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Author Topic: Plea deal for Okla. child rapist David Harold Earls, 64 PROMPTS OUTRAGE  (Read 3790 times)
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MuffyBee
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« on: June 16, 2009, 07:56:59 PM »

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHILD_RAPED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Jun 16, 6:44 PM EDT

Plea deal for Okla. child rapist prompts outrage

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A plea deal that sent an ex-convict accused of raping a 4-year-old girl to jail for only a year has prompted outrage across Oklahoma, where lawmakers are calling for the removal of the judge who approved the deal and the attorney general is investigating a new set of abuse allegations.

Under the deal, David Harold Earls, 64, of the southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy. Normally, the rape charge carries a sentence of between five years to life in prison, but the deal he struck with prosecutors called for 19 years of his 20-year sentence to be suspended.

Residents have since peppered the local newspaper with e-mails and letters questioning why the sentence wasn't harsher.

"I think they should have dropped the hammer on him," said Chris Lenardo, 35, who works at a local barber shop in McAlester, a town of about 18,000 people about 120 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. "I'm still trying to figure out why he's only getting a year."

Prosecutors said they only agreed to the plea bargain because the case rested largely on the testimony of the girl, now 5, who made contradictory statements during pretrial hearings. After initially testifying about the assault, she later said she couldn't remember the rape. At one point, the girl ran out of the room and down the hallway.

The case has generated more outrage as new accusations have surfaced. After Earls entered his plea, an estranged relative came forward to make a new allegation of a past rape. Although the statute of limitations likely has expired, it's possible the allegations could be used in another case against Earls if another victim comes forward, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.

Edmondson said his office is looking at reviving a case against Earls involving the girl's brother. Those charges were dropped when the 5-year-old boy changed his story and said he couldn't recall the incident.

Such problems involving testimony from children in criminal cases aren't unusual, said Barbara Bonner, director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

"Obviously, the criminal justice system wasn't set up to pit a 4- or 5-year-old child against an adult," Bonner said. "Particularly in cases of young children, they have very high levels of anxiety associated with the abuse. They'll do anything to avoid talking about it."

Several state lawmakers want an investigation into the actions of Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who signed off on the plea deal. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn't have the power to remove a judge, but lawmakers have introduced a resolution asking that a legal process be started in which a judge can be removed by a special state court.

"My general concern is: Are the courts protecting the children?" said Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. "You have a convicted felon you're looking at. You've got a (family member) that's come forward and said she was raped by him. You've got the public outcry."

Bartheld did not return a telephone message left Tuesday at his office, but has previously said he followed the law.

Earls previously served nearly 10 years in prison for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and was released in 2006. He was baby-sitting the two children while their mother worked a second job, but Miller said the relationship between Earls and the mother is unclear.

A telephone message left Tuesday with Earls' attorney, Tim Mills, was not returned. He had previously told The Oklahoman newspaper he thought prosecutors didn't want to risk an acquittal.

District Attorney Jim Bob Miller said Tuesday the plea deal was both necessary and accepted with the approval of the girl's family. A medical examination of the girl found evidence of a sexual assault, but no DNA evidence tying Earls to the crime.

"If the little girl freezes on the stand, we literally have nothing," Miller said. "We don't have any doubt that he did this, but the problem was proving it in court."
« Last Edit: June 21, 2009, 06:20:48 PM by MuffyBee » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2009, 08:12:56 PM »

I've been hearing about this case...
the little girl probably ran out of the room cause she was so traumatized! wasn't he in the room when she was telling her story? or not?
It is horrible that he only got a year for all the damage that he caused this little child..
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« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2009, 10:21:03 AM »

