Steve Kunzweiler | |
---|---|
Tulsa County District Attorney | |
Assumed office 2014 | |
Preceded by | Tim Harris |
Personal details | |
Political party | Republican |
Steve Kunzweiler is the current Tulsa County District Attorney. [1] He has worked on shows for the Forensic Files ,See No Evil and 60 Minutes . [2] He is on the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council.
Steve Kunzweiler was first elected in November 2014. [3] In 2014,Kunzweiler challenged his opponent Fred Jordan's candidacy "in the Aug. 26 Republican primary runoff." Kunzweiler was "chief of the Tulsa County district attorney's criminal division. Kunzweiler argued that Jordan isn't eligible to serve as DA because of a pay increase approved by the Legislature earlier this year." [4] In 2018,Kunzweiler ran against Jenny Proehl-Day,who was running on a social justice platform and claimed Kunzweiler "denies that there’s any racial bias in the system." [5] Kunnzweiler was elected for his second term. [6] He worked under the former DA,Tim Harris,the longest serving DA in Tulsa History. [7] Harris did not seek reelection and announced his run in 2017 for U.S. Congress District 1. [8] In 2018,Kunzweiler was the prosecutor during the Bever family murders trial. [9] In 2016,"he filed felony first degree manslaughter charges against" Betty Shelby. [10] By 2018,he had "charged three police officers with shootings —Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy Robert Bates,Shelby and Shannon Kepler (an off-duty officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teen in 2015) —earning convictions on both Bates and Kepler." [11]
In 2020,Kunzweiler declined charges toward Black Lives Matter protestors in Tulsa who painted the street with the words "Black Lives Matter,"referring the case back to the Tulsa city attorney’s office." [12] In 2021,Kunzweiler refused to charge the man who drove into BLM protestors,paralyzing a man,Ryan Knight,who "fell from an interstate overpass as the truck pulling a horse trailer drove through the group of protesters on Interstate 244. The 32-year-old was paralyzed from the waist down." [13] He "stopped short of endorsing proposals for harsher penalties for protestors or blanket immunity for drivers." [14] Also in 2020,Kunzweiler defended Harris's work when Harris was accused in the 2020 NBC Dateline investigative episode of allegedly coercing one of two formerly convicted Black Tulsa brothers into confessions. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] Atchison's lawyer Joseph Norwood,pointed out that "If Harris and Kunzweiler questioned the credibility of the lone witness against Atchison,the case should have been dismissed." [25]
In 2021,Kunzweiler said that the ruling on McGirt "isn't just a criminal matter but can also affect businesses." [26] Kunzweiler and First Assistant District Attorney Erik Grayless were to blame for "a public censure from the Oklahoma Bar Association after admitting during a professional tribunal last year that interns she supervised represented the agency in numerous criminal cases without being properly licensed" that happened in 2021. [27]
In 2019,Kunzweiler organized a DA breakfast "where they could all come together for the first time ever" to later "feel comfortable to pick up the phone and call one of the district attorneys if they have a question about proposed legislation" that would affect their work. [28] District Attorneys including Steve Kunzweiler have criticized the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board,who want the board to be more conservative in their considerations for parole and commutation,despite the Republican Governor Kevin Stitt having expressed full confidence. In an article written by Tulsa World,the DAs were said to be taking an increasingly more political role that has "to some degree weakened" the board's influence. [29] Dark money conservative attack ads targeting Stitt as not tough enough on crime started airing in 2021. [30] The state of Oklahoma has the third highest incarceration rate in 2021 and its 2018 numbers show it incarcerates the most women per capita. [31] [32]
In 2022,Kunzweiler's office wrote a protest letter against April Wilkens's application for parole. [33] It is speculated that the board did not grant her a hearing this period at least in part due to the protest letter. [34] Hers was one of the first cases Tim Harris prosecuted as DA,and Harris later accepted campaign contributions after the trail from Terry Carlton's father,Don Carlton,as well as from Kunzweiler's wife. [35] [36] The same month as Wilkens was being denied parole by the (at the time) all-male board,they unanimously recommended the Crossbow Killer,Jimmie Stohler,be granted parole in the same meeting. [37] Any DA protest for Stohler's release would have come from Kunzweiler's office. Governor Kevin Stitt approved the board's recommendation for Stohler's parole. Still,he reversed his decision,citing new but undisclosed "information" in what the Tulsa County DA's office had sent him. [38] Stitt reversed his decision after accusations of racism for not also releasing Julius Jones. [39]
