Shawnee, Ok October, 16 (The Oklahoma Post)-
In a script wild enough for Stallone’s “Tulsa King” (foreshadowing), an Oklahoma Judge in Chandler (District 23) has dismissed petitions for protective orders filed by Darrel Dougherty, a former City of Stillwater Council member and current businessman. The pleadings ( No. PO-2022-276) were concerning a request for protection from longtime City Of Stillwater City Manager Norm McNickle, Judges Michael Kulling and Stephen Kistler, as well as Logan and Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas. If the allegations prove true, it appears the mafia has indeed made it to the great plains.
In Mueller’s order denying the petition, she checked the reasons as “the petition and supporting documentation do not state facts that meet the requirements of the Protection of Domestic Abuse Act” and “Petitioner’s requested relief cannot be granted in this proceeding. [The] Petitioner may address these issues and concerns in another cause of action (i.e. guardianship, family law, criminal law, probate, an emergency order of detention or other civil matters.).” Meaning that Doughtery needs to file his allegations through a petition with District Attorney, as domestic protection order laws are very narrow in application.
Dougherty has been involved in a lawsuit against the City of Stillwater and Oklahoma DHS in regard to investigations and testimony being disregarded in local courts. Dougherty and several families have accused the City of negligence in failing to investigate child abuse, dereliction of duty, aiding and abetting the withholding of children, and violations of Oklahoma Statute §21-976 failure of officers or prosecutors to perform duties under state law. In this case, perjury and subornation of perjury involving the cover-up by officials to not rule on the testimony of DHS disclosures by minors in the care of his ex-wife’s partner.
In the complaint, statements included extensive allegations of physical assaults, threats of violence, stalking and workplace harassment among the accusations were due to several acts of vandalism and an alleged assault by police. There were statements verified on the stand of officers allowing gross disclosures to be completely dismissed and officers instructed to omit information-clearing citizens. We asked Darrel if any of the pleadings had to do with rumors of him running as the future candidate for Tom Duggars soon to be open State Senate seat, “Absolutely not. There is nothing frivolous about my actions. I don’t ever know what is the best course of action, except to keep fighting this corruption. I just know that I have to keep fighting for my kids, your kids, and all the others that have run into this system.” Dougherty stated.
Many of the families whom have cases, ranging from the years of 2011 until 2022, have claimed that even if DHS was not involved, the cases of reported abuse were filtered and delegated by McNickle. Depending on who you are, would determine how police respond to your case. These facts are a general sentiment of the families. The defendants’ actions were often outside of policy and the officers would give alternative statements or withhold evidence for people represented by certain court-favored attorneys. In other words, the actors would target the reporters of the abuse whether the complaint was made to Oklahoma DHS or Stillwater area law enforcement, in some cases working to deny parenting time, or attempting the outright forcing of “legal” adoptions of the minor children as a form of retaliation.
Ignoring the law, failure to prosecute, and coercive control are alleged complaints by several local parents. While being held at the Payne County Jail on child support charges, one parent who had been placed into solitary confinement before being released from Payne County jail after two months, lost his visitation and was told he could only regain his parental rights upon the unconstitutional condition he provide proof of mental health treatment, with the ruling of the judge appearing to have taken place based on private medical records that the father was using his prescribed epilepsy and stroke medication while in the county jail, which was private information. Because the judge had to back-peddle on a secret ex parte hearing, the client had no representation on the matters, and no evidence was actually presented in open court in the presence of the parent, the Judge recused from the case at a later hearing. The petitioner then attempted to state they had no information, certainly for cause, through their numerous fraudulent filings allowed by the overly favorable judge. The next judge, seeing the error in the court’s actions, refused to provide rulings, favorable or not, that could then be removed to the State Supreme Court. The attorney for the mother left a trail of professional destruction prior to her assumed forced retirement. The plain as day, straight down the tracks reason for no trial, no representation, or no information presented at that time of the hearing. The mediation attempts were simply the mother requesting the adoption of the children. In all, similar cases the State Of Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled and sent it back to the district courts for re-ruling. Can you say Due Process Violations? Frivolous? Anything?
The court allowed several motions to compel to be filed by opposing counsel attempting to later gain access to the private health information of the parent, further delaying the parent’s day in court and prolonging the parent’s inability to see his minor children. At no time did the parent give anyone the right to access his private medical information from the jail. How was the information obtained? Who had access? Why was the parent never allowed to hear the basis for the suspension of his visitation rights? The court, since 2017, has not allowed the hearing to provide that illegally required “proof.” Nor will City private investigators take information from the father in regards to videos and phone conversations the father had recorded between the father and the children claiming they do not want to be with the mother or near a second unnamed person, and appearing in great spirits with the father, despite being removed from the father and left with the alleged abuser for fifty-six (56) days in retaliation for the father filing the complaint.
