• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Murder charge dismissed against former sheriff's deputy who supervised reserve training

Posted: Aug 20th 2015 By: Samantha Vincent

A Tulsa County judge on Thursday dismissed a charge of first-degree murder against a former Tulsa County sheriff's deputy who was a key official in a 2009 internal affairs report about Robert Bates, but ordered that he be a material witness against his former co-defendants in connection with a January motel shooting death.

Warren Cole Crittenden, 44, had been charged Feb. 10 along with Kendrick Logan, 27; Jerome Hardaway, 28; and Dustin Ward, 24, in the Jan. 27 slaying of Michael Jones at the Super 8 Motel near 31st Street and Memorial Drive. He was held at the Tulsa Jail without bond since the day of the shooting, but jail records indicate he posted a $100,000 bond and was released at 11:10 a.m. Thursday.

Tulsa County District Judge Bill Musseman said Crittenden will have to wear a GPS monitor and be subject to random drug testing. Crittenden will appear in court again Sept. 10 for his first compliance check, and will be held without bond if he is noncompliant, Musseman said.

?Based upon the continuing investigation into the case, we decided to dismiss the murder charge against Crittenden and have him held as a material witness,? District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement. ?Mr. Crittenden clearly is a material witness and has information that is critical to this case."

Logan, Hardaway and Ward remain in custody without bond, as does Pamela Taylor, who was charged with attempted assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the same case. Taylor is accused of calling Crittenden and the others to confront Jones after she got in a fight with him, and her charge was amended to attempted assault March 6 after initially being charged with first-degree murder.

Logan, Hardaway and Ward are set for a Sept. 11 court appearance, and Taylor will have her trial court arraignment on Monday, according to court minutes.

Attorney Brett Swab said Crittenden maintains he was forced to participate in an ambush on Jones and that evidence in the case will "clearly show" he was an involuntary bystander. An arrest report claims Crittenden told police he was not the shooter and was held at gunpoint himself during the attack, while a search warrant affidavit alleges Crittenden admitted driving Hardaway to and from the motel.

"From the get-go, Mr. Crittenden, I believe, had told the truth," Swab said, adding that he believed his client did not need to be in custody. "He'll cooperate and do what he needs to do to make sure justice is seen in the case, which is ultimately the goal for everybody."

Two months after Crittenden was charged, a 2009 Internal Affairs report revealed he supervised the Tulsa County reserve deputy program at the same time Bates, who faces a second-degree manslaughter charge in the April 2 death of Eric Harris, was trained. Crittenden was a deputy from 1995 until Jan. 20, 2011, and was questioned about whether Bates was properly trained.

In the report, Crittenden said he felt pressured by then-Capt. Tom Huckeby to produce reports showing Bates was trained despite his belief to the contrary, and said many training documents containing his signature were forged.

Bates has said he believed he was using his Taser when he shot Harris during an undercover drug buy. A report from the Tulsa World earlier this month stated records showed Bates, 74, used his gun more than all other advanced reserve deputies combined while on duty.

The fallout from Harris' death led to local advocacy group We The People Oklahoma filing a petition to have a grand jury investigate the sheriff's office, which succeeded after the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied Sheriff Stanley Glanz's apeal request. The grand jury began meeting July 20.

Tulsa County sheriff's office officials previously told the World Crittenden was a disgruntled former employee and questioned his credibility because at the time he was a murder defendant. Asked Thursday, Swab said Crittenden has not yet been approached by the grand jury to discuss his relationship with his former employer or Bates.