Creek Nation Paramedic Maurice White Jr., who was involved in a May scuffle with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, was arrested today following a traffic stop this morning in the town of Vian. White , who was in his own car when he was pulled over, is facing a variety of charges including speeding, not having a driver’s license, not wearing a seatbelt, and resisting arrest.
Vian Assistant Police Chief Brian Chandler, who made the arrest, told reporters the 56-year-old White was booked into the Sequoyah County jail.
While Chandler was completing a citation, White allegedly approached the police car and was asked to return to his vehicle, police said. “I asked him again to go back to his vehicle, and he said, ‘What was I going to do’ if he didn’t?” Chandler said. “It went downhill from there.”
White’s vehicle allegedly was clocked at 39 mph in a 25 mph zone, Chandler said. He faces fines of $668, said a spokeswoman with the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office. White attorney, Richard O’Carroll, said the allegations are “officer fiat. If he (the officer) says it happened, it happened.
“I think it will never make it to the courthouse door,” he said. “We’re going to contest it right there in the city of Vian. If we can’t beat it in the city of Vian, we’ll bring it on down to the city of Sallisaw, and we’ll deal within the county courthouse. It ain’t going anywhere — for a fact.”
On May 24, White, while working for a Creek Nation ambulance, was part of a tussle with OHP Trooper Daniel Martin.
Martin had stopped the ambulance at Paden after he thought the ambulance driver, Paul Franks, had made an obscene finger gesture, which the trooper felt was an “act of defiance.”
White came out of the back of the ambulance and said he told Martin they were taking a patient to the hospital and asked to continue the dispute there. A physical altercation ensued at the side of the ambulance, a video of which was aired on national TV channels.
Martin served a five-day suspension, levied July 21, for “conduct unbecoming an officer’’ for his role in the tussle with White.
OHP spokesman Chris West said Martin had a right to stop the ambulance and had justification to arrest the paramedic for obstructing an officer, but that the situation could have been handled differently.
O’Carroll called the timing of White’s arrest on Monday “curious,” given that White is scheduled to testify Wednesday in the jury trial of Kristopher Douglas, of Holdenville. Douglas, 28, is charged with obstructing an officer in Hughes County for allegedly not heeding officers’ commands in connection with a Oct. 3 traffic stop, which took place in front of Douglas’ uncle’s home.
Stemming from that incident, Martin and OHP Trooper Tommy Allen were placed on administrative leave for six weeks but cleared of accusations of using excessive force.
“A prosecutor called me and told me my witness had just been arrested before I knew it,” O’Carroll said, referring to White’s arrest Monday “… I’m going to check the cell phone records for everybody.”
O’Carroll said he didn’t think the arrest would affect White’s civil case against Martin. In July, White filed a federal lawsuit in Muskogee, claiming that the OHP trooper violated his civil rights.
We have a winner! The very first entry into our top stories contest for 2009 correctly guessed the top story of the year. Even though the rest of that person’s top five weren’t on target, it gave me hope for you people and this contest. Once again, Statter was wrong.
Many of you were blinded by our extensive coverage of PGFD and one man in particular, who at last look was still in the Prince George’s County Detention Center. You will have to scroll way done to number 14 to find his picture on this page. Other entries, including one from a person who should know better, focused way too much on our coverage of the District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department. Only one DC story made the list (but it was a big one at number two). In fact, only eight of the top 20 were local stories from the Washington, DC area. Remember that for next year’s contest. We are global in scope here at STATter911.com (yeah, right!).
To get a winner we had to go deep down to someone who guessed two of the top five. While he had the two top stories in reverse order, author and fire service veteran from Baltimore County Chris Hawley was the only entrant to get more than one out of five. The good news is the two Baltimore boys should have lots to talk about when this one buys lunch.
Our rankings are based on the number of pageviews between January 1 and December 31, 2009 according to Google Analytics. If a story had multiple postings we only counted the top one for our list.