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 16) -- A plea deal that sent an ex-convict accused of raping a 4-year-old girl to jail for only a year has prompted outrage across Oklahoma, where lawmakers are calling for the removal of the judge who approved the deal and the attorney general is investigating a new set of abuse allegations.
Under the deal, David Harold Earls, 64, of the southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy. Normally, the rape charge carries a sentence of between five years to life in prison, but the deal he struck with prosecutors called for 19 years of his 20-year sentence to be suspended.
Residents have since peppered the local newspaper with e-mails and letters questioning why the sentence wasn't harsher.
"I think they should have dropped the hammer on him," said Chris Lenardo, 35, who works at a local barber shop in McAlester, a town of about 18,000 people about 120 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. "I'm still trying to figure out why he's only getting a year."
Prosecutors said they only agreed to the plea bargain because the case rested largely on the testimony of the girl, now 5, who made contradictory statements during pretrial hearings. After initially testifying about the assault, she later said she couldn't remember the rape. At one point, the girl ran out of the room and down the hallway.
The case has generated more outrage as new accusations have surfaced. After Earls entered his plea, an estranged relative came forward to make a new allegation of a past rape. Although the statute of limitations likely has expired, it's possible the allegations could be used in another case against Earls if another victim comes forward, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.
Edmondson said his office is looking at reviving a case against Earls involving the girl's brother. Those charges were dropped when the 5-year-old boy changed his story and said he couldn't recall the incident.
Such problems involving testimony from children in criminal cases aren't unusual, said Barbara Bonner, director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
"Obviously, the criminal justice system wasn't set up to pit a 4- or 5-year-old child against an adult," Bonner said. "Particularly in cases of young children, they have very high levels of anxiety associated with the abuse. They'll do anything to avoid talking about it."
Several state lawmakers want an investigation into the actions of Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who signed off on the plea deal. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn't have the power to remove a judge, but lawmakers have introduced a resolution asking that a legal process be started in which a judge can be removed by a special state court.
My general concern is: Are the courts protecting the children?" said Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. "You have a convicted felon you're looking at. You've got a (family member) that's come forward and said she was raped by him. You've got the public outcry."
Bartheld did not return a telephone message left Tuesday at his office, but has previously said he followed the law.
Earls previously served nearly 10 years in prison for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and was released in 2006. He was baby-sitting the two children while their mother worked a second job, but Miller said the relationship between Earls and the mother is unclear.
A telephone message left Tuesday with Earls' attorney, Tim Mills, was not returned. He had previously told The Oklahoman newspaper he thought prosecutors didn't want to risk an acquittal.
District Attorney Jim Bob Miller said Tuesday the plea deal was both necessary and accepted with the approval of the girl's family. A medical examination of the girl found evidence of a sexual assault, but no DNA evidence tying Earls to the crime.
"If the little girl freezes on the stand, we literally have nothing," Miller said. "We don't have any doubt that he did this, but the problem was proving it in court."
http://news.aol.com/article/child-rapist-gets-1-year/529719?icid=main|netscape|dl7|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fchild-rapist-gets-1-year%2F529719
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« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2009, 05:52:08 PM »



Picture Link:  http://vigilant-antis.blogspot.com/2009/06/david-harold-earls-daughter-comes.html


http://news.aol.com/article/child-rapist-gets-1-year/529719?icid=main

Furor Builds Over Child Rapist’s Sentence


Slap on the Wrist: David Harold Earls, 64, of McAlester, Okla., was sentenced to just one year in jail for raping a 4-year-old girl. The sentence has sparked a furor. Prosecutors said they had to agree to a lenient plea deal because of problems with the young victim's testimony.

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 16) — A plea deal that sent an ex-convict accused of raping a 4-year-old girl to jail for only a year has prompted outrage across Oklahoma, where lawmakers are calling for the removal of the judge who approved the deal and the attorney general is investigating a new set of abuse allegations.  Under the deal, David Harold Earls, 64, of the southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy.  Normally, the rape charge carries a sentence
of between five years to life in prison, but the deal he struck with prosecutors called for 19 years of his 20-year sentence to be suspended.  Residents have since peppered the local newspaper with e-mails and letters questioning why the sentence wasn’t harsher.  “I think they should have dropped the hammer
on him,” said Chris Lenardo, 35, who works at a local barber shop in McAlester, a town of about 18,000 people about 120 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. “I’m still trying to figure out why he’s only getting
a year.”

