A4. THE PERKINS JOURNAL, Thursday, February 16, 2012
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Thank You
The family of Nell R Cole Wishes to thank everyone
vho sent cards, flowers, food and contributions. Special
thanks to Dr. Dexeus and staff in Enid, Southside Baptist
Church and River of Life Church for all the prayers.
Gbd Bless all of you. John 3:16
i,
The Cole'Family
Think Before You Toss It
'.i Please "DO NOT" litter and "DO NOT" tamper
with county road signs. It's your choice, is it worth
it?
The punishment is more severe for tampering with
Payne County road signs. Only PCEE knows when
Officer Lewis and I will be out patrolling after hours
or where we will be?
' Payne County Environmental Enforcement (PCEE)
treats "EVERYONE EQUAL"! Age, race, sex or
handicap makes no difference to us. We have a job for
everyone and would not ask the violator to do what we
haven't done nor would not do ourselves.
For over 18 months, I've asked that several articles
be published in the papers asking the public for their
cooperation by not littering, dumping and tamper-
ing with road signs. Most of you have complied and
supported us. We also thank the newspapers for their
support !
We are building a strong public Support and the current
technology makes it easier to catch more people in the
act. We are determined to take back our county!
iRecently a 24 year old mother of two, who lives in
another county came to Payne County and tossed a
small Wal-mart bag containing ten pieces of fast food
wrappers out her window. She drove 90 miles each day
t9, finish her community service work and all other court
ordered requirements.
Before leaving for the courthouse she told me, "How
stupid was I? Throwing trash out of my car cost me
$i,400 in fines, court costs, legal, clean up, disposal
fees, time off work and gas to and from Stillwater".
"I missed three days of work while doing my com-
munity service and my co-workers laughed at me." She
also stated, "I don't care if the trash gets knee deep in my
car, I'll not throw another piece out of the window."
She did the following while on community service. She
cleaned 3 miles (both sides) of a really trashy road and
filled 21 large trash bags of trash. She cleaned 12 large
dcmp sites filled with couches, recliners, mattresses, other
furniture, household items, debris and scattered paper
trash. She filled four 16 foot long trailer loads of trash
and debris cleaned from Payne County roads.
She climbed up and down deep ravines, creek banks
and all sorts of terrain dragging the trash with her back
to the trailer until each dump site was spotless. When she
emptied the trailer she had to lift the trash 5 feet up over
the walls of the dumpster and put the trash in the dumpster
to properly dispose of it. She also cleaned around the Expo
Center picking up and bagging trash left by others.
This was her choice to Litter!
Darrell Varnell
Payne County Environmental Enforcement
I
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:ByRepsentative ee Denney
Gov. Mary Fallin unveiled an ambitious agenda this week
during her State of the State speech, which launched the
2012 legislative session.
The headline proposal was her call for significant tax
reform. The governor's "Oklahoma Tax Reduction and
Simplification Act" would immediately cut income taxes
for all Oklahomans and simplify the tax code.
If approved, her plan would give Oklahoma the lowest
income tax rate in the region aside from Texas, making
us more competitive in attracting and growing new busi-
nesses.
In the short term, her plan would reduce the number of
income tax brackets from seven to three with lower rates
for all. Our current tax structure technically taxes the first
penny you earn at a 0.5 percent rate, and increases to 5.25
percent for families with taxable income of $15,900. (Our
"millionaire's bracket" includes a lot of poor people.)
Under the governor's plan, starting next January, families
with incomes of $30,000 or less would pay no income tax
at all. Families with joint income of $30,000 to $70,000
would pay a 2.25 percent rate, and everyone above that
level would pay a 3.5 percent rate.
Under the proposed rates, a middle-class couple making
$40,000 a year would pay 37 percent less in taxes next
year. ,
In the future, tax rates would be lowered another quarter-
point every year the state experiences revenue growth of 5
percent until the income tax is completely eliminated.
WEST
To pay for the plan, the govemor called for eliminating
tax loopholes, carve-outs and other exceptions, as well as
achieving greater government efficiencies.
The other big item in the speech was a plan to address
Oklahoma road and bridge funding.
For years, Oklahoma has topped the national "bad
bridges" lists. However, only 413 of Oklahoma's 706
structurally deficient bridges are currently scheduled for
rehabilitation or replacement withln eight years, leaving
293 bad bridges in place.
Under Governor Fallin's plan, Oklahoma will repair the
remaining 293 structurally deficient bridges by 2019.
To accomplish this goal, Governor Fallin's budget
restores an additional $15 million taken from roads and
bridges in the past and raises the cap on the state ROADS
fund from $435 million to $550 million. Bumping the
incremental contribution will have a compounding effect
that generates an estimated $479 million over eight years
to fund our most pressing road and bridge needs.
She also called for earmarking a larger share of motor
vehicle collections to county roads.
Furthermore, the governor also called for a supplemental
appropriation to ensure teacher benefits are fully funded.
And to help needy Oklahomans obtain work, she
announced the launch of OKJobMatch.com, which will
help connect newly graduated students with employers.
