11/11/06 (updated 11/12/06) - Well, it was a long fought battle but it all paid off on election day (Nov. 7, 2006) when, what is being hailed as the upset of the year, resulted in the unseating of the incumbent Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane. By a margin of only 824 votes, former police officer, prosecutor and defense attorney David Prater was chosen by the voters of Oklahoma County to restore justice to our criminal justice system.

To put Prater's success into perspective, I remind you of the hill he had to face when, over a year and a half ago, he decided to speak for all Oklahomans and take on the self-proclaimed "Minister of Justice," Wes Lane.

In Wes Lane's favor;

- Lane was born and raised in Oklahoma City.

- Lane has over 24-years experience as a lawyer and/or prosecutor.

- Lane was appointed Oklahoma County DA by Governor Frank Keating in 2001.

- Lane won a re-election bid in 2002 by a huge margin.

- Lane has served as president and vice president of the Association of District Attorneys.

- Lane is entrenched in religious circles.

- Lane is well respected and well liked among many influential Oklahomans and voters.

- Lane has the power of the incumbency at his disposal.

- Lane has the ability to obtain free press coverage at will.

- Lane showed he had the ability to raise campaign contributions 3-to-1 over his opponent.

- Lane led all the polls leading up to the election. Some polls showing him up as much as 25 points.

- Lane touted a 94% jury trial conviction rate.

- Lane touted a 84% overall conviction rate.

- Lane touted a bogus check division that has returned millions of dollars to local businesses.

As if Lane's resume wasn't enough, in the weeks leading up to the election, Lane began blasting Prater in the media and at public speaking engagements. Lane targeted what he perceived to be Prater's lack of experience and the fact that Lane had actually fired Prater from the DA's office many years prior. Lane claimed the firing was a result of a 'mistrust' that had developed between Lane and Prater. Prater claimed his firing was retaliation for a news story by his soon-to-be wife, Tamara Pratt (KWTV Ch9), regarding Lane's wife's drug addiction and medical license suspension.

As was often the policy of a Lane administration, Lane began also attacking his critics. Those attacks included naming specific Oklahoma City police officers, mothers of molested children, and the founder of this site, Brian Bates, aka the Video Vigilante (FOX25 9/7/06).

In a sign that Lane was coming unhinged and desperate to vilify his critics, Lane even closed down the courts and sent jurors home, at great expense to tax payers, after an outspoken critic of Lane's began handing out fliers, critical of Lane's lack of leadership, outside Lane's office (KFOR Ch4 9/25/06, FOX25 9/25/06, Gazette 9/25/06, Gazette 10/4/06).

In response, several former employees of Lane's came forward to aid in Prater's efforts to oust Lane. One former prosecutor went so far as to dedicate a Web site to exposing Lane's misdeeds (Internet link).

Lane's re-election bid suffered early on from news stories questioning the handling of cases by Lane's office and often Lane himself. These stories included a botched case of alleged child trafficking (KFOR Ch4 7/24/06 or Gazette 8/23/06) and the case of a former police officer originally accused of over a dozen counts of raping his own children (KFOR Ch4 10/24/06)

In a historic move, virtually all of the Fraternal Orders of Police (FOP) within Oklahoma County threw their support soundly behind challenger and former police officer David Prater (FOX25 9/14/06 and Gazette 9/20/06)

In a rare face-to-face meeting, Prater and Lane appeared on Flashpoint to argue their case for election and/or re-election (10/29/06 video link part1, link part2, link part3).

Even with the backing of several police and fire departments, political analysts still favored Lane to win (Cox Cable Ch7 10/29/06).

Lane, who often suffers from foot in mouth disease, and his spokesperson are sued after Lane's office blames the mother of two molested children of making up the charges against their father, despite convincing evidence to the contrary (FOX25 10/30/06, KFOR Ch4 10/30/06, KWTV Ch9 10/30/06).

Only a week before the election, one news channel's voter poll showed Prater had closed the gap to only 7 points (KWTV Ch9 11/2/06) and local FOP's reaffirmed their support for Prater (FOX25 11/1/06). The Oklahoma Gazette profiled each candidate for voters just six days before the election (Gazette 11/1/06).

Two days before the election several television stations reported allegations from a woman who currently appeared on one of Lane's campaign television commercials. The woman claimed she was mislead by Lane and one of his staffers when she agreed to speak on Lane's behalf. (KFOR Ch4 11/5/06, KWTV Ch9 11/5/06, FOX25 11/5/06).

24-hours before the election, only one legal analyst, Ron Black (R), was willing to put his neck on the line and predict Prater to win (FOX25 11/6/06).

In the end, the voters saw through the mud-slinging, finger pointing and warped statistics and instead chose what has been dubbed, "The Prater Plan" (KFOR Ch4 11/7/06 and FOX25 11/8/06).

The Prater Plan (from DavidPraterforDA.com): "Rebuild the domestic violence prosecution unit, rebuild the gang prosecution unit, develop the criminal mediation program, strengthen the drug courts, fully utilize the mental health courts, eliminate the $60,000 per year public relations mouthpiece position and replace it with a grant writer, and finally, to rebuild the relationship between law enforcement and the District Attorney's office."

What Next?

Those who know me best know that I am not one to harbor ill will for anyone - this includes Wes Lane. Though Lane has admitted to attacking my wife and myself for no other reason than for exercising my right (and I argue my obligation) to criticize his office, my fight against Lane ended on November 7, 2006.

I have never had the opportunity to know Lane on a personal level, so I have no reason to doubt he is an honorable husband and father. I also do not question his faith. However, that does not make him qualified to be the best district attorney for Oklahoma County.

I wish Lane and his family well on whatever course they choose to follow in the next chapter of their lives.

Brian Bates

aka, The Video Vigilante

and Founder of VoteOutWesLane.com

email: comments@videovigilante.com

Disclaimer: "Free speech is a real bitch!" -- Brian Bates