A Corruption Of A County Prosecutor

 

 

 An Example of How Corrupt out County Prosecutor Offices Can Be

 

Meet Tom Sawyer. Sawyer came to our attention after he showed up at one of the Tyler Paulsen hearings and had handled the preliminary hearing on Paulsen in Mayes County. Sawyer was a Tulsa County A.D.A. earlier and has a history of suppressing discover-able information in criminal trials. On September 10^th 2018 Sawyer was attempting to prevent a defendant from getting the information needed to defend himself. The transcript shows that Sawyer refused to allow the defendant's attorney to have the firearm in the case test to see if it was operable and there were some problems with the chain of custody of the firearm after the arrest. For seven months Sawyer appears to have stymied the defense attorney on these discover-able issues despite several meetings and hammered out agreements that were not kept.

 

Sawyer also refused to hand over background reports on the witnesses and experts he planned to call, had turned over blurry photos instead of the clear photos available, and the blurry pictures appear to be from a video that Sawyer had been refusing to hand over to the defense.

 

Sawyer got crosswise with the judge in the hearing too as he blamed her for an order not being complete, despite it being Sawyer's job to give the judge the pre written order to be signed. Three times the judge ordered that the gun be released for testing and it appears that three times Sawyer ignored the judges' orders and stymied the defense.

 

By this point the judge had had enough of Sawyer and threw the case out with prejudice, meaning the state would be unable to file the case again. The judge admonished Sawyer for bickering and arguing instead of doing his job. The case was to go to a jury trial on the next day and there were serious violations of due process from Sawyer not allowing the gun to be tested or providing the video or other discover-able evidence.

 

But in the transcript was an illuminating bit of info. An email from the defense lawyer was read into evidence by Sawyer, which was claimed to be harassing but it let the cat out of the bag on Sawyer; Sawyer had been arrested and thrown out of the BOK center allegedly for being drunk, getting into an altercation, and brandishing a weapon! The guy attempting to imprison another man for a gun crime had recently been arrested on a gun crime!

 

 

And remember the audio tape of the original ADA from Tulsa County that prosecuted Tyler Paulsen years ago on the basis of what he admitted was the word of a crazy woman? Eric Jordan, admitted the original case was B.S. and promised to intervene in the Mayes County case as he considered the Mayes County gun charges as a travesty of justice as the underlying felony that he railroaded Paulsen into was itself a bad prosecution of an innocent man. During that taped call we see the following conversation between Eric Jordan and the other person on the call/

 

 

So Sawyer's peers consider him an f****** nut job. For trying to persecute Tyler Paulsen on a gun charge after he himself had been caught, arrested, and had the criminal charge swept under the rug.

 

Then there is this email from Sawyer sent out to dozens of his peers in Tulsa County D.A. Office after little Tommy got his butt fired. Now no mention of why he was fired in his letter when surely Sawyer knew that being allegedly arrested drunk, getting in a fight at the BOK, and allegedly brandishing a gun were more than enough reason for being fired. Funny how he left that bit out....

 