Best of all, it's designed to especially aid our military vet-
erans and those returning with the Armed Services from
overseas who need employment.
These are ambitious goals that will be given careful
consideration at the Oklahoma Capitol I will keep you.
informed as this debate progresses.
As always, feel free to contact me at (405)557-7304 or
at leedenney @okhouse.gov.
Continued from Page A1
national database, Miller
wrote in his affidavit.
"I know that users
attempting to trade files on
a P2P file-sharing network
can place files from their
local computer in a shared
file directory," Miller wrote
in his affidavit.
On Sept. 3,2011, Miller
noticed that an entry in the
law enforcement database
for an IP address -- alleg-
edly assigned to West --
was sharing nine files on
the P2P network with file
names leading the detec-
tive to believe the content
was child pornography, the
affidavit said.
On Sept. 11, 2011, the
IP address was sharing one
file on the P2P network
with a file name that also
led Miller to believe it was
child pornography, the affi-
davit alleged.
On Sept. 12, 2011, the
IP address was sharing
eight files on the P2P net-
work with file names that
led Miller to believe they
were child pornography,
the affidavit alleged.
After the information
was relayed to Perkins
police, the Stillwater police
detective inspector assisted
Perkins police in the execu-
tion of a search warrant of
West's residence, the affi-
davit said.
During the search, "It
was apparent that a com-
puter was missing from the
residence," Miller alleged
in his affidavit.
Stillwater Police Depart-
ment Detective Inspector
Les Little then went to
speak to West at his job
in Stillwater, the affidavit
said.
"Randy West claimed
he only owned a Dell
laptop computer that was
still at the residence," but
his co-workers said that
West frequently brought a
personally-owned red Acer
laptop to the job, the affi-
davit said.
West initially denied
that he owned such a red
Acer laptop, but he "later
admitted he had hidden his
red Acer laptop computer in
his employer's business,"
in Stillwater, the affidavit
alleged.
"Randy West put it in
an unoccupied room after
he was warned that several
police officers were at his
residence," the affidavit
alleged.
"One of the business
owners granted Inspector
Little access to the room,"
where the laptop was found
in a computer bag also
containing an external hard
drive, both of which were
seized by Little, the affida-
vit alleged.
After obtaining a search
warrant to examine the
Acer laptop computer and
external hard drive, "I found
over 300 images or videos
I believed to be child por-
nography or child erotica,"
on the laptop and external
drive, Miller alleged in his
affidavit.
"Also found were over
26 images or videos of
child pornography contain-
ing known victims," the
affidavit alleged.
Twenty-four years ago,
\\;
West was convicted of pro-
ducing clild pornography
and two counts of sodomy,
by a Payne County jury
that rejected his defense of
insanity. The jury, which
deliberated for over six
hours, set a maximum pen-
alty of 30 years in prison for
West, who did not testify at
his three-day trial.
West, who was then a
free-lance commercial artist
and part-time funeral home
employee in Stillwater, said
at his sentencing in 1988, "I
do not hate" the victim.
West said he hoped the
boy would forgive him for
what he characterized as
"my misunderstanding,"
apparently referring to his
claim, expressed at his trial
by a defense psychiatrist,
that he was unaware his
acts were wrong.
West was convicted of
sodomizing the boy and
making a videotape of it in
West's bedroom on July 4,
1986-- a week after he was.
assigned as the boy's "Big
Brother," in the organiza-
tion. The tape was shown
to jurors in the 1988 trial.
Then-prosecutor Frank
Muret said in an interview,
"In the videotape, the boy's
hands were tied behind his
back," during anal and oral
sodomy in West's rural
Perkins trailer, seven miles
south of Stillwater.
"This was a perverse
game Randy West was play-
ing. It was ritualistic -- this
was a very weird case, very
disturbing," Muret told this
reporter in 1993 when West
was up for early release from
prison -- which the prosecu-
tor and the victim's family
adamantly opposed.
At the trial, the boy was
not required to be physically
present in the courtroom.
His testimony-- in which
he told jurors "Randy told
me to do everything he said
or he wouldn't be my friend"
-- was shown by videotape
at the trial.
Jurors also viewed over
150 drawings made by
West of children in various
sex acts, newspaper and
magazine cut-outs of chil-
dren, nude photos of West
alone and a computer print-
out made by West detailing
anatomical information of
six young boys.
At his trial, defense attor-
ney H.M. "Bud" Wyatt HI
maintained West did not
know such acts were wrong
because West was allegedly
sexually molested from age
8 to 16 by a unnamed minis-
ter in Perkins, who no longer
lives in the area.
In addition to assaulting
the 7-year-old boy on July
4, 1986 -- one week after he
was assigned to him in the
Big Brothers organization
-- West was also charged
with sexually abusing the
7-year-old and his 5-year-.
old brother in the Perkins
Masonic Lodge building
during Thanksgiving week-
end 1986.
Those charges were
dropped when West waived
his right to appeal the 30-
year prison term.
The prosecutor said he
thought going through a
second trial was more than
the victim's family could
bear.
