TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A former Oklahoma police officer serving a 10-year prison sentence following his 2011 corruption conviction isn't entitled to a reduced term, a federal judge has ruled.
In an opinion and order released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Dowdell rejected former Tulsa Police Cpl. Harold R. Wells' request for release, the Tulsa World reported.
Federal prosecutors indicted a U.S. agent, Wells and five other Tulsa police officers in 2010 amid allegations of fabricated drug buys, coached informants and the theft of drugs and cash.
Wells was sentenced on Dec. 6, 2011 after being convicted of knowingly carrying and possessing a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime and conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Wells filed his motion in May 2015. His case and the motion were assigned to Dowdell in 2016.
In the request, Wells argued that his testimony during an evidentiary hearing in 2012 helped free a man found to be wrongly convicted. But Dowdell said, in an opinion and order released Wednesday, that the federal government didn't seek a modification to Wells' sentence, a requirement for him to be able to consider the request.
"Mr. Wells is thus ineligible for a sentence modification, and the motion must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction," Dowdell said.
Federal officials determined that Wells didn't provide "substantial assistance" when he testified in the other case for a sentence modification.
Wells, 66, was scheduled for release from a federal facility in Minnesota in February 2020.
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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com
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