DEPUTY ARRESTED ON COMPLAINTS OF ABUSE, DRUGS

HOLDENVILLE - A Hughes County deputy in charge of the department's
drug dog has been arrested on complaints of sexual battery,
distributing methamphetamine and contributing to the delinquency of a
minor.

Deputy Sheriff Michael Allen Carter posted bail immediately after he
was arrested by his fellow deputies Monday.

Carter is accused of taking three teenage boys to his Holdenville home
shortly after midnight Saturday, according to court documents dated
Monday. The deputy drank beer with the teens and then sexually touched
one boy, according to the affidavit.

The teens said the deputy offered them methamphetamine, the affidavit
states. Carter told investigators the meth was in his patrol car from
a closed case, and he meant to take it to the OSBI laboratory for
destruction, according to the affidavit.

Carter, 23, admitted to a sheriff's deputy that he had given the
minors beer and had removed one boy's pants but didn't remember any
other contact, the affidavit states. Carter handles the K-9 unit for
the department.

Carter has not been charged, said Linda Evans, assistant district
attorney for Hughes County. His initial appearance in district court
will be Nov. 17, she said.

Carter was a reserve deputy for a few years and has been working full
time for about three years, Sheriff Houston Yeager said Tuesday.

The victim and the victim's family were interviewed Saturday. When
Yeager realized the accusations were against one of his own, he turned
the case over to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Carter's arrest has made Yeager ill, he said.

"I couldn't keep anything on my stomach," the sheriff said. "I'm just
now kind of getting over the shock of it all and trying to get back to
the routine of things."

Without Carter, the Hughes County sheriff's office is reduced to three
deputies.

"We were already short-handed, and this is going to throw us even
shorter," Yeager said.