Defense attorney accused of hiding fugitive boyfriend
NORMAN — A defense attorney is being accused of hiding her fugitive boyfriend in January for days after a judge ordered his arrest.
Shelley Lynne Levisay, 32, of Shawnee, was arrested Wednesday after being charged in Cleveland County District Court. She was released from the Cleveland County jail after posting bail.
The former Pottawatomie County prosecutor denies wrongdoing and claims she was charged for political reasons.
"There is a good explanation for everything that they say happened," her attorney, Carlos Henry, said Wednesday night. "And I think a jury would look at the facts of the case and find her absolutely not guilty."
She is accused in the felony charge of providing David Gerdon supplies and access to a vehicle so he could escape arrest.
She had been in court Dec. 27 when a Pottawatomie County judge ordered his arrest on probation violations in his assault cases. She was seen texting on her phone afterward.
Gerdon was caught exiting a travel trailer in Newalla Jan. 24 after an informant tipped investigators to his location and also said "his attorney girlfriend comes out there to visit," according to an affidavit filed with the charge.
Backed up to the front
of the trailer was the attorney’s Black Escalade truck.
The evidence against the attorney includes her text messages, video from surveillance cameras on the property and recordings of phone calls he made to her from the Pottawatomie County jail after his arrest.
The text messages were between the attorney and a client who lived on a mobile home on the same property in Newalla, according to the affidavit. In one message Jan. 3, Levisay wrote “Hey I gave David some money that he can give you” to pay the electric bills.
Later on Jan. 3, she wrote, “Thanks for letting him crash/hide out LOL.”
The video recordings show Gerdon driving what investigators believe was the attorney’s silver Infiniti car and later her Cadillac Escalade pickup, according to the affidavit.
The recordings also show the attorney delivering grocery bags to the trailer Jan. 20 and Jan. 22, according to the affidavit.
In one call from jail, Gerdon told Levisay, “I was looking forward to this weekend. I was going to have you bring the dogs out and have a picnic,” according to the affidavit.
In a call Jan. 29, Levisay can be heard sobbing. She then told Gerdon, “They got a search warrant for my phone. They’ll find something to charge me with,” according to the affidavit.
She also said, “I think I know what they’ll try and come up with . ... I can’t say it on a recorded line. ... I’m not going to say it over the phone so in case I’m wrong they don’t come up with the idea but I’m pretty sure I know cause if I was a prosecutor it’s what I would be doing.”
Levisay has been an attorney in Oklahoma for more than six years and now specializes in criminal defense work. She has represented Gerdon in the past on a civil false arrest case and in a divorce but not on his felony cases. In 2016, she got an emergency protective order against him but had it dismissed a month later.
On Facebook, she describes herself as “a Christian, an attorney, a pianist, a teacher, a singer, an overachiever, and a perfectionist.”
If convicted of harboring a fugitive, the attorney could be sentenced to prison. Even if she gets probation, the Oklahoma Supreme Court could suspend or ban her from practicing law.
Her attorney, Henry, called the case a political charge.
Henry told The Oklahoman that Levisay came under investigation because she had announced she was going to run against Pottawatomie County District Attorney Richard Smothermon.
Henry acknowledged a Cleveland County prosecutor filed the case but said a drug task force from Pottawatomie County did the investigation. He said the task force is under the control of Smothermon.
Henry would not confirm Gerdon is Levisay’s boyfriend. “She has done nothing but encourage him to go to court,” he added. “That’s was all she was ever trying to do.”
Levisay had complained herself about Smothermon in one of her phone calls with Gerdon. “He said if I ran he’s going to do it,” she said Jan. 29, according to the affidavit. “He said if I stay around you he’d do it.”
Smothermon on Wednesday night said he would not comment on a case pending in another jurisdiction.
Gerdon, whose full name is Adrian David Ray Gerdon, was also charged Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court. Gerdon, 38, is accused of illegally possessing a handgun Jan. 24 because of his prior felony convictions, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.