Inmate who duped Oklahoma corrections officials arrested

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL State Correspondent
Published: November 6, 2009

MIAMI – A three-time convicted drug trafficker was arrested early Friday after using a fake court document to hoodwink the Lawton Correction Facility into releasing him from prison.

Richard Lynn Dopp.

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Richard Lynn Dopp, 47, was sleeping at his mother’s rural Ottawa County home around 2:30 a.m. when he was taken into custody and returned to the Corrections Department, said Ottawa County District Attorney Eddie Wyant.

He was released from the Lawton Correction Facility, a private prison, on Oct. 5 after the prison received a fraudulent modified judgment and sentence report.

“Unbelievable – Unbelievable,” Wyant said of the prisoner’s plan.

The bogus document indicates Wyant attended the July 27 court hearing where Dopp’s life sentence with no chance of parole was modified to 10 years and a $25,000 fine forgiven. The document also has an Ottawa County District Court file stamp dated Aug. 11. No copy of the document was ever filed in Ottawa County District Court, Wyant said.

Wyant did not attend the meeting and was the first person to notice Dopp’s game when Corrections Department officials sent out a notice listing Dopp as being released from prison. Wyant learned the sham legal document was fraudulently signed July 27 by Bruce David Gambill,.

The first thing Judge Gambill said after learning of the fraudulent court document was, “I want to report a crime,” Wyant said, referring to his forged signature.

Ottawa County officials also noticed the seal on the back of document was bogus, Wyant said. Then the Corrections Department did not have a certified copy of the bogus document and they were having a hard time finding his file.

The Corrections Department has turned the situation over to internal affairs, Wyant said.

Jerry Massie, Corrections Department spokesman, explained the document had to come from Ottawa County or be verified by a telephone call.

“The document looked legitimate,” Massie said.

The situation is under investigation and it isn’t known what safeguards will be put in place to prevent this type of escape if any, he said. Massie doesn’t know if the escape was an inside job or Dopp had help from the outside.

Massie said Corrections Department officials have no present plans on looking at past inmates who were released or implementing a moratorium until the investigation is completed.

It’s unknown if Dopp was issued money or a bus ticket or other types of assistance when he was released, Massie said.

Dopp was sentenced in 1998 for trafficking a controlled dangerous substance – marijuana. He also was convicted of maintaining a residence where a controlled dangerous substance is kept, and felon in possession of a firearm.

“I tried the case when I was an assistant district attorney,” Wyant said.

Through the years Dopp has filed numerous lawsuits against the district attorney’s office and other court officials, he said.

“He has been begging for release,” Wyant said.

Dopp’s drug problems date back to 1982 when he was sentenced to two years for manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance and preventing a witness from attending court. In 1986 he was sentenced to seven years for distribution and possession of a controlled dangerous substance, manufacturing and illegal possession.