On September 23, an extensive petition was filed in Tulsa County District Court seeking to convene a citizens’ grand jury to investigate Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler and his office. The petition is asking for an investigation into multiple areas involving the DA’s office, including its handling of the Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, allegations involving the use of county employees or resources for campaign activity, Kunzweiler’s administration of the office, and several individual criminal cases. One of the criminal cases referenced in this petition is Elliott Binney’s case. I wrote about Binney months ago because his daughter, Shelby was my daughter’s friend, and I had coached her in youth cheer for years when the girls were younger. She was a child our community knew and loved. On January 11, 2024 Shelby was killed after the vehicle her father was driving left the roadway and rolled. She was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. According to the arrest affidavit, Elliott Binney admitted taking a “gulp” of vodka while driving his family and passing vehicles in a no passing zone. Police said he left the scene and was later arrested in Checotah. Binney was eventually charged with first degree manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal collision, two counts of child neglect, reckless driving, transporting an open container and driving left of center. When I wrote about the case earlier this year, it was because I couldn’t reconcile what happened to Shelby with how the case ultimately ended. Binney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to only ten years, with five years in custody and five years suspended, and a judicial review after just two years. At the time I questioned why a case involving a dead 16 year old girl, a father who admitted drinking vodka while driving (with a documented drunk driving history that raised additional questions) ended with a sentence that could potentially be reviewed after only two years. Kunzweiler publicly defended the recommendation by saying straight probation wasn’t appropriate, but neither was spending the rest of Binney’s life in prison, pointing in part to Binney accepting “responsibility.” I publicly disagreed with the outcome, as well as questioned Kunzweiler’s recommendation after finding that Binney’s defense attorney, Allen Smallwood, had contributed $1,000 to Kunzweiler’s reelection campaign while representing Binney in the active felony case. My reporting was met with some rather visceral reactions. Now months later, some of the same questions have surfaced again by others. The newly filed petition specifically asks a grand jury to examine the circumstances surrounding Binney’s prosecution and sentencing, including Kunzweiler’s involvement in the recommendation, whether Smallwood’s campaign contribution had any connection to decisions made in the case, and whether Binney’s outcome was consistent with how similarly situated defendants have been treated in Tulsa County. Because several of those inquiries involve Kunzweiler or members of his staff directly, the petition is asking that the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office not advise the grand jury and that a prosecutor from outside the office be appointed instead. It’s also asking for a different supervising judge, citing Judge David Guten’s previous involvement in several of the cases that could come before the grand jury. Later this week I’ll be digging into other parts of the petition in a series of shorter articles, including questions surrounding the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act and several of the other allegations raised in the filing. Stay tuned.

You sound like a fag