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October 7, 2006

Ex-Haskell cop to remain in jail

By D. E. Smoot

A former Haskell police officer accused of molesting at least four underage girls lost his second bid to have his bond reduced during a hearing Friday in Muskogee District Court.

Robert Samuel Wheeland, 54, will remain held in the Muskogee County/City Detention Facility on bonds totaling $210,000.

Wheeland’s defense lawyers, Chad Richardson and Janet Bickel, tried to elicit testimony from their client’s alleged victims to prove their client is not a threat to the community. What they got were statements from angry mothers who said Wheeland had not threatened them or their daughters since his arrest in July.

The mother of one of the alleged victims, who has moved to Texas with her grandparents to avoid repercussions from her peers at school, did say Wheeland did threaten her daughter before he was arrested.

“He played with her breasts, put his hands in her pants and took nude pictures of her,” the mother said. “Then he told her that if she told anybody he would come and kill me.”

Further details of the alleged crimes, however, were nixed by District Court Judge Mike Norman. Lawyers then were left to spar only about whether Wheeland’s bond was unreasonably high and whether the defendant, if released on a reduced bond, would pose a risk to the community.

“The defendant is a former police officer who breached his public trust,” assistant district attorney Kristin Littlefield said. “He was entrusted to protect the public but failed to do so.”

Bickel argued that should Wheeland’s bond be reduced, the court could set conditions that would ensure he would not pose a threat to the community.

Norman, however, said nothing was presented that would persuade him to reduce Wheeland’s bond.

Wheeland is scheduled to appear Oct. 27 for a preliminary hearing.

Reach D.E. Smoot at 684-2903 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.

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