Published: October 14, 2009 07:48 am      

DPS: Rape allegations, faked time sheets not tied

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — There is no link between the investigation into the alleged sexual assault of three female prison inmates assigned to work the grounds at the governor’s mansion and the falsifying of time sheets by security officers assigned to guard the mansion, authorities said Tuesday.

Three Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers were reprimanded for falsifying logs to show they were working to guard the mansion at night after they had actually left, according to Department of Public Safety records obtained by The Associated Press through a state Open Records Act request.

The action was taken after supervisors found a pattern of troopers leaving early in late March and early April, officials said. But Capt. Chris West, a spokesman for the patrol, said the mansion’s security was never compromised.

“From what I understand it was never unattended,” West said. “There has not been a breach of security.”

Records indicate troopers Trevor Flanagan, Jerome Baxter and Paul Kenney were reprimanded on May 1. Flanagan was suspended without pay for six days, and Baxter was suspended without pay for three days. West said Kenney was also disciplined but that the action was not public record.

Meanwhile, a three-month investigation by the Department of Corrections’ internal affairs division found that two former state workers at the mansion committed sexual battery, forcible sodomy and rape against at least three female inmates from the Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City, according to prison spokesman Jerry Massie.

But Massie said the women, two of whom have since been released from prison, said the assaults happened on the mansion grounds between March 2008 and January 2009 — long before troopers assigned to the security detail started falsifying their work logs.

West said the alleged assaults “occurred prior to the limited incidents involving the troopers.”

The assaults also occurred during the day while the women were assigned to the mansion’s horticulture program and maintained flower beds, shrubs and other greenery at the mansion, Massie said.

“They’d come back at 3 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. But the reprimanded troopers were leaving at night.

Prison officials began their investigation on June 1, after one woman came forward following her release, Massie said. An attorney for one of the women, Janet Roloff, said she was familiar with issues involving the mansion’s security detail but believed they are not related to the attack on her client.

The Corrections Department’s investigation has been turned over to District Attorney David Prater’s office, said Scott Rowland, first assistant district attorney. Rowland said investigators found no correlation between allegations against the two former state workers and the falsified work logs.

Neither of the former workers has been charged, but the Department of Central Services fired both of them on Sept. 29 for violating departmental policies, according to documents also obtained through an open records request.

The documents indicate the fired workers are Russell Humphries, the former executive chef at the mansion, and Anthony Bobelu, the former groundskeeper supervisor.

Neither Humphries nor Bobelu have responded to repeated phone messages seeking comment and it was not immediately clear if either had hired an attorney.

Rowland said authorities are continuing to investigate the allegations and it is not known when a decision will be made whether to file charges.

Authorities have said the alleged assaults occurred in a building on the east side of the mansion’s 14-acre grounds a considerable distance away from the mansion, which is on the west side of the property. West said the building is outside the fenced perimeter that the mansion security detail is responsible for.

“We’re responsible for the first family, the mansion and the grounds,” West said. He declined to discuss in detail the security detail’s duties, to avoid compromising security.

Paul Sund, communications director for Gov. Brad Henry, said the governor would not comment on the rape allegations.