Tabitha Barnes
Count 1 is sexual battery: eight years for touching Tabitha Barnes’s breasts during a stop in front of her house. Detective Rocky Gregory found her in Daniel’s records and told her he had a tip. She told the judge she had taken nothing but her prescriptions, tested positive for PCP, and finished her testimony that afternoon. And in 2018, in her own lawsuit, she swore six times that he did not touch her.
“She appears to be a perfect victim.”
Gregory’s report says how he came to her: “In looking at SU Holtzclaw’s records checks of female’s Tabitha’s name came about. Also initially she matched a possible profile set aside by Lt. Muzny.” He went to her house, introduced himself, and “advised that I had a tip that maybe she had been the victim of an unreported sexual assault.” She said an officer had touched her inappropriately and had been harassing her. Gregory asked her to speak with him about it and wrote that “she stated she would.” Muzny came over and the two of them interviewed her in Gregory’s car in front of her house. Gregory, supp. 14-068166 (002), Scott Adams 00985. Her account of that visit, given in 2018: Gregory told her he was investigating Daniel Holtzclaw for sexual assault, a name she did not know because she had only ever called the officer by his hair. “I told him I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, just leave me alone… Wanted to be at peace. And he asked me again to speak with me. And I told him if he could tell me… how he knew what he done or had an idea, then I’d talk to him and he did. And I opened up, started talking to him.” Barnes Dep. 82:3–17 (Oct. 30, 2018). How the list was built, and how many women on it said nothing had happened, is discussed in The Accusers.
Partway through the interview, she began to cry, said she was so tired she had taken an Ambien earlier, and started to nod off. Gregory wrote that she “requested that we continue the interview for a different time.” Scott Adams 00987. That evening Lt. Muzny emailed an update to Davis, Gregory and Bacy, copying Maj. Denise Wenzel of Investigations and Johnny Kuhlman: “Rocky went out and he also found a victim. That gives us 6 so far. Her name is Tabitha Barnes. She appears to be a perfect victim.” Two sentences later he added that she “was very hard to follow and became so upset and emotional that we had to quit the interview.” He then summarized her allegation: Daniel “eventually felt her breasts and put his hands down her pants.” Gregory’s report of the interview Muzny sat in on says the opposite: “He didn’t do anything with her privates or touch her on her pants.” Muzny approved that report on August 27. Muzny to Davis, Gregory and Bacy, Aug. 14, 2014, OKC 0103–04; Gregory, supp. 14-068166 (002), Scott Adams 00985, 00987. She missed the next morning’s appointment, and Wenzel passed that on to Kuhlman with her own description: “she’s a known crack addict who was tweaking pretty hard yesterday.” Wenzel to Kuhlman, Aug. 15, 2014, OKC 0103.
Two stops, a knock at the door, one touch.
The first, in Gregory’s report: a stop in her driveway after midnight, her children sent inside, an officer she called “Spike” for his hair, and small ticket warrants outstanding. He asked whether she had drugs on her and whether she could show him she did not. She lifted her shirt to her stomach, then, at his direction, her shirt and bra. Gregory’s report has him asking, “Do you mind if I lift them up?” and then lifting each breast with his palms, as if checking for drugs. That is the touch behind Count 1. Gregory wrote: “Tabitha said no one saw him touch her breasts.” The report goes on: “Ofc. Holtzclaw told her, ‘I can help you if you play by my rules!’ Tabitha felt that he was talking about an exchange of sex and he would take care of the tickets.” Scott Adams 00986–87. The second, about two weeks later: another stop at her house, the children sent inside again, her shirt lifted and, by her trial testimony, her pants pulled forward at his direction, no touching. Tr. 1799:16–23. The third, the next afternoon: a knock at the door, a request to come in that she refused, and “I’ll be back.” Summing up, Gregory wrote that “he never touched her vagina. They never had sex of any type. She never saw his penis… He did touch her breasts the one time.” Scott Adams 00988–90.
Her eleven-year-old daughter told Gregory her mother had said Spike had seen her breasts and touched one. Asked whether she had seen it: “[She] said she never saw that action.” Gregory, supp. 14-068166 (003), Scott Adams 00991. Her boyfriend, Terry Williams, said Barnes had told him the officer made her lift her shirt; “Terry didn’t recall about the touching part.” Gregory, supp. 14-068166 (004), Scott Adams 00992–93. The State charged five counts on her account. The jury acquitted on the burglary and the stalking, convicted on the two counts of procuring lewd exhibition, five years each, and convicted on Count 1, sexual battery, eight years. Tr. 4323:7–22.
She told the judge she’d taken only her prescriptions. She tested positive for PCP.