From: Tom Sawyer <tom.sawyer3@gmail.com>

Date: March 4, 2019 at 8:47:16 AM CST

To:kkeller@tulsacounty.org, svanschenck@tulsacounty.org, mdeane@tulsacounty.org, rpenny@tulsacounty.org,ledwars@tulsacounty.org, mcollier@tulsacounty.org, Stephanie Jacoby <sjacoby@tulsacounty.org>,dlevy@tulsacounty.org, tchesbro@tulsacounty.org, ccunningham@tulsacounty.org, John Tjeerdsma<jtjeerdsma@tulsacounty.org>, julianne.burton@tulsacounty.org, johnnie.james@tulsacounty.org,gjohnson@tulsacounty.org, khamstra@tulsacounty.org, jasbill@tulsacounty.org, kgray@tulsacounty.org,handerson@tulsacounty.org, kelmore@tulsacounty.org, tbritt@tulsacounty.org, mshouse@tulsacounty.org,afaltisko@tulsacounty.org, courtney.wilson@tulsacounty.org, Katherine Koljack <kkoljack@tulsacounty.org>,ksnell@tulsacounty.org, bgoodman@tulsacounty.org, lrussell@tulsacounty.org, slathan@tulsacounty.org,syounis@tulsacounty.org, sgarcia@tulsacounty.org, ccolston@tulsacounty.org, audrey.owens@tulsacounty.org,ryoung@tulsacounty.org, hcearley@tulsacounty.org, jmagness@tulsacounty.org, alison.nutt@tulsacounty.org,mkehoe@tulsacounty.org, pmandevil@tulsacounty.org, jay.long@tulsacounty.org, ksweeney@tulsacounty.org,mhamilton@tulsacounty.org, mholder@tulsacounty.org, bfuller@tulsacounty.org, twilson@tulsacounty.org,bbracher@tulsacounty.org, ibrydie@tulsacounty.org, geberhard@tulsacounty.org, mhelberg@tulsacounty.org,cmatlock@tulsacounty.org, hprater@tulsacounty.org, amuehlberg@tulsacounty.org, vbarger@tulsacounty.org,cjenkins@tulsacounty.org, pdominguez@tulsacounty.org, jking@tulsacounty.org, rlargent@tulsacounty.org,rkosir@tulsacounty.org, smchenry@tulsacounty.org, lroberts@tulsacounty.org, atravis@tulsacounty.org,mwalker@tulsacounty.org, sadkins@tulsacounty.org, pbeaston@tulsacounty.org, rmcdaniel@tulsacounty.org,aowens@tulsacounty.org, lramos@tulsacounty.org, tward@tulsacounty.org, awilliams@tulsacounty.org

 

Subject:Just a memo, not a mission statement

Mr. Kunzweiler;

I am writing to express my profound disappointment at how inappropriate and unprofessional you and Erik are as managers and leaders of people. You are absolutely horrible at judging the hearts of your employees. And everything you have done shows me how little you know about me.

 

How you “released me from my employment” was incredibly disrespectful and completely unjustified. You came down to the third floor, as I was still in the middle of my preliminary hearing docket. Judge Keeley had called me into his chambers and was talking to me. Incidentally he was talking to me about how untrained the new ADAs, who are doing preliminary hearings, are at preliminary hearings. You brought with you an armed investigator. You interrupted Judge Keeley and ordered me to come with you. Then you escorted me – with the armed investigator – from the third floor to the investigators' conference room. Were you trying to make me feel like I was being arrested? At the conference room,we were joined by two other armed investigators. So now there was you and me and three armed investigators.

 

In the conference room, you said “You are being released from employment.” That’s it. No explanation or reason. Which is fine. Your name is on the door. I served at the pleasure of the District Attorney. You can release anybody at any time for any legal reason. But then you did something so incredibly odd.

 

You told me to turn over my firearm to the investigators; that I am no longer able to carry a firearm. I told you I don’t have a firearm on my person or in the office. You said I did have a firearm and that I signed a piece of paper saying I did. No I didn’t. Since I came back, I never applied to carry a gun, I never receive a CLEET certification and I never signed anything that stated I was carrying a gun into the office.

 

I have never ever been a threat. I have not said anything threatening. I have never written anything threatening. I have never communicated in any way any type of threat. Yet you believed you needed three armed investigators for me!Without any shred of evidence that I was threatening, were you scared of me? Is this how you see people? They are a threat even without the slightest evidence they are threatening? Is this the way you approach prosecution? You basically believe people are guilty without the slightest evidence proving they guilty just because you believe they are guilty?

 

Why did you come down personally to get me? I suppose you couldn’t text me to come up to the investigators conference room, because I had just told you I was no longer going to use my personal mobile phone for work purposes. But you could have just sent Erik, Kevin or even an investigator. But nope. You wanted to make a point. You wanted to prove that you are the boss. You wanted to show me and everyone else that you are the big man in charge. Wow, that just reeks of insecurity.

