Docket Includes Prostitution, Domestic Battery, Caretaker-Abuse Cases
Tulsa County District Court has ordered the creation of a felony domestic violence court and assigned “certain specific felony matters” to the new FDV docket.
The implications, from a defense attorney’s perspective, are still unclear. At a minimum, such a consolidated docket can allow criminal defense attorneys in Tulsa courts to develop a sense of how a court addresses a particular type of criminal charge.
It is not the first time Tulsa County Court has announced a domestic violence docket in recent years. Tulsa County District Court in 2014 established an integrated domestic violence court as an “accountability court” addressing certain misdemeanor domestic violence charges. That program was established under a 3-year U.S. Dept. of Justice grant, funded through the Office on Violence Against Women.
The integrated domestic violence court hears misdemeanor cases in which a defendant is also the subject of a civil order for protection. The court may also hear agreed divorce or parentage actions where either party has a related misdemeanor on the IDV docket.
Although an order establishing the new domestic violence court represents the docket as a felony docket, a list of charges to be assigned the court includes some that are not felonies. Some of the listed offenses can be either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on a defendant’s record of prior conviction. A few listed charges appear to be misdemeanors.
For example, prostitution – even on a third offense – is a misdemeanor in Oklahoma law, although fines for a third offense can be as high as $7,500. The same statute provides for a felony prostitution conviction only when a person knowingly practices prostitution while infected with HIV. The list of FDV docket offenses includes a separate item for prostitution within 1,000 feet of a school or church, which is a felony in Oklahoma law.
Because the range of offenses the court might hear spans misdemeanors and felonies, penalties the court could administer can range from fines under $1000 and jail terms under one year, such as in verbal abuse by a caretaker, up to life imprisonment on charges of human trafficking.
The list of offenses, crime codes and related statutes to be heard by District Judge Doug Drummond in the new FDV docket, as announced in a February, 2015 order, is as follows:
| Tulsa County District Court Felony Domestic Violence Docket Case Types |
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| Crime Code | Description | Statute |
| ABDOM | ASSAULT AND BATTERY – DOMESTIC | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 644 |
| VPO | VIOLATION OF PROTECTIVE ORDER | Okla. Stat. tit. 22 § 60.l |
| MSOS | STALKING | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1173 |
| ANC | ABUSE / EXPLOITATION BY CARETAKER | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 843.1 |
| AVC | VERBAL ABUSE BY CARETAKER | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 843.2 |
| EEP | ABUSE / EXPLOITATION / NEGLECT OF VULNERABLE ADULT | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 843.3 |
| HT | HUMAN TRAFFICKING | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 748 |
| PROS | MAINTAINING HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1028 |
| PROS | ENGAGING IN PROSTITUTION | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1029 |
| PWSD | ENGAGING IN PROSTITUTION WITHIN 1000 FT. OF SCHOOL | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1031 |
| PAN | PANDERING / PROCURING FOR PROSTITUTION | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1081 |
| RFP | UNLAWFUL RESTRAINT OF FEMALE IN HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1085 |
| ODM | OWNER OR PROPRIETOR PERMITTING PANDERING (FELONY) | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1086 |
| CHP | OFFERING OR TRANSPORTING CHILD FOR PURPOSE OF PROSTITUTION | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1087 |
| CHP | CHILD PROSTITUTION- UNLAWFUL DETAINMENT IN PROSTITUTION HOUSE: | Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 1088 |
Strategy Session: Tulsa Domestic Violence Attorney
If you have been charged with any of the offenses listed in the Tulsa District Court’s roster of FDV docket cases, contact a criminal defense attorney in Tulsa for a consultation. For an initial strategy consultation with a defense lawyer at Wirth Law Office, call 918-896-1681 or send your question using the form at the top of this page.