The interesting thing is that the bottom two stories and the 21st story were just nine clicks apart. Their rankings kept changing up until the closing hours of 2009. In the end, a somewhat odd, but newer story from Montgomery County, Maryland moved up, knocking off one of my personal favorites from earlier in the year. Number 21 is the story of Alexandria Fire Department (VA) veteran Doug Townshend who, while off duty, rescued his brother Mike from a burning home. Click here for that story.
Click the Popeye cartoon to see what used to pass for a year-end review at STATter911.com.
By the way, I did this type of year end review, rather than the more humorous (at least I thought so) version of the two previous years, because I thought it would be easier to manage. I am writing this at 4:00 AM on New Years Day, so now I am not so sure. If you miss the old one, here it is (I am sure most of it is still true today anyway).
Obviously isn’t just us taking a look back at 2009 and ahead to 2010. Other fire service sites beat us to the punch. Paul Peluso at Firehouse.com says 2009 was the year of the video (look below for proof). FireRescue1.com has a host of characters writing lots of words under its year in review banner. Billy Goldfeder has a message for the new year at FirefighterCloseCalls.com. Paul Combs has a great thought in his December cartoon at FireEngineering.com. I am sure Bill Schumm will have something to help bring in the new year Firegeezer style and so will many others who share the FireEMSBlogs.com site with this rag. .
And Rhett Fleitz at The Fire Critic, who is a great inspiration and supporter to all of us who blog, has a contest that is better than mine. Rhett is looking for the Fire/EMS Blog of the Year 2009 (now you know why I said those nice things about him). Rhett’s is better because he is promoting it as the contest with the prize where you don’t have to sit across the lunch table from Dave Statter.
Thank you to all who entered our contest. Thank you to all who read and comment each day. Thank you to all who link to STATter911.com and carry our stories. Most important, a happy and safe 2010 to all of you and especially those out there protecting us each and every day.
So, drum roll please! We present our 20 most popular stories from 2009:
This was the story that dominated 2009 on STATter911.com. Not only did the posting on May 30 (our fourth posting on the topic) bring in 43 percent more pageviews than our number two story for the year, three other stories on the confrontation would have taken places two, three, and four. When you add up the clicks for the almost 20 stories we posted on this topic they account for about five-percent of the overall traffic on the blog for 2009.
There have been more than 700 comments (actually a lot more than that, but many we couldn’t publish). A couple of comments still arrive each week.
I think the reason for the high numbers, besides being a hot topic, is that we apparently reached way beyond our normal fire and EMS service audience on this story. It helps that the YouTube video above, which has more than two million views, has our link in its description.
As much grief as I get for carrying too many negative stories on the blog, the only reason the world knew about this one is because I was trying to do a good deed and post some positive news. On Wednesday, October 7 there were two sprinkler demonstrations scheduled in the National Capital region. One at Gallaudet University and the other at the University of Maryland (at MFRI). My goal was to get to both of them, but the Maryland one was the priority because of the release of a study about Prince George’s County’s mandatory residential sprinkler law. I never made it to DC and no one said anything to me about a problem during that demonstration.
As I was about to leave work the following evening I was feeling guilty the DC sprinkler video didn’t get any play in my story the day before (there had been a photographer on the scene from LNS, the local news service run by my station and two others in Washington). I pulled the video up with the intention of editing something for the blog and possibly WUSA9.com. Of course, as I watched the video, I immediately realized there was a little bit more to this demonstration.
This entry had 128 comments. More comments came in after Chief Dennis Rubin, when talking about what he saw, used the term “comedy act”.
Firefighter Will Gregory exits the home with his PPE on fire. Photo by Brian Haney, The Daily Record.
This was a late entry for the year. It came about because FirefighterCloseCalls.com first put out the story of the close call based on the newspaper article by Brian Haney at The Daily Record in Dunn, NC. Figuring that there might be more than one photo, I called Mr. Haney and he told me he had shot 210 images from that fire. Brian sent a bunch to STATter911.com and gave us permission to use the photos.
