TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office is asking a judge to toss a petition calling for a grand jury investigation into the agency, saying the petition is misleading and make no specific allegations against the office.
The motion filed Wednesday asks a district judge to dismiss the 6,647 signatures gathered by the civil rights group, We The People Oklahoma.
The petition drive began after a volunteer deputy, Robert Bates, shot an unarmed man April 2. Bates has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter. He is a friend of Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz and has donated tens of thousands of dollars in cash and equipment to the agency.
Petition organizer Marq Lewis says the group followed the law during the signature gathering process and called Wednesday’s motion “comical.”