Key Witness "Disgusted" by Judge's Behavior
By BOB SHERRILL Herald Staff Writer
BRISTOW – A veteran court reporter said Monday she was “shocked and disgusted” when she saw former judge Donald Thompson shaving his scrotum during the 2002 trial of a woman accused of murdering her 21-month-old baby.
Lisa Foster, who for 15 years was a court reporter for Thompson, said it was “just sickening” to have a grandfather telling about the death of his granddaughter and “there was the judge pumping on his penis.”
Foster perhaps is the final state witness in the trial of Thompson, who is charged with four counts of indecent exposure.
Thompson, 59, was a Creek County district judge for more than 20 years before he chose to retire rather than face a state judicial review board in August 2004.
At times Foster fought tears as she told of the secret that began when she first heard the “sh-sh” sounds in September 2000.
She said it was January or February 2001 when she finally tracked the sound to the judge.
“I stared at this plastic tube with his penis in it,” she said. “I was really shocked, and I was kind of scared because it was so bizarre.”
Foster said the judge was seated in a chair that was turned at an angle, and Foster said she could see him squeezing a plastic bulb and heard the “sh-sh” sound.
During a break in the trial, Foster said she ran downstairs to Theresa Clee’s office and closed the door.
“My face was red, and I told her he (Thompson) had a sex toy with his penis in it,” she said.
Foster said she heard the sound again in March 2001. “I saw him pull the tube off and lay it under the bench,” she said.
Foster said Clee stood by the courtroom door while Foster took pictures of the device with a Polaroid camera borrowed from the district attorney’s office.
“I shot three pictures of the pump, and I gave one to Clee and I took the other two home,” she said.
At that point, Special Prosecutor Patricia High showed Foster a small photograph of a penis pump and ask her if this was the picture she had taken in 2001.
Foster said yes and added the picture had been taken on March 13, 2001 in the criminal trial of Oklahoma vs. Gibbs.
“I did not want people to think I was crazy or lying,” she said. “I wanted to tell someone, but I did not know who to call.”
At first, Foster said she saw the judge using the pump only when someone in the courtroom was talking. But she said he later used it brazenly, even during rape and murder trials.
In 2002 a new sound system was installed in the courtroom complete with a microphone mounted on the bench. Foster said about the same time, Thompson began using a second pump that was much louder than the first one.
The first pump has been described as a plastic tube open at one end, and the other end was closed except for a small plastic hose connected to a bladder, much like the bulb on devices used to measure blood pressure.
The second pump had a clear plastic tube of about 8 to 10 inches long with one end open and the other end closed except for a plastic hose that ran to a calipered hand pump complete with a vacuum pressure gage.
Foster said she was certain that Sapulpa Police detective Mike Reed had heard the pump, and at one time she was urged to talk to the police department by one of her childhood friends, Stacy Young, the wife of a Sapulpa police officer.
“I did not want any part of it.” Foster said. “I did not want to be found dead in a ditch somewhere.
“I had a job where I was making $25,000 a year more than my husband, and I did not want to lose my job,” she said. “I never wanted this.”
Things began to unravel in 2004 when Foster was given a subpoena to give a deposition to Duke Logan, who was investigating the activities of Thompson for the state judicial review board in Oklahoma City.
Foster said she later was forced to testify before the judicial review board in Oklahoma City, and Thompson fired her and Zelma Hindman, his secretary bailiff the next day.
Foster said throughout the two years from 2001 to 2003 she began to mark her steno notes when she heard the operation of the pump.
Jurors and reporters also listened to about three hours of audiotapes of trials conducted by Thompson and heard the alleged audible sounds of the pump in operation during the jury trials.
High asked Foster to describe Thompson’s penis. At first Foster said it was flesh colored, but over time started looking “raw” and then finally purplish.
Samuel Dakil, a Norman urologist, in his testimony earlier offered the same description of a penis that had been subjected to a pump.
In cross-examination, defense attorney Clark Brewster challenged Foster’s testimony, noting instances where it differed from previous testimony she had given under oath.
When asked by the defense if Thompson had intended for her to see him, Foster replied, “I don’t know what he was trying to do.”
Foster faces more questioning by Thompson’s lawyers today. She is expected to be the state’s final witness in the trial, which began last week.
