwards was given a
13-page document stating exactly that.
In the document, titled Special Investigation and dated Aug. 12, 2009, Sgt. Rob Lillard stated
he had been assigned by Edwards to investigate if Bates was treated differently than other
Reserve Deputies, and to see if there had been any pressure exerted on any employees by
supervisors to aid Reserve Deputy Bates in this regard.
For 10 days, Lillard researched all the TCSO training files, personnel files and hiring files of the
reserve deputies who had previously been in law enforcement before joining the sheriffs office,
as well as TCSO policies pertaining to the reserve program.
Lillard said in the report that a letter written by Cpl. Warren Crittenden on May 13, 2009, credited
Bates with 328 training hours, though only 72 hours of training were documented. Crittenden
was later fired and then years later arrested and charged with murder in the death of a man at a
Tulsa motel.
Lillard noted that Bates supposedly trained 328 hours between Feb. 5, 2009, and May 13, 2009.
For comparisons sake, another reserve deputy who began training Feb 5, 2008, a full year
before Bates began, had not even trained 200 hours by May 13, 2009.
Here are excerpts from interviews with sheriffs employees included in the IA report:
Bonnie Fiddler
Fiddler said that Undersheriff Tim Albin directed her to create a certificate for Bates driver
training.
Fiddler stated that she made the certificate and did not question the order. Fiddler stated
that she thought Randy Chapman may have been a victim of pressure for enforcing the policies
to Reserve Deputy Bates over Bates not qualifying at the range.
Kitch said he pointed out to Albin that Bates has only one year of police experience and this
occurred forty plus years ago.
Albin replied: Sometimes you have to eat shit but you dont have to develop a taste for it.
Capt. Tom Huckeby
Huckebys interview is the only interview conducted by Edwards. Though the report says the
interview was tape recorded, it should be noted that a tape malfunction occurred during the
recording, it states.
Huckeby, who oversaw the Field Training Officer program, had no responsibilities related to the
reserve deputy program. However, he was instructed by Chief Albin to re-write a memorandum
written by Corporal Warren Crittenden about Bates training.
He revised the original memorandums produced by Crittenden and subsequently had
Crittenden initial the new memorandums. That he did not intend to do anything underhanded or
unethical, but merely added the information about Bates that was discussed in a meeting.
The report then states: It should be noted that during this point in the investigation, I was
informed of other acts of intimidation on employees committed by Captain Huckeby while this
investigation was being conducted.
Sgt. Shannon Clark
According to a memo produced by Clark at the request of a superior officer, Huckeby had asked
two deputies to work a part-time security jobs outside the sheriffs office. Both refused, due to
childcare and scheduling issues.
One of the deputies said Huckeby became visibly irritated when she refused to work the parttime job and then a short time later, insisted on seeing her FTO notebook.
In his tape-recorded interview with internal affairs, Clark discusses the fact that Deputy Allen
Landsdown had failed to report or call in for work during a two-week period before a year-long
leave of absence.
When Clarks supervisor advised him to write up a No Call No Show report involving
Landsdown, Huckeby said that would be a chicken shit thing for you to do.
Huckeby told Clark it did not matter anyway because the Sheriff has already approved the
leave.
When Landsdown returned after the leave, according to Chief Michelle Robinette: Huckeby
was sharing an apartment with Landsdown and had promised him his old job back upon return.
Since all this has happened, he lost a ton of sleep, and his stomach hurt a lot because he
worries about retaliation to him because of Bates relationship with Albin and Huckeby. The rest
of the reserves are upset because of how Bates is with Albin and Huckeby.
He said he talked to another supervisor, Capt. Larry Merchant, about Bates.
Merchant told him there is nothing he can do because Bates has bought Huckeby watches and
takes them fishing and stuff.
Chapman said he had not received any training documents for Bates attendance in the field
training program. When he expressed concerns to Albin, Chapman said he was told that Bates
training officer wrote a letter and thats good enough.
Two deputies told Chapman that Bates field operations were a little scary and Albin and
Huckeby keep telling them that Bates is an ex-TPD officer from 1964.
Chapman relayed a conversation with Crittenden, who said he felt bad about signing the letters
and should not have done so and only did so because he felt pressured by Huckeby to do so.