Stillwater, Ok March, 29 2023 (The Oklahoma Post) –
Stillwater City Council Members,
On October 13, 2022 I appeared in the Lincoln County Courthouse in Chandler, OK. The Honorable Emily J Mueller presided over a hearing where eyewitness testimony described harassment, intimidation, and assault that was directed at me by a few of our Stillwater Police Officers. Your current mayor and city manager have known about this assault and harassment for two years now. I have requested that the OK attorney general investigate this situation and have provided evidence that would indicate our city manager has gone so far as to interfere with the DA and with the OSBI to stop this from being investigated. The mayor has gone so far as to make a false public statement about these officers being investigated and cleared of all wrongdoing. Because the Chief of Police and City Manager have refused to investigate this situation, the mayor and staff would not even know the names of the officers he was protecting. W.R. Moon, Jr of the Collins, Zorn, and Wagner attorney firm was present when this testimony was presented in Lincoln County and represents the City of Stillwater in an aforementioned case. The Collins, Zorn, and Wagner attorney firm has access to the transcripts of the Lincoln County hearing and should have provided those transcripts to the Stillwater City Council. If that has not happened I believe every member of the Council should be very concerned. I believe that it would be highly inappropriate and unethical if the Collins, Zorn, and Wagner law firm were trying to help the City manager and the City mayor cover up this situation with Stillwater tax dollars if they were not being transparent with the Council as the policymakers and the body responsible for budget and policy in how to handle these situations.
I believe it would be appropriate for the Stillwater City Council to request an investigation and updates from the OK Attorney General as well as the OK State Auditor to make sure that these matters are being addressed fully and that the Council is getting appropriate information from staff and outside counsel. No matter how well intended a mayor or manager may be in their intent to cover up these types of situations, it is disrespectful to the vast majority of our good police officers, our community, and the rest of the City staff to ignore what is going on.
Thank you for your time,
Darrell Dougherty
(Writing by Darrell Dougherty, Letter To The Editor; Editing by Robbie Robertson)
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