State briefs

A former Wagoner County prosecutor surrendered her law license rather than face disbarment proceedings.

Janet Bickel's license has been suspended since March. She pleaded guilty in September to criminal charges related to a grand jury investigation of her then-boss Richard Gray.

Gray, who was district attorney for Cherokee, Wagoner, Adair and Sequoyah counties, faces embezzlement charges involving the disappearance of nearly $9,000.

Bickel of Chouteau received a five-year deferred sentence for offering false evidence, drug possession and perjury.

A man who shot a 17-year-old 10 times will not be charged with a crime, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said.

Jesus Bustos, 38, shot Justin Burgess after an altercation at Bustos' residence in Schulter on June 12.

"He's going to live,” Rice said.

Rice said Burgess went to Bustos' once and left after he was asked. He later returned with a knife, Rice said.

Bustos will not be charged because of the Stand Your Ground law. It declares a person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force” if force is necessary to prevent death, great bodily harm or the commission of a forcible felony.

The Grazinglands Research Laboratory, a 6,740-acre lab near El Reno, is not among the five finalists for a $450 million federal campus where biological threats will be studied, the U.S. Homeland Security Department said Wednesday.

A consortium led by Oklahoma State University was bidding on the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which would have been built on federal property about five miles west of El Reno. The El Reno lab has been one of 18 finalists from 29 initial applicants.

The finalists are Flora Industrial Park in Madison County, Miss.; Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.; Texas Research Park in San Antonio; Umstead Research Farm in Granville County, N.C.; and the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

From Staff and Wire Reports