OFFICERS TO APPEAL FIRINGS

FORT GIBSON -- The police chief and at least one of two officers question
their firing by trustees Monday and say they'll appeal.

Trustees voted unanimously to fire Raymond Pease, chief for almost 18
years. They also voted 3-2 to fire Tom Benge, an officer of 14 years, and
Juston Hutchinson, who has been with the department about three years.

''Even though we feel we're an employer at will, we're affording them all
the due process that's appropriate,'' Fort Gibson city attorney James
Carnagey said.

The three were fired for several reasons after trustees met in executive
session. Among the grounds were insubordination, failure to follow policies
and procedures, and conduct unbecoming an officer, attorneys for the men
said.

Town Clerk Deborah Daniels said Wednesday she hadn't had time to transcribe
a tape of the meeting and didn't know all of the grounds on which the men
were fired.

Pease's attorney, Mark Thetford, said, ''We think there's adequate defenses
to all of these accusations.''

Trustees have met several times in executive session about the police
department since Jan. 28. Some of the executive sessions have included
interviews with police officers.

Town officials have refused to publicly discuss the police inquiry. On Feb.
23, trustees suspended Pease, Benge and Hutchinson with pay.

Attorneys for Pease and Benge said the firings are due in part because of a
drug investigation that resulted in the Jan. 23 arrest of Nancy Lloyd
Whyles, 39, at her Pawnee County home.

Whyles is charged in Pawnee County District Court with possessing the drug
Rohypnol, commonly known as the ''date rape'' drug.

The drug makes users drowsy and can cause memory lapses when given in
significant amounts, prosecutors said.

Whyles also is charged with using a 16-year-old girl to distribute the
drug, which is a controlled dangerous substance in Oklahoma.

According to information filed in the case, the girl is the daughter of a
Fort Gibson city government employee. She has not been charged.

Hutchinson was investigating a Rohypnol problem at the local high school,
and the investigation led to the girl. Hutchinson alleged that the girl had
200 Rohypnol pills in her possession when he confronted her.

Hutchinson, the girl and her father met with a Pawnee County sheriff's
deputy Jan. 23. The girl told Hutchinson she had met Whyles at Whyles' home
and in Muskogee and had taken bags of Rohypnol and methamphetamine to
another friend to be sold.

With Whyles' consent, lawmen searched her home later that night and found
an estimated 600 pills that lab tests showed were Rohypnol.

Pease has said he didn't think the drug investigation could have been
handled differently. Thetford said trustees have other allegations against
his client.

''There were 14 grounds against the chief. I think two of them involved the
improper investigation of these date rape pills, but we don't know exactly
what he did or didn't do,'' Thetford said.

Benge's attorney, Gene Primomo, said his client was fired ''basically for
failing to communicate within the department.'' He said that Benge was
given information about Rohypnol being sold by one high school student to
another, so Benge called a county drug task force agent.

When Benge called the school the next day, he was told by the principal
that Hutchinson already was investigating. Trustees then started their
inquiry and are accusing Benge of lying to them about the drug
investigation, Primomo said.

''I think Tom Benge was roped into this deal when he really didn't have
anything to do with it,'' Primomo said.

A due-process hearing for Benge is scheduled April 2. Pease also is asking
for a hearing. Hutchinson and his attorney couldn't be reached Wednesday
for comment.

Meanwhile, Fort Gibson on Tuesday hired Richard Slater, a retired Muskogee
police captain, as interim police chief. He will be paid $2,300 a month,
Carnagey said.