WEB UPDATE: DA says he's been working on Tannehill raid

Local News

November 20, 2008

By James Beaty The McAlester News-Capital Thu Nov 20, 2008, 01:40 PM CST

District 18 District Attorney Jim Bob Miller says in a fax sent to the News-Capital after today’s press deadline that there’s a reason his office did not help county law enforcement officers obtain a search warrant for a ranch in the Tannehill area.

The Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Department later obtained a warrant with help from the FBI, which spearheaded a raid on the Arpoika ranch on Wednesday. Up to 10 law enforcement agencies were involved, according to officers at the site.

“In this case, Pittsburg County deputies provided information to my office that they had learned of these stolen vehicles at the ranch by doing a ‘creep’ on the ranch,” Miller said in the fax. “That is, they literally sneaked up on the ranch without authority, consent or warrant, surveyed the vehicles to get identification numbers from them, all to get the information they needed to come to my office to request a warrant.”

“This type of action, under Oklahoma law, is not permissible and would have resulted in the evidence being suppressed by a court,” Miller said.

“Federal law, however, provides that federal authorities can sneak into open fields to obtain evidence of crimes that has become known as the ‘creep law,’” Miller said. “So my office recommended the Pittsburg County sheriff contact federal authorities and that resulted in the recent raid and presumably future federal charges.”

“Local federal authorities were contacted and through their authority the several agencies worked to get the federal warrant to raid the ranch,” Miller said. “Thus, a large alleged chop shop and stolen vehicle operation has been shut down by use of the appropriate laws.”

Miller noted the raid so far has resulted in six misdemeanor marijuana charges,

Miller said he was involved this morning with the sheriff’s office and the FBI in trying to obtain further information so the six misdemeanor charges could be filed today.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.

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