Prosecutors said they only agreed to the plea bargain because the case rested largely on the testimony of the girl, now 5, who made contradictory statements during pretrial hearings. After initially testifying
about the assault, she later said she couldn’t remember the rape. At one point, the girl ran out of the room and down the hallway.

The case has generated more outrage as new accusations have surfaced. After Earls entered his plea, an estranged relative came forward to make a new allegation of a past rape. Although the statute of limitations likely has expired, it’s possible the allegations could be used in another case against
Earls if another victim comes forward, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.  Edmondson said his office is looking at reviving a case against Earls involving the girl’s brother. Those charges were dropped
when the 5-year-old boy changed his story and said he couldn’t recall the incident.  Such problems involving testimony from children in criminal cases aren’t unusual, said Barbara Bonner, director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.  “Obviously, the criminal justice system wasn’t set up to pit a 4- or 5-year-old child against an adult,” Bonner said. “Particularly in cases of young children, they have very high levels of anxiety associated with the
abuse. They’ll do anything to avoid talking about it.”

Several state lawmakers want an investigation into the actions of Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who signed off on the plea deal. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn’t have the power to remove
a judge, but lawmakers have introduced a resolution asking that a legal process be started in which a judge can be removed by a special state court.  “My general concern is: Are the courts protecting
the children?” said Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. “You have a convicted felon you’re looking at. You’ve got a (family member) that’s come forward and said she was raped by him. You’ve got the public
outcry.”  Bartheld did not return a telephone message left Tuesday at his office, but has previously
said he followed the law.

Earls previously served nearly 10 years in prison for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and was released in 2006.  He was baby-sitting the two children while their mother worked a second job, but
Miller said the relationship between Earls and the mother is unclear.  A telephone message left Tuesday with
Earls’ attorney, Tim Mills, was not returned.  He had previously told The Oklahoman newspaper he thought prosecutors didn’t want to risk an acquittal.  District Attorney Jim Bob Miller said Tuesday the plea deal was both necessary and accepted with the approval of the girl’s family.  A medical examination of the girl found evidence of a sexual assault, but no DNA evidence tying Earls to the crime.  “If the little girl freezes on the stand, we literally have nothing,” Miller said. “We don’t have any doubt that he did this, but the problem was proving it in court.”
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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
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« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2009, 05:57:35 PM »

http://vigilant-antis.blogspot.com/2009/06/david-harold-earls-daughter-comes.html

Sunday, June 14, 2009

David Harold Earls - Daughter comes forward "He raped me too"

The daughter of David Harold Earls, who received a one-year sentence last month after being convicted of raping a 4-year-old girl, says her father raped her when she was a child.

"He was a monster,” Denise Earls, 43, said Friday. "He got a year sentence. I got a life sentence.”

Attorney General Drew Edmondson said his office is looking into the allegations.

"My investigators have talked to this newly identified victim,” he said. "We’re attempting to determine whether, in all likelihood, the statute of limitations has run on those offenses. But it would be additional information that if there were a trial of this person, Earls, that information may be admissible to show the propensity to commit this kind of crime.

"What I’m asking my office to do is, even if we’re barred from doing whatever Mr. Earls pled to, are there other crimes that he committed against this victim or this victim’s sibling that have not been wrapped up in this plea bargain that might be revived in a new prosecution?” Edmondson said.

Earls, 64, is scheduled to serve just three more months in a county jail and won’t go to prison. The one-year plea bargain took into account the time he was booked and held in jail since Sept. 24, 2008.

As a result, Earls is tentatively scheduled to be released Sept. 24, Pittsburg County jail administrator Missi Eldridge said.

Earls pleaded no contest last month to charges of first-degree rape and forcible sodomy.

As part of a plea bargain, he was sentenced to a year of incarceration and 19 years of a 20-year sentence were suspended.

The May 13 plea bargain and the child’s pretrial court appearance in front of Earls brought national and international outcries, even threats to the district attorney, J.B. Miller, whose assistants agreed to the sentence.