 

You did all that to try to establish power and dominance over me by trying to intimidate and humiliate me. Here is the rub. You have neither and I was neither. You have no real power or dominance over me. You were my employer. Nothing more, nothing less. (I thought you were more. I thought you were my friend. Obviously I was wrong). I was not intimidated nor humiliated. I had done nothing wrong except work extremely hard for you and the office and tell you the truth about what was happening.

 

The whole situation made me think of making a “Jerry McGuire” joke that I was not going to “freak out.” But I honestly thought you and the armed investigators would not see it as a joke and I would be taken down and physically restrained.

 

Since you gave me no reason for “releasing” me from my employment, I can only guess as to the reason why. The only way I can figure out the reason is to begin by going through what cannot be the reason.

 

 

• First I know the reason cannot be because I was not hard working. Like other ADAs, I have been putting in hours in excess of 40 hours a week every week. In fact, I had just worked an all-nighter Sunday night to get the tasks done.
• Second, I know the reason cannot be because I made some mistake. You never said I made a mistake. If you could have told me I was wrong when you fired me, you would have.
• Third, I know the reason cannot be because I was not doing my job. You never said I was not doing my job. Again, if you could have told me I was not doing my job when you fired me, you would have.
• Fourth, I know the reason cannot be because I was disloyal or insubordinate. I have always, always, always supported you, publicly and privately. No one can say otherwise. No evidence can be presented to show otherwise.
• Fifth, I know the reason cannot be because I make too much money and I somehow busted the salary cap. We all know how much each other makes. It is public knowledge. I made $51K.
• Sixth, I know the reason cannot be because I lied. We all know, I could never play poker because I do not have the ability to lie.

 

So I can only conclude you fired me because you found out I was thinking about looking for another job or I told the truth about what was happening in the office.

 

I told Erik that you were working us way too hard and expecting way too much. Erik told me to “figure it out” and get it all done. That is a direct quote. Basically you are telling us to figure out how to continue to work overtime without any compensation or acknowledgment or accolades. Publicly you state that family is the most important thing, but what really goes on behind the scenes is that you don’t care about our families, we work for you, you will work us as much as you decide and we either like it or get released from employment.

 

I also told you that I no longer was going to use my private mobile phone for work purposes. Using my personal mobile phone for work allows for my phone and phone records to be subject to a subpoena. Additionally, work was relying too much on the use of my personal phone, which became painfully obvious in my interaction with Erik when communicating by text messages.

 

As a side note, if you think I made the infamous “Hitler” video, you would be absolutely and utterly wrong. I was sent that video and was disgusted by it. I expressed my disgust anytime the video was talked about. I also refused to forward the video or even the link to the video, no matter who requested me to do so. If you want to look at my personal mobile phone for proof of such, I will gladly let you.

 

This weekend as I was rereading your campaign promises, I came across your promise to reduce employee turnover. You said that you lost people because you could not pay them more; that you trained them and they took that training

 

You said that you lost people because you could not pay them more; that you trained them and they took that training somewhere else and got paid more. We all know that is not true. Here is the evidence.

 

• First, you did not train the people that left. Tim did. The people that left were hired and trained by Tim.
• Second, the people you have hired have not been trained well. Just ask them and the judges. (See above regarding the conversation you interrupted to fire me).
• Third, you could pay more, you are just choosing not to pay some people more. We all know how much Larry,Mark and Todd are making. You could hire 6 prosecutors at the rate you are paying those three. And one of those three does not even work full time. (Sorry Larry, Mark and Todd for throwing you under the bus, you know I love you and think you are good for the office.)

 

I know you are not good at reading people’s hearts. I know this only because you could not read mine. I was your biggest and most loyal supporter. I was the only prosecutor last year who went to the polar plunge, where I brought my young son and wore my Steve K for DA Shirt. I tried to support your reelection as much as I was ethically able to once I was running for Judge. (As I told you and others, I made a promise to do what I could to get Wall defeated. I tried to get others to run and when I could not, I had to run myself.) I got my family to go out and support your reelection. I even convinced my wife to vote for you. I have publicly and privately supported vertical prosecution and the trial teams. I have publicly and privately supported your decision to hire Larry, Mark and Todd. Even though those hires were not in my best interests, i.e. their hiring lessened the prospect of me being on a trial team. I have publicly and privately supported every decision to promote someone else instead of me to a trial team. I have publicly and privately stated that I will go where I am needed and do what I am asked for the good of the team – for the good of the office.

