The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 4

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Ar July 3. 1999 CRIME COURTS Enveloped in Controversy Court Faults Federal Prison for Mail System Civil Servants Vie Over Office Space Ted Evicks County Com-missioner Gene Roberts is keeping tabs on phone calls to the courthouse spurred by media coverage. Roberts said the board of commissioners probably will take up the issue in late July when Free learns the fate of her grant request, over the envelope containing his court filing to be mailed by prison authorities, the judges would accept Gray's version, which was disputed. On the document he filed, Gray had written that he had put it in the prison mail system on April 21, 1997. It was not postmarked until eight days later.

Gray's deadline in the federal court in Oklahoma City was April 24. Instead of logging in legal mail at the time inmates turn it over to be sent out, prison authorities mark the date when they actually send the mail. Those dates are not necessarily the same, the appellate judges said. El Reno prison authorities did not respond to a request for comment. Despite the mail-date issue, both Alley and the appeals court found another basis for rejecting Gray's contention that he should receive a new trial.

Both courts concluded that he had not been convincing in his claim that he had received ineffective assistance from his trial lawyer. mate Steven Gray missed a deadline by six days and partly for that reason denied Gray's request to set aside his sentence. Gray was serving a 151-month sentence for possessing crack cocaine with the intent of distributing it. The appellate judges said Alley "misapplied the mailbox rule because (the El Reno prison) maintains an inadequate system for processing legal mail." Because Gray used the prison's regular mail system, rather than its system for legal mail, Alley rejected Gray's argument that the filing date should be the day he allegedly mailed his motion. The only time El Reno authorities log in legal mail is when an inmate pays an extra fee to send it by certified mail, a requirement that the federal courts frown on because it makes it harder for inmates to exercise their rights, the appellate judges said.

The appellate judges concluded that because no one can determine when Gray handed By Eobert Boczkiewicz Special Correspondent DENVER The federal prison at El Reno has an inadequate system for processing inmates' legal mail and that creates problems in courtsan appeals court concluded this-week. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the system at the Federal Correctional Institution is inadequate because authorities do not log in-all legal maU when it is received from inmates who want it sent to courts. That date is crucial to determining whether an inmate met strict court deadlines. As a result of the prison's failure, U.S.

District Judge Wayne Alley in Oklahoma misapplied a legal standard, known in the courts as "the mailbox rule," the appeals court said in a 3-0 ruling. The mailbox rule says that the date of a court filing by an inmate is the date that the inmate delivers legal mail to prison authorities for mailing. Alley ruled in 1997 that in attorney but hot including extension centers, be provided with the space needed for an office. Evicks said the three previous district attorneys co-existed with the extension center just fine. And if Free desires to expand services to include a domestic violencechild victimization unit and hire seven more employees, which she said she will do if she wins a federal grant next month, she should find office space across the street.

Evicks offered Free three offices, but she said that isn't sufficient Free maintains that the extension service's 11 employees should move to the Southeast Expo Center, where they would be more accessible. But Evicks wonders who would pay for rent and readying the space, which is too small and would be unsuitable for offices anyhow, he said. Free said that under a state statute, she is required to furnish victims and witnesses with a private lounge away from defendants, but she has no such area. She said Evicks even accused her of "coddling my victims." But Evicks said a third-floor conference room serves well as a lounge, and Free and past district attorneys have used it as such. Meanwhile, amid the squabbling, By Andy Parsons Staff Writer 'McALESTER- In Kalyn Free's mind, ted Evicks has blocked the path to her manifest destiny in a self-serving effort to; preserve comfort and short lunch-time strolls to downtown restaurants.

Iln Ted Evicks' mind, Kalyn Free has read into the law a mandate to muscle out a long-standing and rightful occupant, and has turned tip her nose at compromise; As a result, this clash over office space on the third floor of the Pittsburg County Courthouse has made relations less civil between these civil servants Free, 35, the district attorney for Pittsburg and Haskell counties, and Evicks, 47, the director of the Oklahoma State University Extension Center here. "I think the gloves are off now," Free said. "This just gets my goat," Evicks said. Evicks' goat was got because Free asked Pittsburg County commissioners not to renew the OSU extension's contract when it expired Wednesday because Evicks has refused to vacate most of its office space. Free contends that state law and attorneys general opinions mandate that specified officers, including the district Kalyn Free which she ex- pects to be awarded.