Two state representatives have called for proceedings to oust District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who accepted the plea bargain.

His assistants and the child’s family feared the girl would freeze up during the planned closed circuit testimony, Miller said. That, along with Earls’ age and his terminal cancer led to the plea bargain before the trial began.

Tim Mills, Earls’ attorney, did not return calls for comment.

Denise Earls has established a pleasant life with her husband, daughter and grandchildren, and long ago separated from her father’s family.

So she knew nothing of her father’s criminal case until her estranged mother called this week.

She said her father’s sentence angers her.

"They have computers, they have all kinds of ways to determine that he has family members,” she said. "You would have thought they would have tried to contact me to see if anything happened to me.”

She said she is coming forward in hopes her story eventually will get Earls a longer prison term.

"With the judge and DA, they need to be held accountable for their decisions,” she said.

The inappropriate touching began when she was 8 years old, she said. Her father was divorced from her mother when she was 1 year old, she said. She seldom heard from him, she said.

The Oklahoman typically doesn’t identify rape victims, but Denise Earls said she wants to be identified and share story told.

She said she was living with her mother and grandmother in Blackwell when her father stopped by in 1974 and spent one night in the washroom behind the garage.

She said that’s where he raped her.

Her father told her if she told anyone, she would no longer be allowed to live with her grandmother, she said. So she kept quiet.

"I was too afraid,” she said. "My grandmother was my rock. My grandmother was my savior. She’s the reason I’m a good person today.”

Denise Earls said she confronted her father in 1995, after she’d been married many years.


"He said, ‘I was drunk. I’m sorry. I don’t remember,’” she said.

"I said, ‘I have vivid memories.’"



"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte
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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
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« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2009, 06:00:44 PM »

http://www.mcalesternews.com/homepage/local_story_164191511.html?keyword=leadpicturestory

Published: June 13, 2009 06:14 pm         

Molester’s sentence leads to cries of injustice

By Kandra Wells
Staff Writer

Kathryn Cole considered it harmless horseplay when her granddaughter, who had just turned 5, reached over and touched her breast during a dinner at her home last September.

She corrected the child’s behavior anyway.

What the girl said next revealed a horrible secret that later would garner national headlines involving the granddaughter, her year-older brother and the man who was their baby-sitter.

“Gramma, it’s OK,” the girl said, according to an account the grandmother gave police. “David Earls touches me there.”

David Harold Earls, 64, a twice convicted felon, had watched the children during weekends while their mother worked.

He recently admitted raping and sodomizing the girl in return for serving one year in the county jail, with credit for time he has already spent behind bars since his arrest nine months ago.

Judge Thomas Bartheld ordered the sentence under a plea bargain agreement recommended by Earls’ lawyer and Assistant District Attorney Lisa Birdwell.

The agreement has touched off a major controversy over criminal justice in McAlester, including calls for the removal of the judge from office. The state attorney general has also launched an inquiry into the case.

Actually, the judge imposed a sentence of 20 years in prison, but he suspended 19 of those years. He also fined Earls $1,000.

“Some people think I could have given a different sentence, and I couldn’t,” said District Judge Thomas Bartheld. “In any plea bargain, where there is a negotiated plea, the court can’t change it.”

Nonetheless, talk show hosts, politicians and ordinary citizens have bashed the district attorney and a judge for going too easy on Earls.

Earls was initially accused of victimizing both the girl and her brother. But the charges involving the boy were dropped before Earls was scheduled to go to trial.

The children’s mother blames herself for what happened to her children, and says she’s moving the family to another state as soon as possible.

“They’ll never forget what happened to them,” she said.

The mother first met Earls in 2007. She said she felt uneasy about him watching her children and tried to look up his past on the Internet. She found only “something minor” and a protective order involving a former wife.

What she didn’t find were his convictions for shooting a man in 1982, or stabbing a woman in nearby Weleetka nearly 13 years later. She also didn’t discover that Earls had been in prison for six-plus years.

