Del City closes fire station in south part of city
State penitentiary inmate charged with murder
A former inmate at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a fellow inmate.
Joshua Ironside, 33, is accused of killing Richard Wisener, 25, in a cell at the prison on Sept. 18. A Cleveland County court affidavit filed June 21 states that Ironside is thought to have hit and stomped Wisener in the head.
Corrections Department officials said Ironside is now being held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He is serving a 40-year prison sentence out of Mayes County for a first-degree manslaughter conviction.
Wisener was serving a five-year sentence out of Mayes County on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Man accused of kidnapping ex-girlfriend
A man accused of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend was arrested early Tuesday.
About 11:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to the 200 block of S Duncan Street to investigate a reported kidnapping. According to a witness, Dre Montez White, 24, forced his ex-girlfriend, Kaylee Dawn Fowler, 24, into a vehicle and left the area, police Capt. Kyle Gibbs said.
Fowler had an active protective order issued against White in March. She called and told police she was able to get away from White and made it back to her apartment. Fowler told police that White was armed with a handgun and had threatened her with it while she was in the vehicle, Gibbs said.
Officers located White inside an apartment at 724 S Jefferson Street, with a loaded handgun. He was arrested on complaints of domestic assault and battery, kidnapping, possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction and violation of an emergency protective order, Gibbs said.
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Infamous twin sisters Birdie Jo Hoaks and Becky Jo Hoaks pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oklahoma City federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The sisters, who will be sentenced at a later date, have gained national notoriety over the years for their exploits across the country — especially for cons in which Birdie Jo Hoaks posed as a young homeless boy at churches and group homes.
Last month, the identical twins got in trouble again when a federal grand jury meeting in Oklahoma City
The Del City Fire Department has closed one of its two fire stations due to budgetary and personnel constraints.
Fire Station 2, 4609 SE 44, is closed effective immediately, the department announced Monday.
“Unfortunately, we are in the perfect storm: budgetary constraints, loss of sales tax revenue, retirements and a loss of firefighters to other fire departments,” said Del City Fire Chief Jim Hock.
A Norman orthopedic practice and its owners have paid more than $1.5 million to the U.S. government to resolve allegations of false medical claims that they self reported, Oklahoma City federal prosecutors reported Monday.
Prosecutors alleged Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs and TRICARE between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2015.
The center’s physicianowners were identified as Mark Moses, David Bobb, William Harris, Vytautus Ringus, Steven Schultz and Brad Vogel.
Following an internal review and audit in late 2015, the center discovered indicted them in the conspiracy case.
Tuesday morning, the twins appeared separately in court and admitted to writing bad checks to purchase postage stamps in the Oklahoma City area. Prosecutors alleged the offenses occurred between June 2016 and February.
All Del City firefighters will keep their jobs, and will be relocated to the city’s Fire Station 1, Maj. Brandon Pursell said. The department hasn’t been told if or when the fire station might reopen.
Pursell said the city has 22 firefighters, placing it three below its normal staffing level. The department is also set to lose several more in the coming weeks — three of whom are being hired away by Oklahoma City in a week and a half, and two more who are retiring in the next three months. A sixth firefighter plans to retire in January, irregularities in prior billing processes, including billing for medical equipment and supplies, hospital consults and physical therapy that were not supported by documentation, the document shows.
“This was a problem that was identified by our corporation and it was something that our physicians brought forward on their own ... because they believe in doing the right thing for their patients and their community,” the center’s chief operating officer, Amanda Penrod, told on Monday.
In reaching the settlement, the center and its owners “did not admit liability, and the government did not make any concessions regarding the legitimacy of the claims,” according to a news release.
Dressed in orange jail uniforms with shackles around their ankles, each soft-spoken sister answered the judge’s questions with, “Yes, sir,” during the hearings.
Documents show the U.S. Postal Service lost nearly $60,000 from the sisters’ scheme. At sentencing, he said.
Due to reduced staffing levels, the department also will be taking its rescue unit out of service for the foreseeable future, he said. The ladder and engine will remain on the roads, responding to calls from Fire Station 1.
It will take months to hire and train firefighters to replace those the departmentis losing.
“Our response times might be a little bit longer than what we’re used to,” Pursell said. “We’re still going to shoot for three minutes. Obviously, in the south part of town U.S. District Judge David L. Russell could sentence each sister to up to five years in prison, as well as a fine and restitution.The twins are 47.
Young ‘boy’
Birdie Jo Hoaks pretended to be a young boy in more than a dozen states from the late 1980s and into the 2000s, according to news reports. She has told news reporters she was able to fool people because she looked young and did it to “get a place to stay and some food to eat.”
In an effort to pull off the con, she would even bind her breasts with tape, we’re going to expect a little longer of a response time.”
A fire station being built near SE 28 and Epperly Drive is expected to be operational by December or January, but is not designed for a large staff of firefighters, Pursell said.
There were already talks according to news reports.
She attempted the hoax numerous times in her 20s and 30s. And in some instances, Becky Jo Hoaks participated in the ruse, playing the character of “Aunt Becky,” according to news reports.
The twins have rarely spent much time in jail or prison. Records show the twins have lived in Oklahoma off and on since the early 2000s. Since then, each has racked up multiple felony convictions in the state.
Beginning in 2011, both spent more than a year in prison after Tulsa County convictions for bogus check and grand larceny offenses, records show. of using Fire Station 2 for storage or turning the building over to the public works department.
“We’re going to still maintain fire protection and emergency medical responses for our citizens, and we’re going to continue doing the best job that we can,” Pursell said.