Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Wesley Wayne Hunter Jr., age 29, of Yukon, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for one count of Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records to Obstruct a Federal Investigation.
The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
On June 5, 2024, Hunter pleaded guilty to the charge. According to investigators, on July 20, 2023, in his official capacity as a Canadian County Deputy, Hunter purposefully deactivated the mobile tracking system on his work phone while transporting a pretrial detainee from Bryan County to Canadian County before pulling his patrol car off the transport route. Hunter admitted during the June plea hearing he did this to conceal and impede any future investigation into his subsequent criminal misconduct.
“The FBI will not stand by when a law enforcement official abuses the authority entrusted to them,” said FBI Oklahoma City Acting Special Agent in Charge Sonia Garcia. “We will continue to hold accountable any public servant who fails the community they were sworn to protect.”
“Wesley Wayne Hunter Jr. betrayed his employer, his community, and his oath by engaging in misconduct against a detainee and attempting to conceal his acts,” said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. “Today, thanks to the diligent work of the FBI, the OSBI, the DOJ Civil Rights Division, and Eastern District prosecutors, Hunter is being held accountable for his crime.”
The Honorable John D. Russell, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing in Muskogee. Hunter will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Paladino and Richard Lorenz, in consultation with Trial Attorney Laura Gilson of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, represented the United States.