WAGONER - The interim leader of the Wagoner County sheriff's department is making personnel changes in his first week of his brief term as sheriff.
Dan David appointed jail administrator Chris Cook to the rank of undersheriff after demoting previous undersheriff Mike Stickelmeyer to the rank of major over patrols. Cook will continue to oversee jail operations.
Other changes in the department include the suspensions of Sheriff Bob Colbert and Capt. Jeff Gragg after they were indicted by the state attorney general's multicounty grand jury on three felony counts.
Cook started in law enforcement in 2008 as a jail detention officer in the Tulsa County jail. He was most recently administrative deputy under Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz. He worked at the Tulsa County sheriff's office until this month when he was hired as jail administrator in Wagoner County.
The multicounty grand jury filed an accusation for removal with the Wagoner County district court, accusing Colbert of extortion, willful neglect of duty and failure to produce and account for public funds. The allegations stemmed from a traffic stop in which Gragg and Colbert allegedly extorted $10,000 from a driver and allowed him to leave custody. The accusation for removal also included a state audit that found Colbert failed to properly account for money earmarked for undercover drug buys. The court suspended Colbert early this month.
Colbert's removal hearing is set for May 9. His felony arraignment is set for May 4.
District Court Judge Dennis Shook recused himself from the case at the request of Colbert's attorneys.
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