Nearly a month after he admitted to raping and sodomizing her daughter, the mother seemed surprised to learn Earls had spent time in prison.

“No. I didn’t know that,” she said.

The mother said Earls began baby-sitting her children last summer. He watched them over three or four weekends at the family’s modest brick home in a public housing neighborhood in McAlester.

The mother said she had no knowledge of what Earls was doing until her children told their grandmother.

Police records confirm the girl showed her grandmother how Earls would twist her nipples. She also described how he raped her.

“It had hurt a little at first,” she told her grandmother, “until I got used to it.”

Police described the girl’s conversation with her grandmother in an affidavit they used to charge Earls after his arrest last September.

Though Earls was charged, the case never went to trial.

The mother watched as her children struggled to tell their story to police, judges and attorneys.

Her son tried to run from a courtroom three times while testifying in December. During a February hearing, her daughter climbed down from a witness chair, clambered over and under a table and even left the room at one point while being questioned.

She said her children were unable to recite what was legally needed, at the time it was needed, for Earls’ prosecution.

The grandmother’s account prompted police and prosecutors to initially file charges accusing Earls of forcing the two children to have sex.

The grandmother told police she asked her grandson if he saw Earls touch his sister the way she described. The boy laughed, according to the court document, and described how he also engaged in sexual activity with his younger sister.

“I told him that this was not funny, that what David had done was illegal, and that he could go to jail for it …,” she told police. “(The boy) then realized that what he’d done was wrong and acted as though he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Special Judge Donnita Wynn dropped the charge after a two-day preliminary hearing in December. She agreed with a defense request to dismiss one of two sodomy charges.

“We did charge David Earls with what he did to the boy, but it was dismissed at the preliminary hearing,” said District Attorney Jim Bob Miller. “He recanted. He recanted his whole testimony.”

The mother said the hearing was frustrating for her family and prosecutors, but they still wanted to take the case to trial. Given her son’s changing statements, her daughter’s testimony took on heightened importance.

Miller said the girl, unable to testify at the preliminary hearing, became the focus of pre-trial hearings in February. Prosecutors hoping to try the case the following month needed to designate the girl as eligible to testify.

Over the course of a two-day hearing, the girl climbed down from the witness chair. She played around the courtroom and later the judge’s office, as lawyers and a clerk tried to ask her questions.

It was during the second day, Miller said, that she finally qualified as a witness and spoke briefly about what Earls had done.

Then under cross-examination, Earls’ attorney asked, “Do you remember what David Earls did?” She said, “I don’t remember David Earls doing anything.”

Under a plea bargain, Earls was sentenced to 20 years in the county jail, with 19 of those years suspended. He was fined $1,000 and ordered to register as a sex offender after his release.

The mother said she’s not bitter about the sentence. But Earls’ one-year jail term has provoked outrage in others. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly featured the story on his national cable talk show, criticizing Miller and Bartheld for giving Earls lenient treatment.

“A one-year sentence makes me want to vomit,” Rob Lebby, of Knoxville, Tenn., wrote in an e-mail to the News-Capital.

“Bartheld should be disbarred and Miller sent into disgrace,” wrote Henry Boenning, of Destin, Fla.

Reps. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, and Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, filed a non-binding resolution to be taken up next year that seeks the judge’s ouster.

It cites “gross neglect of duty” by Bartheld when he accepted last month’s plea bargain.

The resolution, which could be taken up in February, petitions the state Court on the Judiciary to begin impeachment proceedings.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he has directed his office to look into the case. Miller said he has been contacted by Edmondson’s office and is preparing a transcript.

“Frankly, they have told me they want to see all the facts like we did,” Miller said. “They’re not concerned about us doing anything wrong, or the judge.

“It’s just a couple of politicians in the state, raving and raving,” he said, “and they have absolutely no idea of what’s going on this case.”

Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, said the attorney general and legislators seeking Bartheld’s removal will find little.