At that time, the commission will turn to the business of quantifying what constitutes the "adequate" space to which Free says her office is entitled, Roberts said. "We've got to base our decision on being within the law and what the majority of the people want," he said. If the decision is in Evicks' favor, Free said she will file a lawsuit. Web Site Photo Leads to Escapee's Surrender Gray said he hesitated briefly before calling the FBI. "Actually, you know, I really had to think about this for a while because he's a nice guy," Gray said.

"And then I had to put myself in the victim's shoes. You know, maybe somebody lost their father over this." been sentenced to death in 1975 for shooting an insurance agent during a burglary, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Saying he was tired of life on the run, Brown, 41, returned to Oklahoma, where he surrendered Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. "I'd been looking at the page, and he called to talk to my wife to see if she could work that night," Gray said. "And when I had him on the phone I said, 'Kenny, buddy, there's a guy that looks just like you on the Internet.

But this guy's Michael Wayne "And he says, 'You know, Greg, they say everybody's got a twin out there' and at that time I blew it off." When Ginter began acting suspiciously, Gray said he called the FBI. The FBI confirmed that Gray's call triggered its pursuit of Brown, who escaped Dec. 4, 1984, from a prison in Taft, OK. He had "Unsolved Mysteries" Web site while cruising the Internet a few weeks ago and told the friend he knew as Ginter about the photo. Gray, 37, said that he had known Ginter, who later was identified as Brown, for several years and that his wife, Delores, worked at Brown's Video store.

KETTERING, Ohio (AP) It was a friend who alerted the FBI that the man calling himself Kenneth Ginter might actually be Michael Wayne Brown, a convicted killer who escaped from an Oklahoma prison 15 years ago. Gregory Gray of Kettering said Thursday he saw a of Brown on the Furniture and Home Accessories 5701 S. Perm 685-8256 Third Teen Charged In Israel Byrd Assault Prosecutors Friday charged a third teenager in the brutal beating last month of a 15-year-old skate boarder. Shijuan Dechele Haynes, 17, was charged in Oklahoma County District Court with assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Haynes and two other youths are in juvenile court on the same charge.

Byrd was beaten and found by his mother sitting in a puddle of blood June 1 near May-field Middle School at NW 16 and Purdue. Byrd had gone to the school to ride his skateboard. Haynes is being held in the Oklahoma County jail. Dibie and Jennings are in custody at the Oklahoma GET A SPRINT PCS SUMMER VALUE PACK accused of beating Is- Israel Byrd rael Byrd with their fists and his skateboard. Dennis Dibie, 14, and Reginald Jennings, 14, are being prosecuted County juvenile shelter.

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that he received on his computer. Elk City police began investigating Neal on May 23 after a 12-year-old boy complained that Neal solicited him for sex and tried to touch and kiss him, an affidavit by FBI agent Nicholas Manns said. Neal consented to a search of his apartment, where police found photos of young males involved in sex ual conduct, the affidavit said. The 12-year-old and a 10-year-old boy separately told investigators that Neal offered them liquor and marijuana and asked -them to have sex, the affidavit said. Neal denies having any sexual contact with children, it said.

U.S. Magistrate Valerie Couch set a preliminary hearing for 3 p.m. Thursday. An Elk City man accused of possessing child pornography hosted juveniles at his apartment and offered them liquor and drugs, a federal affidavit said. Glen Ray Neal, 46, was ordered to remain jailed after an initial appearance Friday in federal court.

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He was convicted in Oklahoma County District Court last year of drug trafficking. In a separate case, Ramsey's mother, Brenda Joyce Ramsey, was charged Friday with harboring a fugitive. She Is accused of falsely telling police her son was not at home when she knew he was in the house, An Oklahoma City man was charged Friday with first-degree murder in a slaying prosecutors say was drug-related. Larry Lamar Ramsey 20, is accused in the shooting death of Cedric Bigelow, 21. Bigelow was shot in the chest Juno 22 during a gunflght at 1108 Hefner Road and died at the scene, Ramsey was arrested by police less than three hours later in the bathroom of his mother's house in the 1300 block of NW 104.

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