Until a day or two ago, this was in the number three spot for the year. In my heart I wish it was number one. I was blogging away on the Friday afternoon that Ladder 26 wrecked trying to keep up with the developments from Boston. Later in the evening when we learned that Lt. Kevin Kelley was the firefighter killed, it didn’t take long to find his appearances from Firehouse USA on the web. How can you not smile when you watch these?
While I get a lot of stories and videos from your tips, this is one I found all by myself. Going through fire related YouTube videos on a Sunday evening I happened upon this clip. I usually don’t run controlled burning type training exercises, but this one looked different. After picking my jaw off the floor upon seeing the unusual PPV via the leaf blower, I decided this was one worthy of a wider audience.
You have to admit this one was different. The 160-foot Spirit of Washington squeezed the 72-foot John H. Glenn Jr., putting a big gash in the Glenn’s hull and sidelining the boat for many months. The collision also crushed a small FBI boat at an adjacent dock.
This is a rather simple story of a rescue in that it was popular despite there being no video of the event. Firefighters saving the day when it looks like that might be impossible.
Here’s how WZZM-TV’s Lambrini Lukidis described the story:
Kelysse LaBelle is full of energy today. But when fireman Scott Campau rescued her from the bottom of Fisherman’s Landing in Muskegon last week, Kelysse was purple, her eyes were gray and lifeless.
“The stroller was actually sitting up-right on its wheels on the bottom of the lake and she was unconscious,” said Campau.
“She wasn’t breathing, no heart rate,” said Battalion Chief Ken Chudy who lead the team on the call. “She was lifeless when we pulled her out of the water,” said Fireman Kevin McMillan also assisted by firemen Chad Horn and Scott Hemmeslbach.
Eight Prince George’s County firefighters were hurt when an explosion occurred while they were investigating a natural has leak at a shopping center in Forestville.
Truly one of the great stories of the year. John and Joel Rechlitz received national attention for their off-duty rescue of a young boy from a burning car. Their efforts didn’t stop after the rescue. The firefighters remained close to D.J. Harper and his family. Click here.
In December, 2008 Continental Flight 1404 ran off a runway and burst into flames at Denver International Airport. This was the audio as the airport tower controllers directed firefighters to the scene.
The fireground audio provided by Erie County Fire wire was very difficult to listen to as these two men responded to a call for help inside the burning building on Genesee Street.
Layoffs and budget cuts were THE story of 2009. We saw a lot of stories like this one, but for some reason the Flint fire got more attention than the others.
What more can I say about this frequent subject of STATter911.com stories. In the interview Jerry Engle told us all about an arson ring involving firefighters. Later in the year Engle and another former volunteer from Riverdale were both charged with the fire Jerry told us about. If you haven’t read enough about him, click here for our Jerry archive.
A touching tribute to firefighters who were lost 50-years earlier. The incident is believed to be the first time the term BLEVE was used to describe the rupture and rocketing of a flammable liquid container during a fire.
It took teamwork and a lot of guts as a dispatcher and engine company worked to save a woman trapped in an apartment fire started thanks to a neighbor’s meth lab. Video shows Chad Meyer from Engine 26 basically walking through fire to bring out Nikki Cain.
This entry from Montgomery County had to be one of the more unusual stories of the year. A firefighter’s date spent the night at the firehouse and got lost on the way to the bathroom.
What this means is that, even though Kyle Wilson died in a house fire in April, 2007 and the report was released nine-months later, firefighters are still interested in learning from this tragic situation. Enough people searched, found and apparently read that entry in 2009 to make it part of our top 20.
Indiana house fire: This is from Lake Station yesterday evening. The fire was in the 2800 block of DeKalb.
Fire captain honored for bringing his own gun to the battle: Truly one of the more unusual fire service stories in some time occurred earlier this year in Palm Beach County, Florida. On Friday, Captain Edwin O’Berry and two shifts of firefighters and medics were honored for jumping into action as a police officer was being beaten near Station 31 on April 8. The man doing the beating had the cop’s gun. Captain O’Berry had one of his own that he just grabbed from his personal car. The man was shot and killed by the captain and another police officer. For his efforts Captain O’Berry received an award intended for police officers. Click here for our coverage.
