Editors Note: The purpose of this story is to explain the criminal process for individuals who have been arrested on suspicion of committing a felony. In addition, Cleveland County court officials and attorneys comments in this story were not made in reference to any specific case.

Like a living organism, the criminal justice system has an anatomy an anatomy that is well studied and well known to its juris doctors, yet complex.

The process for a person who has been arrested in connection with committing a felony starts with rights outlined in the U.S. Constitution meant to protect people both foreign and domestic.

Our rights are so valuable because of the price that has been paid for them, Norman attorney David Smith. If we dont take care of these rights, then those veterans died for nothing.

According to the U.S. Constitution, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. (U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI)

Following an arrest, a person is booked into a county jail on recommended charges from the arresting agency. The accused is held on a jail bond until a district court judge issues bail in relation to charges the district attorneys office decides to file. Jail bonds are a set amount decided by county and court officials.

According to a 2007 Cleveland County general order, persons in jail for charges that include traffic violations, alcohol, drugs and larceny can be released on their own recognizance. For violent offenses, such as assault and murder, jail bonds can range between $1,000 and no bond, meaning the person is held without bond until they appear before a judge for their first court appearance.

The initial appearance is where the accused is advised of charges they are facing, their rights, issued a bail or released on their own recognizance and given another court date.

The law is clear in what a judge has to take into account when setting bail, Cleveland County Special Judge Steve Stice said. This can include looking at the nature of the crime, employment history, any priors for failing to appear, has the person hired counsel, and do they have members of the community who will vouch for them. Bail is only to ensure the person will come back to court; its not meant for punishment.

The next step is a preliminary hearing conference, where the defense and prosecution meet andthe district attorney can offeran initial plea deal. If the deal is accepted, a disposition or sentencing date is set. If not, a preliminary or probable cause hearing is set.

A preliminary hearing is the first time evidence is heard in court.

The state has to provide enough evidence to convince a judge that there is probable cause for the case to move forward and go to trial, Stice said. Again, its not enough evidence to convict, only enough to where the judge believes a jury should hear it.

In addition, a preliminary hearing is also the first time where the burden of proof is a factor a burden that is always on the prosecution in criminal cases. There are two levels in felony cases. They are probable cause, which is the lowest burden, and beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the highest burden.

A judge makes sure that the state has enough evidence to proceed with the charge theyve chosen to go on, Stice said.

If a judge finds probable cause, the accused is bound over and will be formally arraigned. Formal arraignment is the first time the accused enters a plea of guilty or not guilty.

Pre-trial or status conferences are then set to ensure whether the case needs to go to trial. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman said this is the time both parties are expected to cooperate in the exchange of evidence, called discovery.

The idea behind discovery is to avoid surprises at trial to avoid trial by ambush, Balkman said.

There are two different types of criminal trials in Oklahoma: jury and non-jury. Verdicts in jury trials are decided by a 12-person jury selected from within the county. In a non-jury trial, a district judge decides the verdict.

At trial, the burden switches from probable cause to beyond reasonable doubt. Its a burden Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said he gladly accepts.

The burden should be on the state. Its absolutely the best thing, Mashburn said. When dealing with someones liberty possibly being taken, the burden should be on the group that is wanting to take it away.

Balkman said neither the state nor defense can define what beyond a reasonable doubt means. Each juror has a responsibility to decide for themselves.

Thats the beauty of the jury trial system, Balkman said.

Smith said the jury represents the people.

They are the voice of the community, he said. There are only a few places in the world where that is the case. The government (prosecution) cant do anything unless the people say they can.

If a jury finds the defendant guilty, a formal sentencing date will be setlaterfollowing the verdict.

In Oklahoma, those convicted have 10 days from formal sentencing to file an intent to appeal. The appeal then goes to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and possibly the state Supreme Court.

Jacob McGuire

366-3540

jmcguire@normantranscript.com

Follow me @jmcguireNT

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Anatomy of a felony - Norman Transcript

SPRINGFIELD Sharaya Haines caught fire.

And then the MassMutual Center nearly did too.

Central girls basketballs 61-45 Division I state championship win over Braintree its first state title since 2010 was sparked by a chaotic, dramatic and occasionally perplexing second-half surge. The Golden Eagles erased a 10-point deficit, overcame injuries to two separate guards, endured a stop-and-go third quarter devoid of flow due to a barrage of fouls and whistles by the referees.

They then waited for seven minutes early in the fourth quarter while the fire alarm yes, the fire alarm went off inside the MassMutual Center, halting play.

At the center of all of the chaos was Haines, who scored all of her game-high 17 points in the second half, pouring in four 3-pointers.

She was a tremendous help, fellow senior Ishanna Brown said. I think her shooting threes sparked some energy and our success tonight. It was really big. She stepped up.

But before Haines could play the hero role, propelling Central to a win in front of its hometown crowd, it needed to break out of its malaise.

The early comeback

Central trailed 30-20 at halftime and was fortunate the deficit wasnt larger.