 

By the way, last year you told me that you did not understand what “loyal to a fault” means. Loyal to a fault means someone is loyal and continues to be loyal despite the personal cost of being loyal. I am an example of someone who is loyal to a fault. Despite the personal cost to me in family time and personal relationships, I have always publicly and privately supported you no matter what.

 

Clearly the listening sessions are not for what you are touting them to be. They are not for you to do your job better. They are to root out those who don’t lockstep agree with you. They are to expose those who are willing to stand up to the king. They are to eliminate those who would dare say the emperor is not wearing any clothes.

 

In December, you told me that you were not going to be such a nice guy anymore because look where that got you. That people are not loyal to you. That three of your former employees ran against you in your reelection. People running against you is not a sign you are too nice, it is a sign that you are not doing what is required of you for people to be loyal to you.

 

Demands, threats, and fear do not promote loyalty and respect. Loyalty and respect are earned through the genuinely caring of others and the empowerment of others. For always doing what is right for them, not for you. Employee loyalty is not a given, it has to be earned. You don’t earn loyalty automatically in a day. You earn loyalty day-by-day. Tyranny is ruling by fear. You are making the classic mistake tyrants make. You are mistaking fear for loyalty and the absence of fear for disloyalty. I was not fearful of you so you saw me as not being loyal. I bet you are going to see this email as evidence that your perception of me being disloyal was correct. What you don’t realize is that your mistaken belief of me being disloyal and your actions based upon that mistaken belief actually became a self-filling prophecy.

 

Your legacy when you leave this office will be an office of tyranny and turmoil. That is sad. Surely that is not how you want to be remembered. Unfortunately it will be.

 

Steve, do you honestly believe you are going to be able to stand up at the gates and say to Jesus you did the right thing. Do you really believe how you treated me and others will be seen as kind, as dutiful, as Godly. Has your pride become so enveloping that you are not able to see how much that sin is casting a shadow over everything you do.

 

All of this has made me reconsider and reevaluate how I always thought of you. I see you differently now. I am a little afraid for the safety of Tulsa County. Not much for the overall, but afraid for some. Because some are going to have to sufferer greatly before the overall realizes the mistake they’ve made in choosing you as the District Attorney.

 

Et tu, Erik? You were my friend. What you took as such a personal affront was really just a misunderstanding of text messages because they came to me in a different order than they came to you. You saw that once I showed you my phone. (That was one of the reasons why I did not want to use my personal mobile phone anymore for work.) You take what Corbin spoon feeds you as gospel. Your default is to believe Corbin – not your employees. You make your employees prove what Corbin says is not true before you do not believe Corbin. I know you now know the truth as to how I really am with the public defenders. Instead of believing me, you did your own little secret investigation. Lastly, you did not even have the backbone to say anything about me being fired, or even be there for it.

 

This last part is from Kolette, she obviously felt strongly to contribute to this email. Congratulations Steve on taking the most engaged and loyal employee and transforming him into the most disappointed and disengaged employee, questioning his own beliefs and moral compass. Tom was someone who believed in the mission and believed in you personally and stood by you unwavering no matter what I said or anyone else said; despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. As scary as it clearly was for you, I just want to thank you for releasing him from his employment.

 

Sincerely, Tom Sawyer

 

And I think they they had good reason to bring armed investigators to fire you and escort you out of the building. But what a whiny ass manifesto to write and send out to so many people. If the allegations are true then you have an alcohol problem, and an attitude problem, and ought to just about now be coming out of state prison for brandishing a firearm in a place that serves alcohol. Not hypocritically attempting to persecute others on gun charges that you yourself have been accused of.

 

Sawyer isn't a punk kid fresh out of college. He passed the bar exam in 2008 and has to be forty years old by now.