The wheels of justice do grind, but they grind slowly. Nearly six months after Eric Harris was killed by Tulsa Deputy Robert Bates and the news broke that Sheriff Stanley Glanz had let Bates slide on his training requirements and deputy procedures, Glanz is facing his own set of criminal charges.
An attorney for Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz told The Tulsa World newspaper that his client planned to resign after a state grand jury handed down two misdemeanor criminal indictments against him and recommended he be suspended from office.
Glanz was indicted on accusations he failed to release a 2009 report involving former reserve deputy Robert Bates, who fatally shot Eric Harris in April after he said he mistook his own gun for a taser. Glanz was also accused of being reimbursed financially for driving a personal vehicle, according to the newspaper. A third indictment was filed under seal, the report noted.
Bates, who had a cozy relationship with Glanz as his former campaign manager, donor and real estate agent, pleaded not guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge in Harris' shooting.
Perhaps some good will come out of this tragedy after all.