Originally Posted - June 30, 2006

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CREEK COUNTY, OK---After deliberating about 5 ½ hours Thursday, the seven woman, five man jury returned a verdict of guilty in the trial of former district court judge Donald Thompson, charged with four felony counts of indecent exposure as a result of using a penis pump to masturbate while adjudicating trials.

Thompson, 59, a judge for 23 years before his resignation in 2004 as a result of the allegations, has been sentenced to a year in prison in addition to a $10,000 fine on each of the charges. He will have to register as a sex offender and may lose his $7,500 monthly pension.

The verdict culminated a trial which lasted nearly three weeks during which court reporters, police officers and former jurors testified against Thompson. Thompson had steadfastly denied the allegations and several attorneys and investigators had testified in his behalf, saying that they had seen nothing unusual in the Salpula courtroom. The trial had been moved to Bristow, 15 miles away and out of the Creek County courtroom where Thompson had presided.

He had been accused to using the penis pump during four trials during 2002 and 2003.

Thompson was removed from the courtroom to the county jail after the verdict was read about 9 p.m. Thursday. He will be formally sentenced on Aug. 14. District Judge Allen McCall remanded Thompson to the custody of the Creek County Sheriff's Department with bail set at $75,000. He was ordered to surrender his passport and cannot leave the county except to consult with his attorneys.

Thompson's wife, Paula, attended the trial daily, sitting in the front row of the courtroom gallery behind her husband. As the verdict was read, Thompson reportedly showed no emotion, simply reaching over and patting his wife's hand as she cried quietly.

Thompson's attorney, Clark Brewster, said that further action on behalf of Thompson is planned.

Prosecutors said that they would now pursue the misdemeanor charge which had been severed from the indecent exposure charges because the witness in the case, Thompson's business partner, Angela McClanahan, had disappeared and a warrant issued for her arrest. That charge alleges that Thompson had misused a state computer in his chambers, allegedly having pornographic pictures of himself and a woman said to be McClanahan on the computer.

During the trial, defense attorneys had attempted to discredit the prosecution witnesses, had argued that the penis pump didn't work and said that police and court reporters had conspired to remove Thompson from the bench because of previous adverse rulings against the police. No evidence of that was presented during trial.

Trial testimony was graphic and included information on the operation of a penis pump, descriptions of Thompson's penis and what a penis looks like after stimulation by the sexual device.

Several court reporters including Lisa Foster, Thompson's court reporter for 15 years, testified that they had seen Thompson using the sexual device during trials and had seen his penis "12 to 15" times during court proceedings. The day after Foster had testified before the state judicial review board after receiving a subpoena, Thompson had fired her.

Foster had testified that when she saw Thompson shaving his scrotum during the 2002 trial of a woman accused or murdering her 21-month old baby, she was "shocked and disgusted".

Foster said that she first heard the "sh-sh" sounds in September 2000 but it took her until February 2001 before she realized that the sound was coming from the judge and testified that she saw his penis in the plastic tube of the device. Jurors had heard courtroom recordings in which a pumping sound can be heard in the background with Foster identifying the sound as coming from the pump that she had seen.

Foster testified how she told fellow court reporter Theresa Clee what she had seen in the courtroom and that Clee had stood by the courtroom door while Foster took pictures of the penis pump. She said that she took three photos, giving one to Clee and taking the other two home because she was afraid she wouldn't be believed.

She said she was afraid to talk about what she had seen because she was afraid of losing her job. Police officers also took photographs of the pump.

In 2004, Foster was subpoenaed to give a deposition for the state judicial review board and the day after she testified, Thompson fired both her and his secretary bailiff.

Clee, who had recorded one of Thompson's trials in September, 2003, testified that she had seen Thompson use hand lotion and fondle himself during the trial.

A state forensic expert from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation testified Friday that tests of stains found on a judicial robe, a chair and carpet under Thompson's desk in the Creek County Court chamber were genetically matched to Thompson and could belong to no one else.

A positive DNA match for seminal fluid was found on the items that proved conclusively it was from Thompson, J.D. Linstrom testified. Lindstrom testified that material found on the penis pump which has been introduced into evidence couldn't be positively ID'd as from Thompson but said that the odds of it being matched with another person were one in 6,800.

He testified that he had found no evidence of seminal fluids on the courtroom furniture or carpet where two court reporters have testified he exposed himself to them in 2003.

Thompson's urologist, Dr. S. Edward Dakil, testified Friday that Thompson was treated for erectile dysfunction but said Thompson had no other medical problems and testified he had treated Thompson since 1988 and identified the penis pump in evidence as a vacuum device designed to mechanically aid in maintaining an erection. He testified that Thompson had had a vasectomy in 1988 and was incapable of producing sperm.

In opening testimony, the jury saw pictures of the penis pump, taken by a police caption during a 2003 trial. The police officer testified Tuesday that he had been on the stand during the 2003 trial when he heard an "air pressure" noise. He told the jury that he had seen Thompson sitting with his elbows on his knees and that there was a tube running up his robe, between his knees but that he had never seen Thompson expose himself. Two other police officers also testified that they had heard the whooshing noise come from the direction of the judge during the August 2003 murder trial. 6-30-06

See The North Country Gazette site map for previous articles about the trial.

© 2006 North Country Gazette