Tulsa County’s Superior Court is one of the most corrupt Courts in Oklahoma, if not the United States of America. Several practices the Court’s own Commission on Judicial Complaints simply ignores continue unabated on a daily basis.

One of the Court’s most corrupt practices is its refusal to issue paper minute orders. The judges ask the Court clerks assigned to Courtrooms to upload a set of notes to a system called the Oklahoma Court Docket Search in an electronic order. Uploading the set of notes to that system causes numerous problems, all of which the Office of the District Attorney, the Office of the Public Defender, or other lawyers exploit to an unfair, unjust, illegal advantage.

It is first of all illegal to issue a minute order on anything other than a pleading that the Court Clerk must file as a signed, stamped, conformed copy. Simply put, the electronic minute orders that the judges in Tulsa County’s Superior Court uploads to OSCN are all illegal, since none are signed, stamped or conformed to the docket for the case.

Secondly, on multiple occasions, or even at will without regard for the preservation of a Court’s record, the Court Clerks either under the direction of the corrupt judges or after being bribed by corrupt lawyers simply change the content of the electronic order, as though the electronic order were never signed, stamped or conformed to the docket. This is an extremely corrupt practice that ought to be banned outright as a violation of due process, as no order may be modified except through a new order of the Court.

Thirdly, the electronic orders on the OSCN are not signed, stamped, conformed minute orders; if someone would like to obtain a copy of a minute order from a hearing, the Court does not supply those and the recommendation is to print a copy of OSCN’s electronic order, even though the OSCN itself displays an disclaimer disputing the authenticity of its minute orders.

In California, which is a better State than Oklahoma all the way around, judges do not permit lawyers to enter their chambers, except under special circumstances. These circumstances are strictly governed by the Code of Civil Procedure, as well as motion practice. In California judges are permitted to allow an in camera review of an officer’s personnel records, in which the prosecutor is permitted to participate together with County Counsel. These two lawyers enter the judge’s chambers to examine the record in search of documents relevant for a criminal defendant’s defense but this is noted on the record. This is a strictly law governed practice. It is extremely rare to witness lawyers in a judge’s chamber in California.

In Tulsa County’s Superior Court the judges allow for lawyers, prosecutors or public defenders to enter their chambers constantly without noting their appearance in chambers on the record. The first thing lawyers do when entering a Courtroom is to enter into the judge’s chambers immediately where he or she engages in ex parte communications with the judge. The result is a culture of ex parte communications in which the lawyers, prosecutors or public defenders discuss cases behind the backs of their clients without respect for attorney-client privilege. The extent of this culture of ex-parte communication is so pervasive that it is often the case that prosecutors, public defenders, judges, or the three together decide a criminal defendant’s case for him or her without any input from the criminal defendant whatsoever. This is an egregious breach of attorney-client privilege, of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and the right to fair and speedy jury trial and a violation of due process under the 5th and 14th Amendments.

In California the police, sheriffs or law enforcement are separated from the Court in a way that does not allow any one to exert an undue influence on its cases, procedures, or practices. In Tulsa County’s Superior Court, however, the police, sheriffs or law enforcement are completely attached to the Courthouse. An example of the undue influence the Tulsa City Police Department is able to exert on cases, procedures or practices is that the fact that the Tulsa City Police Department controls intake for any or all protective orders, requiring petitioners to pass through two security checkpoints. This not only provides the TCPD with advanced knowledge of people who intend to file for a protective order but allows the TCPD to influence the ultimate outcome of a protective order before it is even filed, since the TCPD, which is one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma, communicates extensively with the judges who preside over the protective orders for which its department handles intake. In certain cases, the TCPD officers who are in charge of passing the requests for protective orders to judges accept bribes from lawyers they use to pay judges to grant a favorable ruling to the petitioner.

Based on these three practices, Tulsa systematically denies justice to its residents. Tulsa, Oklahoma is thus an inhospitable place for its citizens to live, receive justice, or expect a Court free of corruption. Tulsa, Oklahoma is not a welcoming community but a burgeoning police state, whose refusal to denigrate its corrupt practices such as electronic orders, ex parte communications or police interference into cases typifies the backwardness of Southern American states. Under constant surveillance from street cameras, Tulsa’s burgeoning police state exacerbates the city’s inhospitablity.

Citizens in Tulsa, Oklahoma ought to exit the county in mass, or else demand that the judges be rotated, rules be implemented against ex parte communications or an enforceable requirement for paper orders to be put in place. Decoupling the sheriff, police, or law enforcement agencies, who do not protect communities, maliciously prosecute, or even kill people, is necessary preliminary for a just judiciary.