Student to face trial in severed dog head case
Claremore student's speech not violated, judge says
By Larry Levy
Published: May 9, 2008
CLAREMORE — A judge ruled Thursday that constitutional rights to free speech were not violated in charges filed against a Rogers State University student accused of leaving a severed dog's head at a woman's doorstep and planning a campus massacre.
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Police find writings
Christina Lynn Shipman, a university student, testified that in finding the severed dog's head at the front door of her apartment the night of Feb. 18, she phoned the Claremore Police Department and Parks, her neighbor and friend for about two years.
Chuck Goad, a Claremore detective, said he questioned Parks the following day in the apartment complex parking lot, where uniformed officers had found "a very small amount of blood” on his car and then in Parks' apartment.
After seeing bizarre writing on Parks' wall, Goad read Parks his rights.
Parks told the detective that on the way back from Owasso he found a dead dog on the highway, took it to a park and cut off the head with stump splitter.
Goad said he took Parks into custody, but instead of sending him to jail sent the student to a hospital for mental observation.
Detective John Singer said that in searching Parks' apartment on Feb. 20 he found four journals dating to 2003 "that were very disturbing” in they mentioned entering a Rogers State dormitory and shooting people with graphic details.
The formal charge against Parks alleges that he threatened to cut off Blalock's head and put it in his freezer.
Under questioning by Zanerhaft, the detective admitted that despite his journal entries for five years, Parks had never committed a violent act and did not even kill the dog, which was already dead when Parks severed its head.
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