We wanted to get a documented timeline of these families’ causes and ultimately were supplied with information of similar cases of targeting involving City Of Stillwater City Manager Norm McNickle during and after his time as Police Chief. From police informants to friends of McNickle’s children, bad bridge projects and nonexistent covid centers have never been the worst of outcomes for area residents. The sources supplied evidence in review from the Giannetti case of child removal, harassment, and Giannetti’s wife’s 2003 death (knee on neck) while in city custody that was brought in federal court. There were numerous cases, including Giannetti, in which protection was denied and death was the outcome. Hence an example of the need for Dougherty to be given a protection order and a revamped Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Presently, OSBI works as a repository only, with little ability to stop the klanning of local officials.
Many families had one-time attorney Ky Corley, son of Judge Phillip Corley, as representation in their cases. Corley was arrested for DUI and Adderral possession then failed to abide by the conditions of his probation. Corley was never punished by the Oklahoma State Bar General Counsel Gina Hyndrix, despite repeated arrests and driving an altered second vehicle, against the terms of his probation and sentence.
I digress, back to Dougherty. Because Dougherty’s case involved allegations of under-the-color-of-law activities and was based upon evidence tied to a criminal allegation against the local officials, the case was moved out of Payne County shortly after his Sept. 26, 2022 filing.
The petitions for emergency protective orders against the gaggle had been filed with a technical overstep, including people in the protection order, that would not go on to be the core defendants alleged in the Petition.
Dougherty provided a statement to The Oklahoma Post:
“I fully understand why Judge Mueller had to rule that my request for a protective order did not meet statutory requirements. I was seeking a very broad protective order in hopes to find relief from the unfair treatment my family has been through. I will certainly be seeking further legal action to protect my family. We will be considering Judge Mueller’s opinion that court testimony would more appropriately indicate a need for more direct protective orders against individuals, a complaint of abuse of power by Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle, and a filing for dereliction of duty naming Payne County District Attorney Laura Thomas.
I remember just 15 years ago when Stillwater was consistently named as a Top 10 safest city in Oklahoma. Now we rank towards the bottom of this list. This is not an indictment of our good law-enforcement officers. When a judicial system becomes comfortable allowing fraud and perjury in the courtroom, justice is hard to find. When a district attorney refuses to do her job prosecuting criminals, citizens are not protected. There is no way that a city manager should be inserting himself in a place where he chooses winners and losers in the community. It is way past time for our for city council members to be asking many more questions of our mayor and our city manager.”
-Darrell Dougherty
McNickle’s attorney filed a response claiming the suit was “frivolous.” What’s frivolous are due process violations and HIPPA violations that attempt to time out citizens from exercising their rights to court hearings. Dougherty’s response to the objection was filed on October 12, 2022. Dougherty believes that McNickle, people under his charge, and long-time associate’s actions were in fact harassment and that McNickle had created a “false narrative” to discredit Dougherty and others. We were provided a letter to the state that outlined the complaint against the officer and the DHS worker. While we agree with some of the stances Dougherty has, that his complaint is valid against McNickle and the officers, some of the named experts in his corner have greatly harmed other families in Payne County at the, believed, direction of local favored adoption attorneys.
Dougherty claimed that McNickle, as the decision maker, had engaged in “a pattern of behavior that has allowed and enabled Defendant’s agents and counterparts in law enforcement to continue behaviors that cause the Plaintiff (Dougherty) and Plaintiff’s family to feel frightened, intimidated, threatened and harassed. Plaintiff states that the following actions have been committed against Plaintiff or Plaintiff’s family by Defendant or Defendant’s agents.”
Similar accusations are piling up and the policy for the city to behave in this manner is not compatible with federal law. Dougherty and other state-wide politicians are the focus of The Oklahoma Post series “Parenting Twice as Hard for Half a Chance- Part 8”, which zooms in on the facts of their family and domestic court cases which include allegations of abuse and cover-ups that would sicken the strongest of stomachs, but still have full access to their children; this in contrast to people of color and indigent parents across the state who are still waiting to absorb the benefits of the 2018 Family First Act.
(Writing by Robbie Robertson; Editing by Robbie Robertson)
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