Barnes took the stand on Thursday, November 12, 2015. That afternoon, on direct, she described the touch: “He lift my breast up.” Asked whether he touched her breasts with his hand: “With both of his hands.” Skin to skin? “Skin to skin.” It “didn’t seem like it lasted two seconds, three seconds.” Tr. 1780:10–12, 1781:17–25. Court recessed for the night before she finished. Tr. 1801:21–1802:7.
She came back Friday morning. Judge Timothy Henderson heard slurred speech and saw her struggle to focus on his questions. She told Gieger and the judge she had taken nothing but her prescriptions. Tr. 1809:16–21, 1811:25–1812:8. She agreed to a drug test. It came back positive for PCP and a benzodiazepine; the court marked the result as an exhibit. Over the lunch hour she refused to testify, tried to leave, and was detained in the courthouse by Oklahoma City police for public intoxication. Tr. 1856:1–1857:25. Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger told the judge she “clearly appeared to be suffering from under the influence of something” and that she had admitted being at a party in Texas within the week where she was exposed to PCP. He argued she was unavailable as a witness, then proposed holding her over the weekend to sober up and finishing on Monday. Tr. 1856:5–8, 1857:12–17, 1858:4–1860:25. Henderson said he did not think it served justice “to put somebody that this Court believes to be intoxicated and apparently has been confirmed by a urinalysis test of the presence of PCP” on the stand, and excluded her for the day. Tr. 1862:1–9, 1864:13–17.
Scott Adams, for Daniel, objected to holding her over and asked that she be put back on the stand that afternoon to finish. Tr. 1863:4–9, 1867:2–7. Gieger said she had seemed coherent over lunch, and the lawyers agreed to stop if she showed trouble again. Gregory told the judge: “In my personal opinion she was high. I mean, she’s high, no doubt. But she’s coming down.” Tr. 1865:6–16, 1867:9–21. The jury came back and Gieger resumed. Tr. 1868:16–1869:7. Asked when she had last used drugs, she said “about four days before we came to Oklahoma City.” Did she have a drug problem? “I don’t consider I have a drug problem. I feel that I’m a groupie.” Tr. 1869:11–16. On cross she put the PCP at “about four… four weeks ago,” and Adams stopped her: “The PCP that you tested positive for about two hours ago.” Tr. 1907:4–10. Asked whether she had bought PCP, she said “Prove it.” Only then did she say she had warned the lawyers she would “test hot,” and that before coming to Oklahoma City she had “hit some PCP and some marijuana. It was on a blunt stick.” Adams pointed out that what she had told them was that she would test positive for prescription drugs. Tr. 1912:8–1913:12.
In her own lawsuit, she said he did not touch her.
Barnes sued the City of Oklahoma City and Daniel over the stops. On October 30, 2018, the defendants’ lawyers deposed her as the plaintiff in that suit. She said her trial testimony had been truthful. Barnes Dep. 70:11–14. Asked, “How many times did Holtzclaw touch you inappropriately?” she answered, “He didn’t touch me.” “What did he do?” “I had to expose my body to him.” “He never touched you?” “No.” Barnes Dep. 77:23–78:4 (Oct. 30, 2018), Barnes v. City of Oklahoma City, No. CIV-16-184-HE (W.D. Okla.).
Later the City’s lawyer read her own complaint to her, the paragraph alleging that Daniel “fondled Plaintiff Barnes’ naked breasts,” and asked whether that was different from what she had said. “He didn’t touch me.” Was the complaint a mistake? “He did not touch me.” He read her Count 1 of the Information, “touching her bare breasts with his hand without her consent.” Was that also a mistake? “He didn’t touch me.” Then: “And when I testified in court, I said he didn’t touch me.” Asked whether she understood that Daniel had been convicted of sexual battery on that count as a result of her testimony, she said yes, and that she knew he had been “charged with three counts of me exposing myself.” Barnes Dep. 100:1–101:9. At trial she had told the jury he lifted her breast “with both of his hands,” skin to skin. Tr. 1781:17–22.
Near the end, her own lawyer, Cody Gilbert, began a question with: “You stated earlier that Holtzclaw never touched you.” Ambre Gooch, the lawyer for another defendant, Officer Brian Bennett, came back one more time: “In the lawsuit you specifically allege that Holtzclaw fondled your naked breasts. You’re changing your tune on that now today, though, right? That did not happen, correct?” Daniel’s lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, objected: “asked and answered about five times.” Asked whether she would withdraw the claim from her suit, she said no, “Because if you said I said it, then I said it.” She went on: “you saying I’m saying he did not touch me? I remember showing my body three times.” Barnes Dep. 135:14–15, 136:9–137:12.
Six times in that deposition she said he did not touch her, as a plaintiff seeking damages from Daniel and the City. She did not take back the stops or the exposure, and she would not drop the touching claim from her suit. Daniel is serving eight years on that allegation.