“One year, and 19 on paper, yeah, that’s kind of light,” he said from his law office. A general practice attorney, he doesn’t think any legislative remedy is needed in Oklahoma for sexual abuse cases involving children.

“A lot of times, there are a lot of underlying circumstances that goes into these plea bargains,” he said. “If you look at the legislation on the books now regarding pedophiles who sexually abuse children, I believe there is adequate punishment on the books that should take care of them.”

He said he disagrees with the legislators seeking the judge’s ouster.

Meanwhile, the mother and her children are moving on. Literally.

She said last week she is moving to another state and plans to go back into school in the fall.

“I want to get them away from this house,” she said. “And I want to start a new life.

“And hopefully get them some consistency, where they can learn to trust me again.”

She said she blames herself for what happened to her children.

“To this day, I’m like beating myself up for letting what happened to my kids happen to them,” she said. “I didn’t know any better, you know?”

She lost her custody of her children for a period of time. She took classes and went to counseling that she said helped her get a handle on life and her role as a mother.

But it’s still hard for her to talk about.

“I’m like, oh my God. I’m just, like, I let my kids … Oh my God. There’s just nothing more to say on that.

“They’ll never forget what happened to them.”

Logged

I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
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« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2009, 07:24:18 PM »

http://www.pryordailytimes.com/local/local_story_174093553.html
Published: June 23, 2009 08:34 am
Child’s story of abuse focuses controversy on small town

Kandra Wells
CNHI News Service
McALESTER — Kathryn Cole considered it harmless horseplay when her granddaughter, who had just turned 5, reached over her kitchen table and touched her breast during dinner last September. She corrected the child’s behavior anyway.

What the girl said next revealed a horrible secret that would garner national headlines involving the granddaughter, her year-older brother and the man who was their babysitter.

“Gramma, it’s OK,” the girl said, according to an account the grandmother gave police. “David Earls touches me there.”

David Harold Earls, 64, a twice convicted felon, had watched the children during the weekends their mother worked. He

recently admitted raping and sodomizing the girl in return for one year in the county jail, with credit for the time he has spent behind bars since his arrest nine months ago.

District Judge Thomas Bartheld ordered the sentence under a plea deal recommended by Earls’ lawyer and prosecutors.

The agreement touched off national controversy over criminal justice in McAlester, including calls for the judge’s removal from office. The state attorney general has launched an inquiry into the case.

Actually, the judge imposed a sentence of 20 years in prison but suspended all but one of those years. He fined Earls $1,000.

“Some people think I could have given a

different sentence, and I couldn’t,” said District Judge Thomas Bartheld. “In any plea bargain, where there is a negotiated plea, the court can’t change it.”

Nonetheless, talk show hosts, politicians and ordinary citizens have bashed the district attorney and judge for going too easy on Earls.

The children’s mother said she blames herself for what happened to her children. She said she’s moving the family to another state as soon as possible.

“They’ll never forget what happened to them,” she said.

The mother, whom CNHI News Service is not naming to shield the identity of her children, first met Earls in 2007. She said she felt uneasy about him watching her children and tried to look up his past on the Internet. She found “something minor” and a protective order involving a former wife.

What she didn’t find were his convictions for shooting a man in 1982, or stabbing a woman in nearby Weleetka nearly 13 years later. She also didn’t discover that Earls had been in prison for six-plus years.

The mother said Earls began babysitting her children last summer. He watched them over three or four weekends at the family’s modest brick home in a public housing neighborhood in this city of about 18,000 people in eastern Oklahoma.

McAlester happened to be the site of a notorious 1995 abuse case that led to state laws calling for better protection of

children in custody cases.

That case involved a

2-year-old boy whose mother was considered unfit. Judge Bartheld awarded custody of the boy, Ryan Luke, to his grandfather, Don Luke, editor of the McAlester News-Capital at the time.

The boy later died of a skull fracture. The grandfather, the mother and the mother’s live-in boyfriend were later charged with the boy’s death.

The mother of Earls’ victim lost custody of her children at one point. She took classes and went to counseling that she said helped her get a handle on life and her role as a mother.

