Prosecutors filed three felony child abuse charges Thursday against Assistant U.S. Attorney David “Mike” Littlefield and one charge against his wife, Dawn Littlefield.

Both pleaded not guilty and were released on bonds — $4,500 for Mike Littlefield and $1,500 for Dawn Littlefield.

Mike Littlefield, 57, is charged with two counts of child abuse by injury and one count of child abuse by permitting or enabling the abuse of a child.

“I can’t comment,” Littlefield said when contacted by phone shortly after the filing. “I’d be a fool to try to do so.”

Each alleged crime is punishable by up to life in prison and/or not more than one year in the county jail and/or a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000.

The list of witnesses endorsed by the state include the two alleged victims and Littlefield’s wife, who allegedly witnessed the child abuse her husband is alleged to have inflicted.

Donn Baker, attorney for Dawn Littlefield, said he would hope the media and the public would give the defendants the presumption of innocence.

“It’s not easy being a parent these days, and everything they’ve done has been an attempt to be a good parent and to see that their children grow up to be productive citizens,” Baker said.

Baker said he was confident that at the preliminary hearing it would become “crystal clear neither Mike nor Dawn” have done anything that wasn’t in the best interest of their children.

“I went to grade school with Mike Littlefield and have known him my entire life,” Baker said. “And there is absolutely no way that he would injure or abuse a child.”

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said the Littlefield case was reviewed as any other would have been and a lot of time and effort was put in to make sure the case was reviewed properly. It was handled like any other case to come through the office, Moore said.

Littlefield has not been at his office at the U.S. Attorney’s Office since April 4, but his attorney, Mark Green, said Littlefield has not been terminated. That was the only comment Green would make.

Gay Guthrie, first assistant/criminal chief, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Muskogee said all he would say is: “The Department of Justice takes seriously any and all allegations of wrongdoing by its employees. The Department has and will continue to take appropriate action with respect to this matter.”

The felony filed Thursday against Dawn Littlefield, 38, is for domestic abuse, assault and battery, second and subsequent offense. She is charged with striking her daughter March 19 and dragging the 17-year-old out of the back seat of a car, throwing her into the front seat and beating her about her face, arms and body, leaving serious bruising about her body.

The crime is punishable by up to four years in prison or a fine of $5,000.

Dawn Littlefield was charged with felony child abuse for injury to her daughter in March 2006. She pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor of domestic assault and battery June 29. She received a one-year suspended sentence and was ordered to go to anger management counseling, court records show.

An application to revoke her suspended sentence could be filed, but that decision will be made later, said Muskogee County Assistant District Attorney Nikki Baker Dotson.

As to the whereabouts of the alleged minor victims, Dotson said their safety has been taken into account and measures have been taken to assure their safety.

Charges against Mike Littlefield allege:

• In November 2006 he willfully threw L.L. (17 years old) to the floor, pulling her hair and beating her head against a metal bed frame while putting his knee in her side and smashing her head against the floor, leaving bruising about her head and body.

An affidavit in the case states the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office was able to obtain photographs of the injuries that include a large goose egg on her forehead and other various bruises.

• In June 2006, and in October 2006, he willfully hit C.L. (10 years old) about his face, back and body, leaving bruising about his body.

An affidavit filed in the case states pictures were recovered from a search warrant of the home that reflect bruising on the child’s upper torso consistent with the alleged abuse.

• In March 2006, he allowed his wife, Dawn Littlefield, to beat and put inappropriate bruises on L.L., 17, knowing Dawn Littlefield had the propensity to injure the minor child because she was on probation for such. He allowed the mother to continue to abuse the child without correcting the situation or notifying appropriate authorities.



What’s next:

Preliminary hearings for Mike and Dawn Littlefield have been set for 9 a.m. May 30, before Special District Judge Carl Robinson.

Special District Judge Robin Adair, who once served alongside Mike Littlefield as an assistant Muskogee County district attorney, recused himself from presiding over the preliminary hearing.



Littlefield history

David Michael “Mike” Littlefield became Muskogee County first assistant district attorney in January 1983 after Drew Edmondson was sworn in as district attorney.

Littlefield and Edmondson were moot court partners at the University of Oklahoma law school, from which they graduated in 1979.

Littlefield earned a bachelor’s degree in science education from Northeastern State College and a master’s in education at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. He taught school in Seminole before earning his juris doctorate from OU, and practiced law privately in Tulsa one year before coming to Muskogee.

Littlefield was named Outstanding Assistant District Attorney in Oklahoma by the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association after his first year as a state prosecutor.

His prosecution record on the state level earned him the nickname “Maximum Mike.” He prosecuted a case in 1988 in which rapist Michael Hawkins was sentenced to 3,000 years in prison, which at that time set a record in Muskogee County.

Littlefield tried the only case in the county in which two defendants received the death penalty.

Littlefield joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in July 1990.

Dawn Littlefield breeds dogs under the business name of Haven in the Heartland.

The couple lives near Oktaha.



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