It scored just eight points over the games first 15 minutes before finding life at the end of the first half. Coach Erik Maurer said his team wasnt rotating defensively like hes accustomed to and was taken aback by Braintrees early run. It was addressed in the locker room at halftime.

The Golden Eagles quickly made up ground.

They opened the second half on an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit, before Braintrees Mackenzie Moore drilled a 3-pointer. Phyness Baldwin and Haines answered with back-to-back 3s, and suddenly, Central had a one-point lead, finally awakening a dormant pro-Central crowd.

Brown also played a significant role in keying the run, pulling down two rebounds and firing outlet passes that led to scores, and forcing two steals within the first 1:40 of the second half.

Central also had to deal with key injuries to Makayla Thompson and Jaliena Sanchez. Thompson dislocated her right shoulder at the beginning of the third quarter, missing over four minutes of game time. An MIAA doctor popped it back in and Thompson, who has dislocated the shoulder before, said she was ready to return to the game.

She was needed.

Midway through the quarter, Sanchez was fouled on a fast-break layup, crashing to the floor on her right hip. She writhed in pain and could not put weight on it, requiring two assistants to carry her off the floor. Alayah Sweeney took Sanchezs free throws officially ending the sophomore guards day and Sanchez was later wheeled out of the arena on a stretcher.

It made us angry, Haines said, but we still stayed focused. We played the rest of the game for her.

Haines lights it up

Haines embodied that focus as well as any player on the roster, shaking off a scoreless first half to score 11 points in the third quarter, including the teams final seven points of the quarter. Central took a 38-36 lead into the fourth quarter.

Then Brown scored three points to open the quarter. Haines followed, sandwiching two 3-pointers around a Makayla Rudder put-back layup, and suddenly Central had a 49-41 lead with 4:47 left.

Then the wonkiness.

The fire alarm went off.

Emergency lights flashed throughout the arena as an automated voice recording alerted fans to an emergency situation. The majority of the fans in the MassMutual Center remained in their seats, and the players stayed at their benches, more perplexed than anything.

The Central girls handled the situation well. After all, at that point, they were used to stoppages, as officials frustratingly halted play several times in the third quarter to confer at the scoring table.

It was really tough, there was just so much built up inside, Brown said. We werent getting calls we wanted, we had to fight through it all. Those bad calls, it brought something out of us, and made us come to the realization that we needed to step up because we werent going to get any calls

Maurer thought his team relaxed as the game became more chaotic.

I thought that we loosened up a little bit when everything started to happen the way that it did, he said. We started to joke on the bench. The girls were kind of laughing about things. Even with a couple of the injuries we had. It allowed the girls to take a little bit of a breath.

After a seven-minute delay, the alarm was turned off and play resumed. Central promptly went on a 7-1 run, and the game was theirs.

We knew the first half, it wasnt our best half, Thompson said. Over in the locker room, we talked about everything to improve, weve got each others back, believe in each other, keep shooting shots. Got back out there second half, trust each other and we got it. We came back and we won.

For Haines, who has withstood shooting slumps before, it was a rewarding stretch. Maurer regularly chides Haines to shoot more often if her shot becomes available. By the fourth quarter of Saturdays win, Haines was stepped into 3-pointers off the dribble, looking as comfortable as ever behind the arc.

He joked with her to only stop shooting if she missed three 3-pointers in a row.

I was feeling pretty confident, Haines said, so sometimes I feel like they are all going to go in.

It felt like, at least in the second half, they did.

More:
The anatomy of a comeback: How Central's chaotic, wacky second-half surge sparked a DI title win (photos) - MassLive.com

On Tuesday, March 14 at 7:36 p.m., MSNBC political analyst Rachel Maddow tweeted that she had received Trump tax returns and would discuss them on her show at 9 p.m.

What followed was a series of events that left many viewers and pundits debating if Maddow had overhyped her scoop or not. Either way, the delivery of this breaking news became the story more so than the news of Trumps leaked 2005 tax return itself.

Two questions percolated as the evening played out: Was what Maddow had in her possession important enough to warrant this much excitement? And, as many first-time Maddow viewers wondered, why was she taking so long to get to the meat of the story?

Maddow herself cast doubt over the revelatory nature of the documents when she tweeted at 8:24 p.m. that she only had access to President Trumps 1040 form from 2005, which limited the chances of providing mind-blowing information.

Washington Examiner finance reporter Joseph Lawler told MediaFile he wouldnt have expected any damning news coming from those documents, which only show Trumps bottom-line numbers.

What we really wouldve been interested in were disclosures of all his income, he said.

By the time Maddows report aired at 9 p.m., the White House had released a statement that claimed in 2005, Trump paid $38 million in taxes on $150 million in income exactly what Maddows documents showed. The Daily Beast also beat her to the air with a story on the tax return documents.

Maddow began her show by explaining the documents were originally given to her by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who had published the two-page tax return on his website, DCReports.org, as her report was airing.

