DA ACCUSED OF CIVIL RACKETEERING

Lawsuit Also Names Chief of Staff, Drug Task Force Members

State audit findings involving forfeiture documents in Muskogee County
District Attorney John David Luton's office issued in August:

The notice of seizure was not filed for all items seized and sold by
the district attorney.

Seized property was not sold nor recorded on the district attorney's
inventory records.

Seized property was returned to "rightful" owners without any court
action or record of the "rightful owners" claim to the property.

Seized property was converted to district use without a court
order.

Seized property converted to district use was not recorded on
inventory records. The audit recommendation states: "State statutes
concerning property forfeiture should be followed closely to prevent
any recourse by defendants after property is sold. Inventory records
should reflect all forfeitures on hand."

The audit report did state proper records were kept of items sold at
auction.

A civil racketeering lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court
targets the Muskogee County district attorney, his chief of staff and
drug task force members.

It comes on the heels of an investigation by a team of private
investigators dispatched by an Oklahoma City law firm to investigate
District Attorney John David Luton's office and alleged illegal
forfeitures.

Attorney Robert Haupt said anytime his office brings an action against
a law enforcement agency or the government, "we look at that with a
great deal of skepticism before bringing that action. We take the
claims we're making very seriously and bring them very
reluctantly.

"I can tell you we've spent a lot of time and effort working with a
team of private investigators in this matter and what we found just
stinks."

Luton and his chief of staff and chief investigator, Gary Sturm, could
not be reached for comment. Sturm did not return a message left on his
home phone and no one answered repeated calls to Luton's home Friday
evening.

The lawsuit also follows a critical state audit report issued in
August citing Luton's office failed to follow state statutes for all
items seized and sold.

In the Friday filing in U.S. District Court in Muskogee, Luton and
Sturm are accused of conspiring with the office's drug task force
members in July 2002 to:

Deprive Kimm Bushey, a local mechanic, of more than $5,000 in tools in
retaliation for his telling his wife, an employee in Luton's office at
the time, about allegedly illegal activities involving property seized
by Luton's drug task force.

Form an enterprise to conspire and engage in numerous acts of overt
extortion in order to obtain and keep the Busheys from reclaiming
their property, much of which was missing by the time a court ordered
the property returned.

Falsely threaten the Busheys that Michael Baude, the subject of a drug
task force search warrant, would come forward and testify Kimm Bushey
was involved in a drug cooking operation. The racketeering allegation
also claims drug task force member Richard "Dick" Huitt attempted to
obstruct justice by calling Kimm Bushey's witnesses and making
threatening statements designed to intimidate them from testifying and
telling them that Kimm Bushey was a dope dealer and drug cooker.

The suit alleges Bushey had told his wife, Ruth Bushey, that while
working as a mechanic at Muskogee Auto Works he noticed parts from
vehicles seized by Luton's drug task force were being removed and
installed in vehicles under repair at the auto shop.

Ruth Bushey alleges she reported her husband's observations to Sturm
on July 5, 2002. On that same day, when Kimm Bushey allegedly went to
the Muskogee Auto Works and tried to find some of his auto repair
tools, the doors were closed and the locks had been changed.

Three days later, Kimm Bushey filed a police report on the missing
tools and moved his remaining tools from Muskogee Auto Works to an
out-building at 1940 Brockway in Muskogee.

Two days later, a search warrant was issued for 2000 Brockway, and
task force members searched and seized property from a garage at that
address.

The affidavit for the search warrant involved the task force's further
investigation into the manufacture of methamphetamine and drug
trafficking at the residence, occupied by Baude and Crystal Renee Parris.

The suit alleges that during the search, and without a warrant, task
force members searched an out-building on the property at 1940
Brockway and seized Bushey's tools.

The suit alleges the warrantless seizure of the tools deprived the
Busheys of their property in violation of their constitutional right
to be free from an illegal search and seizure of property.

The suit alleges Ruth Bushey was harassed at work and suffered severe,
relentless and intolerable work conditions and that defendants knew of
those intolerable work conditions.

The suit alleges a hostile work environment was created to discourage
the Busheys from asserting their First Amendment rights of speech and
to recover their wrongfully seized property.

Muskogee County Undersheriff Juston Hutchinson is named as a defendant
for his part in the execution of the search warrant. Hutchinson and
Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson said deputies assist drug task
force members in executing search warrants and that the task force
members in turn assist them.

Hutchinson said he left the site after the area was secured and took
no part in the search and seizure.

Also named in the suit are: Sam Taylor, Richard Morris and Jason
Bradley, investigators in Luton's office; Huitt, employed by Luton;
Mike Morrison, a county deputy who assisted the task force during the
search that resulted in Bushey's tools being seized. Stanley Slader,
who stores some of the items Luton's office seizes and stored some of
Bushey's tools, also is named as a defendant.

The suit alleges Sturm, Huitt and the investigators began a systematic
pattern of harassment and intimidation of Ruth Bushey while she was at
work. She said they made gestures such as rattling their handcuffs as
they walked by her. She asserted they engaged in aggressive body
language and made statements that she should keep quiet. It caused her
to be frightened and concerned for her personal safety and the safety
of her family, the suit states.

The suit alleges defendants also made defamatory statements to Ruth
Bushey and others that Kimm Bushey was a drug dealer and drug cooker.

After a district judge denied the prosecution's petition for
forfeiture as to Bushey's tools, Luton's office admitted some of
Bushey's property the judge ordered released already had been sold at
auction and that much of the property couldn't be accounted for.

Despite the court order and an agreement by Luton's office to
reimburse Bushey for the missing items, the office failed to deliver.

Ruth Bushey contends threatening remarks to her concerning the
couple's ongoing attempt to recover the tools made it impossible for
her to continue her employment in Luton's office.

The suit alleges the defendants have continued to intimidate and
harass the Bushey family by making unwarranted traffic stops and
questioning their young son.

Luton recently fended off an anonymous complaint to the Oklahoma Bar
Association on allegations he allowed Sturm to practice law without a
license. Records show Sturm, a former investigator for the Oklahoma
Bar Association and a nonlawyer, was the sole representative of
Luton's office during:

Guilty pleas heard by the court.

Bonds set for defendants at initial appearances.

The questioning of drug defendants under oath at revocation hearings
before Special District Judge Robin Adair when some of those
defendants were sentenced to prison for up to 20 years. Luton issued a
media release in late June saying the Bar Association had dismissed
the complaint. Luton admitted Sturm represented his office during
guilty pleas before the court and when bonds were set at initial
appearances, saying that didn't constitute practicing law. Luton said
those practices would stop. Luton's release did not mention Sturm's
questioning defendants under oath in a court of law.

The American Bar Association Standing Committee states a lawyer can
employ nonlawyers to do any task "except counsel clients about law
matters, engage directly in the practice of law, appear in court or
appear in formal proceedings as part of the judicial process ..."

In his statement, Luton lauded Sturm as a tremendous asset to the
office, citing Sturm's "vast wealth of knowledge and his management
skills as the chief of staff of this office to provide the highest
level of service possible to the people of Muskogee County."

Meanwhile, Haupt said his firm has fielded numerous phone calls from
members of the Oklahoma Bar Association who have expressed concern and
have echoed concerns developed from his firm's investigation.

Haupt said his firm, Haupt Brooks Vandruff, PLLC, which is now just
representing the Busheys, is looking at expanding its investigation.