Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz is a good ol’ boy who doesn’t see any reason for a grand jury investigation of how he runs his office, but he’s gonna get one anyway.
After “more than 6,600 Tulsa residents signed a petition asking for the investigation, though only 5,000 signatures were needed,” his lawyers “argued in court Tuesday that some signatures were gathered improperly and that the entire petition should be voided,” but the judge was having none of it.
“The grand jury system is of ancient origin, as important now as it was then to provide people an opportunity to address grievances,” the judge said in her ruling. The grand jury will convene July 20.
They will look at, among other things, Glanz’s hiring of a 73-year-old wealthy insurance executive who made donations to the sheriff’s office and took Glanz on Caribbean junkets as a “reserve deputy” who accidentally shot a robbery suspect with his gun instead of his taser while other officers were arresting him, killing the man. The “reserve deputy,” Robert Bates, has been charged with manslaughter.
Photo: Sheriff Glanz has a grand jury in his future.