She then proceeded to spend a half hour providing background on what the tax returns could say, before finally diving into the heart of the story that anyone with a Twitter feed could have accessed almost an hour earlier.

Many viewers and journalists were irked by Maddow sticking so vehemently to her shows format, which is designed to provide context before diving into the news itself.

Politico senior media writer Jack Shafer wrote that Maddow whipped up a cumulus-sized head of froth placed atop a one-ounce scoop. Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan called the show a master class in burying the lede.

When you see Rachel Maddow saying, We have Donald Trumps tax returns, watch at 9, and you have to wait an hour and a half to see those, a lot of people, particularly reporters, were disappointed, Politico media reporter Kelsey Sutton told MediaFile.

Maddows rollout of Trumps tax returns even got the Stephen Colbert treatment in a sketch where Colbert pulls a Rachel Maddow, by taking a long time to tell a joke that he facetiously claims irked Trump.

Lawler thinks there was legitimate news to come out of Maddows scoop, mainly that Donald Trump did pay federal income taxes in 2005. He said it had been speculated that he might not have paid taxes after the New York Times released his 1995 returns, which showed massive losses, in October 2016.

Even though Maddow didnt have the smoking gun to end Trumps presidency, I think this was a legitimate scoop, he said.

Shafer referred to Maddow whipping up a froth about the tax returns, but recognized that the hotdogging fell in line with a long-standing tactic: add a dash of sensationalism, attract eyes and your audience. Sutton did not take any issue with Maddow keeping to her shows format, but agreed that because the news she had wasnt game-changing, Maddow was probably trying to milk it for all it was worth.

It wasnt decades of tax returns, which I think is what is implied when someone says tax returns, plural, Sutton said. I think this is a prime example of prime-time television and its sensationalist style. What else should we have expected from Rachel Maddow at 9 p.m. on MSNBC?

One thing Sutton and Lawler both believe Maddow definitively proved: There is an insatiable public appetite to see full copies of Trumps most recent tax returns.

The public is going to want to see his full tax returns to see who hes doing business with, where he earns his money and what taxes he pays, Lawler said.

Sutton called Maddow and Johnstons work a drip drip in the quest to either expose or force Trump to release his tax returns.

If somebody has access to those and wants to leak it, this has proved there is a massive audience for that sort of information, she said. So I dont think its over.

Read more:
The Anatomy of Rachel Maddow's Rollout of Trump's Tax Returns - MediaFile

By Marty FugateCorrespondent

The roosters crow violates local noise ordinances. To be fair, the iconic, barnyard fowl has something to crow about. Look, and youll see the beast everywhere from folklore to breakfast cereal, cartoons and the Chinese calendar. (2017 is the Year Of The Fire Rooster, actually.)

The rooster also roosts in Tim Jaegers paintings. Although the Sarasota-based artist tackles a variety of human and animal subjects, hes best known for this exuberant bird. Jaegers latest rooster-related piece, CS No. 24, is destined for the Anderson OBrien Fine Art gallery in Omaha. This multimedia image comprises acrylics, oil pastels, fabric and stalks. At our request, Jaeger kept this rough diary as he put the image together.

Getting Started: The first step is the hardest. As Robert Rauschenberg once said, An empty canvas is full. Theres infinite possibility; I can go in any direction, and nothing tells me which way to go. Confronting a blank canvas always fills me with anxiety and intimidation the same nervous feelings I had when I first started painting. The only way to get past this is to simply start making marks.

Turn Back or Keep Going: Within the first ten minutes, I can usually feel whether a painting will be successful or not. I say, feel, because this knowledge comes from the gut, not from intellectual analysis or an art theory book. If my gut tells me the piece is working, I keep going. If I know its a false start, I stop.

Rough Outlines: If Im confident in my first brush strokes, Ill follow up by painting the rough contours of the figure those few basic lines that define the form. Its a literal outline, but also an outline of where I want to go with the work: a visual means of writing notes to myself. Its my way of knowing where things are and should be as I make further progress. Ill constantly refer to these marks as I keep going, for as long as I can see them. This layer is really the foundational level. By the time Im through, Ill wind up painting over most of it.

Over-painting: I like to start with darker colors; this creates the illusion of depth when I paint lighter colors on top. Ill keep on doing this, adding lighter and lighter colors, one layer after another. Up to the very end, Im working with opaque acrylics, and its a slow process. Normally, it takes me anywhere from two to four weeks to create a painting. Ill usually work on four to five paintings at a time.

Finishing touches: The last week of painting is probably my favorite. I know Im over the hump and the end is in sight. At this point, Ill cease adding opaque colors. Ill concentrate on glazes and varnishes. When my gut tells me the painting is complete, Ill put on the last brush stroke and thats it.

Read the rest here:
Anatomy of a Painting: Artist Tim Jaeger looks at his 'CS No. 24' - Sarasota Herald-Tribune