Gene Stipe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eugene E. "Gene" Stipe (born October 21, 1926), is a former American politician from Oklahoma. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Gene Stipe was born in Blanco, Oklahoma, and is the son of Jacob Irvin Stipe, a farmer worker and miner, and Eva Lou Stipe. Following a stint in the United States Navy in the mid-1940s, he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives at the age of 21 in 1948, serving as Assistant Floor Leader from 1949 to 1953. Shortly after taking office, he married Agnes L. Minton (1920-September 29, 2002), and eventually had one daughter and three grandchildren. That same year, he graduated from law school at the University of Oklahoma.
He did not seek re-election to the State House in 1954, but was an unsuccessful candidate for a State Senate seat representing McAlester, Oklahoma. Two years later, he was elected to the State Senate in a special election, serving from 1957 until his resignation in 2003, becoming the longest-serving member of that body.
In 1968, Stipe was indicted on charges of federal income tax evasion for allegedly failing to pay taxes on $110,000 in income, but was later acquitted of the charges. In 1975, he was paid $100,000 plus expenses to assist William Con Sutherland in a bankruptcy case involving Sutherland's vending machine empire. Stipe was accused by bankruptcy trustees of taking his retainer fee from illegally-diverted funds. In an out-of-court settlement, Stipe repaid $60,000 in order to resolve the dispute.
Stipe was briefly a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Dewey F. Bartlett in 1978, but dropped out of the race, which was later won by Governor David L. Boren. The following year, he was indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged role in securing a fraudulent Small Business Administration loan for McAlester Frozen Foods, a food processing company based in Stipe's district. He was acquitted on those charges in 1981. While awaiting trial in the SBA loan case, he was indicted by another federal jury on charges of fraud, extortion, and conspiracy relating to his intervention in an extradition case involving a Colorado man.
In April 2003, Stipe pleaded guilty to federal charges of perjury, conspiracy to obstruct a Federal Election Commission investigation, and conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, relating to his alleged role in funneling illegal contributions to the failed 1998 congressional campaign of Walt Roberts in Oklahoma's 3rd Congressional District.
The following January, he was sentenced to five years probation, six months home detention, 1,000 hours of community service, and fined $735,567. Furthermore, he also agreed to forfeit his license to practice law.
In September, 2007, federal authorities filed a petition seeking to have Stipe's probation revoked as a result of his alleged ongoing relationship with a convicted felon. On September 28, a federal judge ordered Stipe, who suffers from hydrocephalus, diabetes, and prostate cancer, to undergo a mental competency evaluation at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, following a parole revocation hearing in which Stipe required prompting from his attorneys to answer questions, and according to the judge, appeared to be drugged or hypnotized.
Shortly thereafter, Stipe and his brother, Francis were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of mail fraud, witness tampering, money laundering, and conspiracy, relating to their alleged role in a real estate deal involving a pet food company owned by Gene Stipe's former business partner, Steve Phipps. The witness tampering charge stems from allegations that the Stipe brothers engaged in a conspriacy to buy the mortgage on a home owned by former Oklahoma State Representative Mike Mass in an attempt to influence his testimony in the case.
