Labor commissioner spends time in detox
State labor chief sent to detox in incident
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By Augie Frost, Ed Godfrey and Nolan Clay
Published: February 19, 2008
State Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was taken to Oklahoma City's detox center after he was suspected of stealing a professional bull rider's guitar at a party Saturday night, The Oklahoman has learned.
Fields, a Democrat, was allegedly drunk but was not arrested and is not charged.
Oklahoma City police did not fill out an incident report and refused Monday to identify Fields by name.
The former state representative could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts over two days. He was elected labor commissioner in 2006.
Fields, 50, was at an "after party" — an event that followed Saturday night's competition at the Professional Bull Riders Inc. Copenhagen Challenger Tour Championship, a PBR spokeswoman said Sunday. The after party was at the Cox Convention Center.
Fields was suspected of stealing bull rider Colby Yates' guitar and was stopped by PBR staff, PBR marketing manager Jodie Edmonds said. He then was turned over to off-duty Oklahoma City police officers who were working the door.
"A couple of guys who work for us took him to the ground," Edmonds said.
On Monday, PBR officials declined to comment further,
Yates said Monday he had left a friend's expensive Taylor guitar on stage after playing and was mingling with others at the party.
"Somebody came and got me and said, 'Hey, somebody ... got your guitar.' The cops had him over there so I went over there and got the guitar back," Yates said. "I was supposed to be looking after it and I guess I didn't do a good job."
Fields was taken to the Public Inebriate Alternative center north of Bricktown and stayed about 10 hours, said an official familiar with his stay.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said Monday he cannot confirm — because of state law — that Fields was taken to the detox center. "I can't verify that it happened. If a person is not technically arrested, then we can't release that information or anything about that."
The police chief also said: "There was an incident at the Cox Convention Center in which an individual was suspected of stealing some property. Officers did detain somebody and after detaining them and investigating it, there was no determination that a crime had been committed."
Police dispatch logs show officers initially were called to the Cox Convention Center about 10:45 p.m. Saturday for a public drunk call. About 11:25 p.m., an officer was called to transport a person to the city's detoxification center. The dispatch logs do not include information about the person detained.
The detox center is an alternative to the county jail and a chance to keep a person's record clean, the police chief said. Discretion is left to each individual officer whether a person goes to jail or not. Citty said the alternative allows a person to sleep off being drunk or high and also lessens the burden on the jail.
The labor commissioner oversees an agency of about 100 employees who are responsible for enforcing state labor laws. It also has inspectors who check amusement rides for safety.
I wonder if that would apply if a random person was caught doing that. Ahh, the perks of being an official.