Lawmen Acquitted in Alleged Curling Iron Torture Plot
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SHERMAN, Tex. — Two Oklahoma lawmen were acquitted Wednesday of plotting to kidnap and torture a drug suspect to force him to inform on others.
A federal court jury returned the verdict in favor of Marietta, Okla., policeman Roger Ray Hilton, 27, and his father-in-law, Sheriff Wesley Liddell Jr., 47, of Love County, Okla., after less than two hours of deliberation.
Hilton and Liddell said they had known that they would go free. They said the charges were lodged in order to unseat Liddell as sheriff. They publicly thanked Love County residents who contributed money to their defense.
Hilton and Liddell were accused of planning to kidnap a Gainesville, Tex., man and torture him with a curling iron to extract information on drug laboratories. The plan was never carried out.
Hilton testified that the alleged scheme was “just a joke” on Marietta policeman Tom Hankins, the prosecution’s star witness.
Federal prosecutors got their information on the alleged plot from Hankins, who secretly taped conversations between the two defendants.
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