In 2024,he was invited by Kevin Hern as his guest to attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union. [40] [41] He was invited because of his correlation to fentanyl overdoses,blaming immigration happening through the U.S. and Mexico border. [42]
Kunzweiler has supported the cross-deputization of police officers with tribal police to avoid confusion about who has jurisdiction. [43]
In June 2022,after the fall of Roe,a representative of No Forced Birth OK have called Kunzweiler "no friend to the Black community,the Indigenous community,to the gay community,to any community except white straight men." [44] On failure to protect laws,Kunzweiler said he viewed himself as a father punishing his daughters and that '"prosecutor’s job was to 'teach people the morals they either never learned or they somehow forgot.'" [45] He has explained female incarceration "using a metaphor about spanking." [46]
In early 2022,Kunzweiler's daughter stabbed him. Before her hearing,he called for greater mental healthcare reforms in the state. [47] Doug Drummond,presiding judge for the 14th district,recused the entire district from the case. She was found not guilty by reason of mental illness in 2023. The attorney "representing...Jennifer Kunzweiler,said the not guilty verdict she received...in Tulsa County District Court around charges related to the September stabbing of her father had little to do with her position as a member of a powerful Tulsa family." [48]
In 2024,after president Biden released a statement on the death of Nex Benedict,Kunzweilers' office would not comment on their death "until prosecutors have received all reports related to the investigation,including the full findings from the medical examiner." [49] On March 21,2024,it was announced that no charges would be filed for the fight involving Nex,which was considered "an instance of mutual combat." [50]
In 2023,Kunzweiler spoke out about several bills introduced in the same legislative session,all dealing with lessening the penalties for cockfighting. HB 2530,pushed by Justin Humphrey,died on April 13,2023,for the second year in a row. Kunzweiler said he was glad cockfighting remained a felony. [51] Mike Osburn co-authored House Bill 1792 with Dave Rader [52] that would lessen the penalties of also dogfighting in the state of Oklahoma,which sparked pushback from animal rights advocates. [53] A third bill authored by Lonnie Paxton,Senate Bill 1006,died in the Senate. It would have also lessened the penalties for cockfighting in the state,similar to House Bill 2530,but died in the same timeframe. [54]
In 2024,Kunzweiler supported Kevin West's HB 3694 bill that would undo 2016 state question voted on by the people. It was also authored by Julie Daniels and John George. [55] It "would revert the minimum value of goods stolen to qualify as a felony larceny back down from $1,000 to just $500." The bill was criticized by Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform Executive Director Damion Shade. [56] This is a SQ 780 rollback that would increase incarceration and essentially set the bar back to where the voters raised it in 2016." A representative of the organization Oklahoma Appleseed called it one of their "Bad Bills." [57]
Kunzweiler and his wife,Christine Kunzweiler,have three daughters. In September 2022,a daughter with mental illness stabbed Kunzweiler multiple times but he managed to survive. [58] He is mentioned in the podcast Panic Button:The April Wilkens Case as having confronted a Tulsa social worker about how domestic violence advocates need to get survivors to testify,otherwise they are not really being abused. [59]
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board is the parole board of the state of Oklahoma. The board was created by an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution in 1944. The Board has the authority to empower the Governor of Oklahoma to grant pardons,paroles,and commutations to people convicted of offenses against the state of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council is an agency of the state of Oklahoma that provides professional organization for the education,training and coordination of technical efforts of all Oklahoma state prosecutors and to maintain and improve prosecutor efficiency and effectiveness in enforcing the laws of the state.
Justin J. J. Humphrey is an American politician who has served as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives representing the 19th district,which covers parts of the counties of Choctaw,Pushmataha,Atoka,and Bryan. A member of the Republican Party,he was elected in the 2016 election and sworn in on November 16,2016.
