Oklahoma Briefs

OKLAHOMA CITY

The Oklahoma Lottery will stop picking its numbers for the Oklahoma Cash 5 and Pick 3 games by hand, lottery officials announced this week. Those drawings will be computerized and televised drawings will be eliminated as of Sunday. The Pick 3 drawing has aired live since November 2005 while the Oklahoma Cash 5 drawing has been airing since September 2006. Jim Scroggins, Oklahoma Lottery executive director, said the change will let the commission be "even more fiscally responsible.” Computerized draws are used by a majority of U.S. lotteries.

JULIE BISBEE, CAPITOL BUREAU

TULSA

The University of Tulsa and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma have formed a partnership aimed at helping improve the academic achievement of tribal members. TU President Steadman Upham said the partnership will include efforts by TU to reach out to Choctaw students as early as the eighth or ninth grade through. The partnership will provide a four-year scholarship to eligible entering freshmen and transfers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PRYOR

A Mayes County man pleaded guilty Wednesday to raping a child younger than 12 and received a 10-year suspended sentence. Walter Dale Oliphant Jr., 18, was charged as a youthful offender because he was a juvenile when the 2008 rape occurred. "The victim’s family requested he (Oliphant) not serve any jail time,” said Becky Gore, assistant district attorney.
SHEILA STOGSDILL, STATE CORRESPONDENT

TULSA

Prosecutors in Tulsa said they’ve filed a negligent homicide charge against an illegal immigrant in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist. Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres, 28, is charged in the Sept. 1 death of Beverly Duffield, 74. Alvelais-Torres faces an additional felony charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident as well as misdemeanor traffic charges.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAY

A former Cleora School Board president pleaded no contest to a rape charge and received a three-year suspended sentence, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Tommy Hoover, 61, of Afton, entered the plea last week to second-degree rape. He was scheduled to go to trial this week on three charges involving a 15-year-old girl.
SHEILA STOGSDILL, STATE CORRESPONDENT

An Ottawa County man charged with trying to hire an undercover narcotics officer to kill his former fiancee will go to trial, court records show. Ricky Dale Payton, 51, of Miami, OK, is charged in Delaware County with solicitation for murder in the first degree. He remains in jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
SHEILA STOGSDILL, STATE CORRESPONDENT

BARTLESVILLE

Washington County prosecutors have dismissed charges against a Bartlesville couple accused of abusing their children. According to court records, prosecutors moved Tuesday to drop the charges without prejudice against Geneva Stephanie Curtis and her husband, Gene William Lee. Several witnesses in the case reportedly couldn’t be located. Lee and Curtis were arrested July 18 after police received a report that a child had been thrown down during a fight at a motel. ”
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MCALESTER

The McAlester City Council appointed Pete Stasiak, the city’s director of Planning and Community Development, as interim city manager Tuesday. City Manager Mark Roath leaves Sept. 25 to take a job in New Mexico. Stasiak was one of two people who applied for the interim post. Also under consideration was excouncilman Louis Smitherman, who had been city manager at Spencer.

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

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