She said she had no knowledge of what Earls was doing until her

children told their

grandmother.

Police records confirm the girl showed her grandmother how Earls would twist her nipples. She also described how he raped her.

“It had hurt a little at first,” she told her grandmother, “until I got used to it.”

Police described the girl’s conversation with her grandmother in an affidavit used to charge Earls after his arrest last September. Though charged, Earls never went to trial.

The children, though forthcoming with their grandmother, struggled to tell their story to police, judges and attorneys.

The mother said her son tried to run from a courtroom three times while testifying in December. During a February hearing, her daughter climbed down from a witness chair, clambered over and under a table and even left the room at one point while being questioned.

She said her children were unable to recite what was legally needed, at the time it was needed, for Earls’ prosecution.

Earls had been initially accused of victimizing both the girl and her brother. Charges that he victimized the boy were dropped before he was scheduled to go to trial because the boy recanted his testimony, said District Attorney Jim Bob Miller.

The mother said the experience was frustrating, but her family and prosecutors still wanted to take the case to trial.

That meant proving the girl legally fit to testify. Prosecutors needed a two-part hearing before they could prove her eligible, and before the girl spoke briefly about what Earls had done.

Then, under cross-examination, Earls’ attorney asked, “Do you remember what David Earls did?”

She said, “I don’t remember David Earls doing anything.”

The mother said she’s not bitter about the sentence. But Earls’ one-year jail term has provoked outrage in others.

Fox’s Bill O’Reilly featured the story on his national cable talk show, criticizing the district attorney and Bartheld for giving Earls lenient treatment. People from around the country sent notes to the local newspaper to express anger.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson has said his office will look into the case. Two state legislators have filed a resolution, to be taken up early next year, calling for the judge’s ouster.

Reps. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, and Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, cite Bartheld’s “gross neglect of duty” when he accepted the plea bargain.

“It’s just a couple of politicians in the state, raving and raving,” said Miller, the district attorney, “and they have absolutely no idea of what’s going on this case.”

State Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, said the attorney general and legislators seeking Bartheld’s removal will find little.

“One year and 19 on paper. Yeah, that’s kind of light,” Lerblance said from his general practice law office.

Despite Earls’ jail sentence, he said state laws on child abuse carry adequate punishment. “A lot of times, there are a lot of underlying circumstances that goes into these plea bargains,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mother is planning to give her children a new start. “And hopefully get them some consistency,” she said, “where they can learn to trust me again.”
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« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2009, 07:27:46 PM »

http://newsok.com/evidence-fell-short-in-abuse/article/3379458
David Harold Earls case: Evidence fell short in abuse
‘FOR MY CHILDREN THIS WAS THE BEST DEAL,’ MOTHER SAYS OF PLEA DEAL IN CONTROVERSIAL RAPE CASE

