Okla. Governor Calls Session To Investigate Fisher
NU Online News Service, May 19, 3:45 p.m. EDT?Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry has extended the legislative session past a scheduled May 28 adjournment so a committee investigating alleged misconduct by Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher can continue operations. [@@]
The eight-member House Investigation Committee is considering whether Commissioner Fisher should be impeached over allegations of wrongdoing while in office.
"The committee investigating Commissioner Fisher appealed to the governor to call this concurrent special session, because this ad hoc committee didn't expect to finish its investigative work before the regular session of the 49th Oklahoma Legislature ends May 28," said Mike Ray, director of the Oklahoma House media division.
Mr. Ray added that the special session will now allow the committee to meet beyond May 28, with the investigation expected go well into the summer.
According to the state's insurance department spokesman David Meuser, Commissioner Fisher is apparently also in favor of allowing a special session. "The governor wants a thorough and fair investigation, and that's what we want as well," Mr. Meuser told National Underwriter.
If the investigative committee decides to forward articles of impeachment, the full House would then vote on whether to send the articles to the Senate for an impeachment trial.
"If the House does recommend articles of impeachment, it will go to the Senate to be prosecuted there," Mr. Ray said. If Mr. Fisher were to be convicted at a Senate impeachment trial, Mr. Fisher would then lose his office, he explained.
Commissioner Fisher has already been charged with four felony counts related to mismanaging a charity and embezzling insurance-education funds. There is also a separate investigation underway by a multi-county grand jury.
According to Oklahoma's multi-county grand jury, Mr. Fisher is alleged to have skimmed off more than $40,000 paid to the insurance department for continuing-education courses, with the money ending up in a personal bank account for Mr. Fisher's assistant Opal Ellis.
The investigative committee has said it is looking into five allegations against Mr. Fisher, including:
? Four felony counts issued in Oklahoma County District Court.
? The alleged solicitation of gifts of artwork, furniture and kitchen equipment valued at more than $30,000 from entities regulated by the insurance department.
? Distribution of "Friends of Fisher" stickers to medical professionals, who were instructed to affix the stickers to insurance claim submissions.
? A check for more than $35,000 to a Florida attorney for attorney fees from the account of an insurance company forced into conservatorship by the insurance commissioner.
? Ethics complaints arising from Fisher's 2002 re-election campaign.
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