[Shadow_Group] Fw: Prosecutor arrested in prostitution sting

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Prosecutor arrested in prostitution sting

By The Associated Press
Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel, who was a prosecutor in Oklahoma
City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' murder trial, has been arrested
in a police prostitution sting, officials said Friday. 
Keel was accused of trying to hire a woman for sex Thursday evening. The
woman was an undercover police officer. 

He was booked on a charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness
with a prostitute, said police Capt. Jeffrey Becker. Keel posted a $500
bond and was released. 

Becker said he was still reviewing the police report and did not
immediately have further details on the arrest. 

District Attorney Wes Lane said he has suspended Keel with pay pending a
review of the police investigation. 

"We recognize the gravity of this allegation and I am deeply disturbed,"
Lane said. "The Oklahoma County District Attorney's office holds very
seriously the public's trust that justice will be served whether it is a
citizen or a public official and that obviously includes my prosecutors."


Lane said his office would recuse itself from involvement in prosecuting
the case and would notify the Oklahoma Attorney General's office of this,
so other prosecutors could be selected. 

"A thorough investigation will be conducted of the incident and the
results of that investigation will be turned over to another district
attorney's office in the state," Lane said. "Over the three years that I
have been the district attorney, my office has taken a strong stand
against prostitution." 

Debra Forshee, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said
Keel did not want to comment on his arrest. 

Keel had a high-profile position as one of the prosecutors in the state
murder case against Nichols. 

A state jury convicted Nichols of 161 counts of first-degree murder last
May for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building, which killed 168 people. 

State prosecutors brought the case in hopes of winning a death sentence
against Nichols, who was already serving a federal sentence of life in
prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the bombing. 

The state jury deadlocked in the sentencing phase of the trial, and the
judge sentenced him to 161 consecutive life sentences.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/shadowgroup-l/attachments/20041113/52d629ed/attachment.html>