Tulsa County set to appeal verdict in jail assault case

TULSA — Tulsa County is appealing last week’s verdict in a federal civil rights lawsuit that alleged a female prisoner was sexually assaulted while held in the Tulsa jail in 2010.

A jury awarded $25,000 to the plaintiff to be paid by the county and former Sheriff Stanley Glanz, who was named personally as a defendant.

The defendants may also be liable for the defendant’s legal fees, which are expected to far exceed the amount of the award.

Attorney Guy Fortney, representing the county, said he recommended the county appeal the verdict “due to what we believe to be errors in the trial court.”

“The judgment was a nominal amount, but the plaintiff ... has the right to recover attorney fees,” Fortney said.

County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to challenge the verdict in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“This is just another way for the county to send taxpayers’ money to Clark Brewster’s law firm,” said plaintiff’s attorney Dan Smolen.

Fortney belongs to the Brewster and DeAngelis firm, which is representing Tulsa County and the sheriff’s office in several civil rights lawsuits.

Smolen said he expects the legal fees for both parties to be in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Other cases

Besides the woman in the case decided last week, Smolen is representing clients in six of the pending civil rights cases.

Among those is the family of Eric Harris, who was fatally shot by Reserve Deputy Robert Bates last spring while being arrested.

Harris’ death set in motion a series of events leading to the resignation of Glanz and unprecedented scrutiny of the sheriff’s office.

The suit decided last week, however, was filed in 2011, more than three years before Harris’ death drew attention to the sheriff’s office. The jury found the woman was assaulted on numerous occasions over several months by Tulsa jail detention officer Seth Bowers.

Bowers later resigned as a detention officer and was dismissed as a defendant in the lawsuit as the result of an undisclosed settlement. The Tulsa County district attorney declined to file criminal charges against Bowers in connection with the allegations, citing a lack of corroborating evidence.