Crime briefs

Published: July 27, 2007

An investigator in the Creek County district attorney's office was arrested Thursday on a complaint that he violated a protective order his wife has against him.

Joyce Willingham told deputies her husband, Ed Willingham Jr., came into her home, stood at the edge of her bed and touched her foot Thursday morning.

About 2:55 a.m., Creek County deputies received a 911 call from the wife at her home in rural Creek County, Capt. Mike O'Keefe said.

Upon arrival, deputies spoke with Joyce Willingham, who said she heard someone enter through the laundry room door.

She said she dialed 911 and set the phone next to her bed and pretended to sleep, O'Keefe said. Joyce Willingham said Ed Willingham Jr. stood at the edge of her bed and touched her foot.

She then sat up and told her husband she had called 911, at which point Ed Willingham Jr. left, authorities said.

As a deputy took information from Joyce Willingham, the telephone rang. The caller ID displayed the call as coming from Willingham Jr., O'Keefe said.

The deputy answered the telephone call only to hear silence before the caller hung up, authorities said.

County dispatch verified the telephone number as the husband's.

Joyce Willingham on July 21 requested a protective order against her husband.

In her request, she said her husband said he would shoot at any deputies who came to arrest him.

A court petition doesn't specify a reason Ed Willingham Jr. might be arrested, but alludes to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation interview that took place July 19.

The OSBI confirmed it was investigating an allegation that someone in the district attorney's office had sex with an underage girl, but OSBI declined to name the target of that investigation.

About 11:35 a.m. Thursday, Willingham Jr. was taken into custody at the Creek County Courthouse in Sapulpa without incident.

Deputies arrested him on probable cause of violating a protective order.

Willingham Jr. was booked in the Creek County jail and will appear in court today.

Prosecutors have charged a state prison inmate with first-degree murder in the death of a check-cashing company employee.

Anthony Paul McClanahan was charged by Tulsa County authorities after DNA testing linked him to the June 5, 2004, stabbing death of Victoria Knight, prosecutors allege.

McClanahan, 37, also was charged with the robbery of Cash in a Flash, where Knight, 24, was an assistant manager.

A medical examiner determined Knight died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries.

A Tulsa man has been extradited to Tulsa, where he's charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of a homeless man.

Patrick Pflueger was arrested July 3 in Salt Lake City in the death of John Seeley, whose body was found in an abandoned apartment.

Also charged in the case are Dusty Ray McGee and Leslie McGee.

Police said the McGees told detectives they beat Seeley because he threatened to turn them in for stealing copper from the building.

The McGees were arrested less than a week after the killing, and all three men are being held in the Tulsa County jail without bail.

An Oklahoma City bank was robbed Thursday afternoon by a man who threatened a teller with a note, authorities said. No one was hurt.

About 2:30 p.m., the man walked into the Bank of Oklahoma branch at Williams Discount Foods, 7000 S May Ave., gave a teller a note and asked for money, FBI Special Agent Michael B. Ward said.

The robber gathered an undetermined amount of cash, Ward said. It wasn't immediately known where or how the robber fled.

The robber is described as white and in his 20s, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds and with a "pockmarked face.” He was wearing blue jeans, a gray T-shirt that read "Abercrombie and Fitch” on the front with a yellow "9” on the back and a dark-colored ball cap with a "Y” on the front.

A similar-looking man robbed the same branch Feb. 1 and Feb. 15.

The robbery is being investigated by the FBI and Oklahoma City police, Ward said.

A former Kay County sheriff's deputy was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City on charges of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in Pennsylvania.

The girl turned out to be an undercover federal agent, so Michael Wade Kent, 51, faces a sentence as long as life in prison if convicted.

The Ponca City resident is accused of communicating via the Internet with the person he thought was a teenage girl over four months beginning in December 2006, according to court papers.

He sent pornographic pictures and videos to the "girl” while expressing his desire to have sex with her, authorities said.

Kent is charged with six felony counts, including coercion and enticement and transporting material involving the sexual exploitation of minors.

Kent had been with the Kay County Sheriff's Department for about eight years before he resigned in April when the allegations came to light, Sheriff Everette Van Hoesen said.

From Staff and Wire Reports

Contributing: Staff Writer Jay F. Marks

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