Lawton, OK Judge Tosses Pharmacist's Plea Deal

For decades Lawton pharmacist Haskell Evans ran his own pharmacy in Lawton, OK. Then Haskell got greedy and started selling Sudafed in large batches. Evans charged the meth makers six times the retail rate for Sudafed. Police estimate that Evans sold enough Sudafed to make 50 pounds of meth. Evans was also a member of the OK State Board of Health. Evans was also charged with the failure to report the sale of schedule IV narcotics.

Evans was charged with seven felony violations. The OK AG took charge of the case and he allowed Evans to go judge shopping. In the end Evans paid $225,000 to three OK governmental agencies and got a deferred sentence-no jail time.

Comanche county judge Keith Aycock rejected a request by the OK AG to drop charges against Evans. He threw out the plea deal and came down hard on the OK AG. Evans will be tried in a Comanche county courtroom in May, 2011.

http://www.swoknews.com/main.asp?Sec...rticleID=28454

i thought judges worked for the AG, guess I was wrong

6 years of college, and a $75-$100K a year down the drain for a few bucks. Idiot!

Karma.

Judges are a different branch of government and don't work for AG. The prosecutor works for the AG. Judges can accept plea deals or not, that is their perogative. No one except a higher court can over ride a district court judge's decision. The Judeg is part of the Judicuary, the AG is part of the Executive and works for the Governor (state) or President (United States). Glad to see one judge willing to make him squirm. Come to think of it the judge may be giving him an out later by pronouncing him not guilty or may be give a lesser sentence if convicted. We will have to what happens later on in this case.

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Come to think of it the judge may be giving him an out later by pronouncing him not guilty or may be give a lesser sentence if convicted. We will have to what happens later on in this case

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The AG in OK is an elected position. The current AG is Drew Edmonson. Edmonson will leave office in January. He cannot run for re-election because he ran for governor this year and lost in the primary.

Edmonson allowed the perp and his lawyer to go judge shopping. A judge from another county allowed the plea bargain to go through. The case came back to judge Aycock for approval because the crimes took place in Comanche county. Aycock said no to the plea deal and set a trial date for Haskell Evans. Judge Aycock also disqualified the OK AG and his staff from participating in the trial. Evans made $75,000 payment to the office of the AG. Judge Aycock says that that payment is illegal.

http://www.kswo.com/global/story.asp?s=13175294

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COMANCHE CDOUNTY, Okla. - Judge Keith Aycock has ordered that the attorney general's office be disqualified from representing the state in the Haskell Evans' case.

Aycock also said law does not authorize the agreement that included a $75,000 payment from Evans to the attorney general.

It is a very brief order, just five sentences long, but it is unprecedented. A district judge disqualifying the attorney general's office from participating in a case.

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BTW: The state of OK has long been known for its sweetheart plea deals where the rich, famous and politically connected are involved.

they may need to look into my local Walgreens......every time I need a box of Sudafed for a legal headcold, they're always out.
I don't remember there being shortages of the stuff before it went behind the couter.

There's a lot of meth around here, wouldn't surprise me a bit if they were selling it out the back door by the truckload, while I suffer through the sniffles at work....

This pharmacist created a ton of crime by his sales (every meth user's daily work routine for his/her habit)...he does deserve lots of jail time.:hand1:

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Originally Posted by retsupt99

This pharmacist created a ton of crime by his sales (every meth user's daily work routine for his/her habit)...he does deserve lots of jail time.:hand1:

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Ditto. He knew what he was doing and he knew what he was doing was going to affect, in a bad way, a lot of others. Hard time for hard drugs.

bosco