It appears to me the firefighter at the back of the camper is practicing his PPV techniques at this training fire. This is from a rather unusual video that you can see by clicking the image.
Trooper who fought with paramedic is again back on the street: Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s Daniel Martin was reinstated after a citizen filed an excessive force claim. The latest incident was caught on video, much like the May 24 run-in with Creek Nation paramedic Maurice White Jr. We have the story and all of the videos.
Two-hatters told to take a hike in Duluth: The IAFF local and three Duluth firefighters have parted ways because the firefighters volunteer in a suburban department. Here are the details.
Customer service debate over crash and gas leak: There is a little back and forth in our comments section over a story by 9NEWS NOW’s Lindsey Mastis following a car crash into a house in Takoma Park, Maryland on Thursday. The family and neighbors believe the fire department could have taken a little better care of a 93-year-old woman after her home was evacuated. Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service has apologized, but also looks at it as a teachable moment for firefighters and the public. The discussion ranges from someone who believe he would rather see his crew help an old man across the street, even if it meant missing a first due house fire, to those who think way too much attention is being paid to customer service. Check it out and join in.
In wake of study, Quakertown VFC has extended an invitation to Quakertown VEMS members to come on over to the other side. Details and link to the report to the right. Quakertown VFC image.
EMS study completed in town where passing incident occurred: You may recall the September controversy over a unit from New Jersey’s Quakertown Fire Company passing an ambulance on the way to a car crash (here and here). From the articles covering that incident it was clear there are long standing problems over EMS service in the area. A study was promised and it has now been delivered. Dr. Harold Cohen at Tri-Data is recommending that Quakertown Volunteer EMS no longer be dispatched on calls in Franklin Township and first responder duties should be handled by Quakertown VFS. Read the entire report. Read the fire department’s response. Read the latest news article.
The thin green line: A neighbor who models his firefighting gear after the star of Probie Days keeps battling away with the garden hose even after the firefighters arrive. Watch the video and see the pictures.
Brothel worker from HBO series confirmed among the dead in Oklahoma City arson: That's Brooke Phillips, AKA Hayden Brooks. She was a member of the staff at Moonlite Bunny Ranch featured on the HBO show "Cathouse". Police have now officially confirmed that Phillips was shot to death inside a burning home where three other people were found dead. She was pregnant. Click the image to read more about the case.
Jury says Fresno fire discriminates and wants it to pay big bucks: A former recruit is awarded almost $2.5 million dollars after a jury determined she was discriminated against while in the training academy at the Fresno Fire Department. Click here.
Mass casualty at high school football game: The moment of a wall collapse at a South Carolina stadium was caught on video. At least 27 students were hurt. Click here.
Save at Maryland house fire is fire marshal’s father: Firefighters in Frederick County were able to find a man in a wheel chair inside his burning home Sunday afternoon. Family members say Joseph McNeal is expected to recover from smoke inhalation. The relative giving that information to The Frederick News-Post is the chief fire marshal for Frederick County, Marc McNeal, son of the victim.
A fight over benefits: Johnston, Rhode Island officials say they can save $635,000 by cutting pension and health benefits for firefighters. As you might imagine the union isn’t sitting still for this one. Click here for the story.
The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has reinstated two state troopers who were placed on administrative leave following allegations of excessive force.
OHP Trooper Daniel Martin.
An internal investigation found that the use of force by Troopers Daniel Martin and Tommy Allen was not excessive.
Martin earlier this year was suspended after being accused of using excessive force during a scuffle with a paramedic that was caught on video.
Kristopher Douglas had complained in the more recent incident that one trooper struck him with a baton and another put a knee in his back after he tried to walk up to a residence while the officers were making a traffic arrest in Holdenville.
A video clip showed Martin asking Douglas to leave several times, then hitting him with a baton once as Allen tried to handcuff him.
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