District Attorney David Prater Responds to Questions By Black Community Leaders

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma County's district attorney said Saturday he would welcome an investigation of his office after a group of black community leaders questioned the removal of a black judge from a high-profile murder case.

"I'll open up records to any credible investigative agency, such as the civil rights unit of the Department of Justice, if they want to look at my office," District Attorney David Prater said.

Church leaders, politicians and members of the Oklahoma NAACP held a news conference Friday to show support for Oklahoma County District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure. Prater said he asked the judge to recuse herself from the case of a pharmacist charged with murder after receiving reports of possible judicial misconduct.

Prater declined to discuss the alleged misconduct Saturday.

Bass-LeSure stepped down from the case Tuesday following a 12-minute closed meeting with Prater and the pharmacist's attorney. The reason has been placed under seal, and the judge has declined to discuss the case publicly. A listed phone number for Bass-LeSure couldn't be found Saturday.

During Friday's news conference, Rev. J.A. Reed of Fairview Baptist Church said Prater's office has recently targeted black judges.

"We do know that the DA has used his power in the last three months to slander and try to intimidate the only two African-American judges in the Oklahoma County courthouse," Reed said, referring to Bass-LeSure and another judge who was asked recuse himself from a case.

Oklahoma NAACP State President Anthony Douglas said the state needs more minority judges and called for Prater's office to be investigated.

Douglas didn't return calls seeking comment Saturday.

Prater noted that he was accused of pandering to the NAACP when he filed a first-degree murder count against the pharmacist, Jerome Ersland, who is white, for killing Antwun Parker, who was black. Prosecutors allege Ersland repeatedly shot Parker, 16, as he and another teen tried to rob his pharmacy.

"Now the NAACP and some in the African-American community are criticizing me because a judge decided to involve herself in corruption and I asked her to step down from the case," Prater said.

The other judge mentioned during the news conference was asked in private to remove himself from a case "where we thought he had a conflict of interest," as is done with other judges at the courthouse, Prater said.

Ersland, 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 2009 shooting death of Parker, whom Ersland shot in the head during an attempted robbery at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors have said Ersland was justified in shooting Parker the first time, but that he went too far when he picked up a second gun and fired five more shots into Parker, who was unconscious.

District Judge Ray Elliott has now been assigned to Ersland's case, which is set to go to trial Dec. 6.

More: Black Community Stands by Judge Who Stepped Down in Pharmacy Murder Trial