John Kevin Stitt is an American businessman and politician serving as the 28th governor of Oklahoma since 2019. A member of the Republican Party,he was elected in 2018,defeating Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson with 54.3% of the vote. Stitt was reelected to a second term in 2022,defeating Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister,a Republican turned Democrat,with 55.4% of the vote. A member of the Cherokee Nation,Stitt is the second Native American governor after former Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray.
Terry O'Donnell is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party who has served as the Oklahoma House Representative for the 23rd district since January 8,2013. He first won elected office in the 2012 Oklahoma state elections. In January 2021,O'Donnell was promoted to be the speaker pro tempore of the Oklahoma House of Representatives,the second highest ranking Republican Party of Oklahoma member in the state house. On December 17,2021,O'Donnell was indicted in relation to a tag agency corruption scandal. He resigned as speaker pro tempore on February 2,2022 but later rejoined House Republican leadership in 2023 as majority whip,"a position that involves coordinating the teams of legislators that whip vote counts ahead of key bills."
Julie Daniels is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma Senate from the 29th district since 2016.
Kevin McDugle is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 12th district since 2016. He has appeared on Dr. Phil.
Mike Osburn is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 81st district since 2016. He is Cherokee.
Toni Hasenbeck is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 65th district since 2018.
April Rose Wilkens is an American woman serving a life sentence at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center after her conviction for the murder of Terry Carlton and the subject of the podcast series Panic Button:The April Wilkens Case. She was one of the first women to use battered woman syndrome in an Oklahoma trial,and claimed to have acted in self defense,but it did not work in her favor and she was still found guilty by a jury. Local Tulsa news stations still to this day are hesitant to cover her case due to Carlton's family owning and operating dealerships which buy ad time from them. Her case caused an "outcry from those who say she acted because of battered woman syndrome." As of 2022,she was going into her 25th year of incarceration.
Tim Harris is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney for Tulsa County from January 1999 to December 31,2014. Before his election in 1998,Harris had worked as a prosecutor for the Tulsa County District Attorney's office and briefly served as the interim District Attorney for Tulsa County between the death of David L. Moss and the appointment of Bill LaFortune in 1995. In the late 2010's and early 2020's,Harris's tenure received new attention after some of the convictions from his tenure were overturned,including being a subject in an episode of Dateline NBC.
Cathy Stocker is a former District Attorney for Blaine,Canadian,Garfield,Grant and Kingfisher counties in Oklahoma for 28 years before retiring in 2010,and a former member of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
Richard Smothermon is a current Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board member and former District Attorney in Oklahoma.
David Prater was the district attorney for Oklahoma County between 2007 and 2023. During his tenure,he gained significant attention for his criticism of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board,prosecuting protestors during the George Floyd protests in Oklahoma City,and leading the initial corruption investigation into Terry O'Donnell.
Ryan Walters is an American educator and politician who has served as the elected Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2023 and who served as the appointed Oklahoma Secretary of Education between September 2020 and April 2023.
Gentner Frederick Drummond is an American attorney,rancher,banker,and politician from Oklahoma. Drummond is a member of the Republican Party and the current Attorney General of Oklahoma. He flew in the Gulf War air campaign during the Persian Gulf War,gaining national coverage for being one of the first American pilots interviewed during the war. He resides in the McBirney Mansion and is a member of the Oklahoma Drummond ranching family.
John George is an American politician who has served as the Oklahoma House of Representatives member from the 36th district since November 16,2022.
Kevin Buchanan is an American former district attorney for Washington County and Nowata County,Oklahoma from Bartlesville and an Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board member appointed by Governor Kevin Stitt on August 3,2023. His term on the board will expire in January 2027.
Nex Benedict was a 16-year-old non-binary American high school student who died the day after a physical altercation in the girls' restroom of their high school. According to their mother and friends,they had experienced bullying from students about their gender identity for more than a year before their death.
Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission is a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes the interest of game fowl owners,or cockfighting bird owners,and lobbies for cockfighting in the Oklahoma legislature. They are a "a pro-cockfighting political action committee."
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