UPDATE: Mvskoke Media has received new information indicating that Rep. Joseph Hicks’ felony charges are going to be dropped and refiled because of clerical errors in the charging documents according to Mark Thetford of the MCN Attorney General’s Office. “We’ve dismissed the felony but are amending it to a misdemeanor” Thetford said. The charges were amended to a misdemeanor because the charging documents wrongly stated this was Rep. Joseph Hick’s second DUI offense.
Mvskoke Media requested official court documentation on the case dismissal from MCN District Court but were told the documents would not be available until the presiding judge signed the papers.
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Mvskoke Media has changed the headline on this story to reflect the latest developments.
OKMULGEE, Oklahoma – Mvskoke Media received a tip from a concerned citizen that Joseph Hicks had been charged with a DUI in MCN District Court on March 26. The citizen was concerned that it was MCN National Council Rep. Joseph Hicks.
Mvskoke Media was able to locate the case in the online court calendar for the MCN District Court.
Mvskoke Media requested the Charging Documents to identify the individual in the case and substantiate whether it was the council member in question. Court and AG officials told Mvskoke Media no documents were available for the case.
Mvskoke Media continued to check with the court weekly over the next month and finally obtained the charging documents in the case on May 6.
A previous conviction in Okmulgee County on May 8, 2015, is listed in the charging documents.
Mvskoke Media utilized the OSCN.Net system to find the court records for this prior conviction and found that the case listed is for a different individual, Joseph Charles Hicks, who has a different date of birth.
Since there appeared to be an error on the charging documents, Mvskoke Media contacted the MCN Attorney General Geri Wisner to see if corrected charging documents would be filed in the case. The AG Office did not respond to this inquiry.
Mvskoke Media was in court on June 6 to visually identify Rep. Hicks at his arraignment because the charging documents’ criminal cases created confusion. Mvskoke Media’s reporter was removed from the court by the bailiff before Rep. Hicks arrived. Media staff left the courtroom but not the premises and was able to identify Rep. Hicks entering the building for the scheduled hearing in district court.
Mvskoke Media reached out to Rep. Hicks for comment, to which he replied that he had no comment on this case.
Court documents show Rep. Hicks was driving a Chevrolet 1500 truck. A breath alcohol test showed his blood alcohol content (BAC) at 0.23. The legal blood alcohol content limit in Oklahoma is 0.08.
As of June 8, no further filings on this case have been updated on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation District Court Website.
The MCN Constitution, Article 6 Legislative Branch, section2, c, states that, “No person shall be a representative who has not attained the age of eighteen (18) and hold full citizenship, nor has a felony conviction within the past ten years (10) years as of date of filing for candidacy or has ever been convicted of a felony crime against the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
Mvskoke Media will have ongoing coverage of this developing story.
DUI should ALWAYS be a felony charge.