Tulsa police lieutenant found not guilty in felony accessory case (2024)

A judge on Thursday found Tulsa Police Lt. Marcus Harper not guilty of charges related to his actions after a fellow officer’s private vehicle was involved in a gang-related shooting.

Tulsa County District Judge Clifford Smith said prosecutors had presented no evidence during a three-day bench trial to support either a felony charge of accessory after the fact or a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer.

In reading his verdict, Smith first outlined the allegations against Harper lodged by prosecutors.

The allegations included claims that Harper tampered with physical evidence, encouraged the destruction and/or removal of evidence, encouraged the defendants to flee and/or lie about their involvement in a shooting and/or tried to warn the defendants about the subsequent investigation.

“I don’t think anyone would dispute that the court heard no such testimony,” Smith said.

“The state’s burden is high, and it is identical for all,” the judge said. “As to Count 1, there is literally no evidence before this court that the defendant’s actions on Aug. 24, 2020, were done with the knowledge that any individual at the apartment had been involved in a felony.”

Smith said prosecutors also had presented no evidence to support their alternative misdemeanor charge that Harper impeded or delayed their investigation into the August 2020 shooting at 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.

Smith said Harper’s “lapses in judgment” could be an appropriate cause for discipline and termination but did not “rise to a violation of law.”

Outside the courtroom after the verdict, Harper thanked his family, legal team, friends and Jesus.

“What you heard in the courtroom was that there was absolutely no evidence that I committed a crime,” Harper said.

He said he intends to return to work despite its being what he described as a “hostile” work environment.

“I don’t know what’s next,” Harper said. “At some point I have to go back to that hostile environment and try to continue on and wait for what’s next.”

Harper’s wife, Tulsa City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper, echoed her husband’s sentiments about his returning to a hostile work environment when talking to the media following the verdict.

“It is hostile. It is hostile, but truth has to stand, and right has to be in places where wrong is taking place,” Hall-Harper said.

The councilor said the prosecution was “an attack on us.”

Bullet-damaged car

The case stems from Harper’s presence at then-TPD Officer Latoya Dythe’s south Tulsa apartment on Aug. 24, 2020, after Dythe called him regarding her private vehicle, which had been involved in a gang-related shooting near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.

Prosecutors claimed that Harper committed a felony when he failed to immediately alert fellow officers to the shooting and failed to immediately let them know he had seen Dythe’s bullet-damaged vehicle.

Defense attorneys said Harper never entered her car and told Dythe to call in the shooting while he was at her apartment. They also claim that Dythe lied to Harper about the circ*mstances of the shooting.

Prosecutors filed felony accessory after the fact charges against Harper and Ananias Carson III, also a TPD officer at the time, on Nov. 2, 2021.

Carson pleaded guilty in October to a misdemeanor and resigned from the force as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Harper rejected a similar plea deal from prosecutors that would have included a promise not to sue the city over the incident.

The Tulsa Police Department declined to comment on the verdict.

“The Tulsa Police Department is unable to comment on the case, since there is an internal investigation in progress,” said TPD spokesman Capt. Richard Meulenberg. “At the conclusion of the investigation we will provide details to the media and public.”

Harper has been suspended since shortly after the shooting. His suspension became unpaid a few months before charges were filed, according to trial testimony.

Harper testifies

Earlier Thursday, Harper testified in his own defense after prosecutors rested their case after calling a dozen witnesses.

The 28-year TPD veteran described first receiving a phone call from Dythe, asking him to come to her apartment for an unknown reason.

After arriving, Harper said he met Dythe, Carson and two other young men in Dythe’s apartment. Harper claimed never to have met the two men, Dythe’s boyfriend and his younger brother.

The three officers then went outside to look at Dythe’s vehicle, which was parked in front of her apartment, Harper said.

Dythe testified earlier that she loaned her vehicle to her boyfriend’s brother, Johnathan Jones, who along with another man took the car to a convenience store at 61st and Peoria, where a shootout occurred after the pair became involved in a confrontation with gang members.

Jones reportedly was not a member of a gang, but the other passenger of the vehicle was, according to court testimony.

Testifying for about an hour, Harper claimed not to know any details of the shooting and left to start his own shift after telling Dythe to call in the shooting to police.

“I told her ‘Latoya, what the f—-, Latoya? You are the police. You need to call the police and make a report,’” he said.

Harper, who led the Crime Scene Investigations Unit, said he told Dythe that he would send down a unit to process the scene after police answered her call.

Harper denied having entered Dythe’s vehicle to search for evidence. He also denied removing any bullet casings left from the shooting inside the car or telling others to leave the area and ditch their weapons.

Asked if he told those present not to mention that he was there earlier, Harper replied, “Absolutely not.”

Harper said he drafted an office memo about his involvement that he sent to his superior officer the next day after being requested to do so.

During closing arguments, co-prosecutor Kali Strain told the judge that Harper knew that there was potential evidence at Dythe’s house after arriving and looking over her vehicle, which had been hit with two bullets.

“He knew and walked away,” Strain said, who added that his failure to notify others earlier that he was there hurt their investigation into the shooting.

“He gave them hours to do whatever they were going to do,” Strain said. The guns used in the shooting were never located, police said.

Dythe has since resigned from the force and is serving a five-year probated sentence linked to her illegal purchase of a handgun reportedly meant for her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend, Devon Jones, received a sentence of time served plus three years of supervised release for his involvement in the gun purchase.

Prosecutors on Nov. 28, 2022, dismissed charges against the other occupant of the car, Johnathan Jones. In dismissing those charges, prosecutors left open the possibility of refiling them at a later date.

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