Dee Schieber, former Kay Commissioner, appeals sentence

The case against former Kay County Commissioner Dwight Dee Schieber has been appealed.

Schieber was found guilty in a jury trial earlier this year on six counts of Violation of Law Regulating Official Conduct. The jury recommended sentences of six months and a $500 fine on five of the counts and nine months in jail for the sixth count. Judge Stephen Kistler gave him nine months in the Kay County Detention Center on March 6. Kistler suspended the remaining six month sentences to run consecutively with the nine month sentence.

The court was notified on March 16 of the appeal.

The fines for the suspended sentences were also suspended. The court did assess another $2,665 in court costs and fines as well as $45,208 in restitution for the cost of the audit that led to the charges.

Schieber has also applied to the court as being unable to pay for his appeal and asked for a court appointed attorney. The trial lawyer Jarrod Stevenson asked to be removed from the case and that motion was approved. Cindy Danner, the Chief of the Criminal Appeals Division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System was appointed to the case.

The appeals file indicates four causes of action. 1) The trial court erred by failing 'to grant the Motion to Quash/Motion to Dismiss due to the charges being filed outside of the Statute of Limitations. 2)The trial court erred by granting the State's Motion in Limine that limited the Defendant's theory of the defense. 3) The evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdicts. And finally, that the trial court erred in assessing restitution for the costs of the audit without sufficient evidence in support thereof.

The investigation started back in 2013 when the initial complaint was filed against former Kay County Commissioner Tyson Rowe and Schieber for violating competitive bidding laws and that construction bids exceeding $50,000 had allegedly been improperly bid. The audit was also done to see if River Ridge Construction LLC was receiving preferential treatment for road projects and other county business without the proper bidding procedures. There were a total of seven issues called out in the 58-page audit.

The state auditor’s office audited the county for the time period of July1,2012 through June 30, 2014. The audit was released on December 2,2015 and turned over to the state attorney for review of charges. Those charges were finally filed in 2017 and in 2019 Rowe made a plea deal on his charges and then Schieber asked for a jury trial on his misdemeanor charges, which is were we are at today.