BY VALLERY BROWN AND ANN KELLEY
Published: June 21, 2009
Copyright © 2009
McALESTER — The 4-year-old girl who told her family and investigators she was sexually assaulted by David Harold Earls said he gave her ice cream and excused her from taking naps afterward.
But the girl’s statements and evidence that she and her brother had injuries consistent with child sexual abuse wasn’t enough to take to trial, attorneys said.
Earls, 64, pleaded no contest on May 13 to charges of rape and forcible sodomy of the girl, an agreement reached by prosecutors and his defense attorney. He was sentenced to a year in prison with 19 years suspended. Because the judge took into consideration time already served, Earls is scheduled to be released Sept. 24 from the Pittsburg County jail.
The girl’s grandmother called law enforcement in September after the girl said Earls sexually abused her, court records show. Her 5-year-old brother told his grandmother he’d witnessed Earls touch his sister in appropriately. He said Earls had told him to do the same to his sister.
"What he did to my grandchildren shouldn’t have been done to the meanest dog in town,” the children’s grandmother said Friday.
Child abuse examiners testified in the preliminary hearing that both children had injuries.
The children’s grandmother said her family hoped Earls would have received more jail time, but agreed with the sentence to spare the children any more trauma.
"We were over a barrel because of the children’s inability to testify with any consistency,” the grandmother said. "One minute they would be OK with testifying, and the next minute they would want to play or be crying to get out of the courtroom.”
She said her daughter and the children have moved out of state.
"Their mother wants them to just move on,” the grandmother said.
Earls declined to be interviewed on the advice of his attorney, Tim Mills.
The sentence spurred a national uproar when Fox network’s "The O’Reilly Factor” broadcast segments criticizing everyone involved in the case, in particular District Judge Thomas Bartheld and Pittsburg County District Attorney J.B. Miller, whose assistant district attorneys tried the case.
The children’s mother said Friday that she doesn’t blame the judge or the attorneys in the case for its outcome. She said she doesn’t think Bartheld deserves to be reprimanded.
She said it became apparent her children were not capable of testifying. Each time they were questioned about the abuse, the children had behavioral problems.
"For my children this was the best deal,” the mother said.
Victim as a witness
Mills said those questioning the outcome don’t understand the legal system or the evidence code.
"At first glance it started to be a strong case for the prosecution, but after they got the forensic report they found out it wasn’t as strong as they thought,” Mills said.
He said a main witness for the prosecution, the girl’s 5-year-old brother, recanted earlier statements made to a social worker.
When interviewed by a social worker, he became upset upon seeing anatomical drawings of boys. He then said he didn’t recall being touched and refused to talk any further when asked if he’d been made to do anything inappropriate, records show.
Mills said the case was nearly ready for trial when the girl’s competency to testify was questioned. In a hearing to qualify the child as a witness, Bartheld tried as many as five times to administer the oath, he said.
"She (the girl) was all over the courtroom,” Mills said. "But at no time was there any evidence she was distracted by my client.”
Mills said the judge stopped the hearing but offered to allow the prosecution an opportunity to try again.
He said on the eve of the trial both sides worked out an agreement. Mills said Earls has always maintained his innocence.
Prosecution’s burden
Miller echoed some of Mills’ observations but disagreed on the issue of Earl’s innocence.
"There is not a question of what happened here, but there is a question of a 5-year-old being able to say that to a jury, even over closed-circuit TV. We protected these kids. We didn’t put them through any more trauma.”
Assistant district attorneys worked on the case, but Miller said he would have handled it the same way.
Further complicating the case was a lack of physical evidence.
Injuries to the children were consistent with abuse, but there was nothing to link it to Earls.
Miller said the attorneys knew they couldn’t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
"So if we take this to court and we lose, how do you tell a 5-year-old that it was because the jury didn’t believe her?” he said.
They struck a deal, one which proved unpopular.
State Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office is investigating avenues that may get Earls more prison time or possible action against the judge, said Charlie Price, spokesman for the attorney general.
Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Mike Ritz, R-Broken Arrow, sent a letter Thursday to the state Supreme Court requesting it get involved. They did it because neither Gov. Brad Henry nor Edmondson have, he said.
Their request will not be official until it’s approved by the Legislature when it reconvenes in February.
Bartheld told The Oklahoman last week he is surprised by the efforts.
"The district attorney, child’s family, advocates and the defendant all agreed to this,” he said.
The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council does not keep any statistics about how often judges reject plea deals, but assistant executive coordinator Trent Baggett said it doesn’t happen often.
Speaking out
In a court affidavit, Earls told investigators that he would baby-sit the girl and her brother on occasion at their mother’s home. Earls said he slept with the girl and allowed other neighborhood girls to sleep with him, as well.
He admitted to investigators it was probably a bad idea and described himself as a "grandpa-type” figure.
His daughter, Denise Earls, who is now 38, said her father is anything but.
Denise Earls claims she was raped by him when she was a child and went public with her story last week in The Oklahoman.
Denise Earls said she faxed Edmondson a detailed statement of the sexual assault Monday, but has had no response.
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  " Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."  - Daniel Moynihan
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