Tulsa doctor charged in teens' assault
Tulsa doctor charged in teens' assault
By Johnny Johnson
Published: May 16, 2008
TULSA — A Tulsa surgeon accused of running down a group of teenagers and bashing in their car windows after they rang his doorbell and ran off has been charged with nine misdemeanor charges, and has been sued by the teens and their families.
Richard Lee Cooper, 41, was charged in the Tulsa municipal court with one count of assault, seven counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious injury to property. His case has been assigned to a traffic court judge in Tulsa. He was initially arrested at the scene of the incident on seven complaints of assault with a dangerous weapon.
His professional career also has been put in peril, as the Oklahoma Board of Osteopathic Examiners is investigating the doctor to see whether any board action should be taken.
Tulsa police received a call from Cooper's wife on April 26, saying there were several people knocking on their door and ringing the doorbell. A second call from her indicated her husband had left to chase after the people responsible, according to previous reports.
Moments later, a 911 call came from a different person — one of the teenagers inside the vehicle — who said a man had run them off the road and was breaking out their windows with a baseball bat.
The teenagers told police later they had been playing "ding dong ditch," and were driving down the street when a car began flashing its headlights and accelerating quickly toward them.
The teens then reported that after the vehicle "cut them off" and forced them to stop, an irate man jumped out of the car and approached them with a bat in his hand, before he began beating on their sport utility vehicle, breaking the windows.
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