OKLAHOMA CITY Pamela Smith says she is simply seeking justice for a crime that happened decades ago.
In the 1990s, Smith says she was repeatedly raped by an Oklahoma state government official while she was in custody. After bringing her allegations against the official to light, Smith says she was assaulted with a glass salt shaker.
“This is not your run-of-the-mill rape case. This is a civil rights violation,” said James Johnson, with the New Black Panther Party of Tulsa.
Smith says that investigators found the salt shaker, and delivered it to officials in Tulsa. However, that salt shaker has since disappeared.
Supporters say Oklahoma authorities conducted an investigation into the allegations, but state officials say they found no evidence of rape in the case. Smith was ultimately unable to prove her case at the time.
The alleged rapist was never charged and was not removed from his position.
In October of 2018, supporters say Smith found new evidence in her case and immediately contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In 2019, she filed a civil suit against three state agencies. In July, the case was dismissed. However, she filed an appeal.
Supporters say they uncovered discrepancies while searching through online court records for the case.
Smith’s supporters say that the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office didn’t follow rules or a court order to respond to Smith’s case by a deadline. Instead, they claim that someone at the office backdated documents in order to appear to follow the rules.
“There are some state officials that need to be locked up. They know what they’ve done. They’ve lied for 23 years. They’ve backdated documents,” said Johnson.
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office denies those allegations.
Smith also claims that online records regarding her case disappeared from the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system.
Smith’s supporters say the truth will be revealed, even though they claim state leaders have tried to cover up the crime for years.
“I don’t care what I have to go through. I will not give up,” Smith said.
News 4 reached out to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and received the following statement:
“We take allegations of sexual assault very seriously. Any investigation done in Ms. Smith’s case was handled during a different attorney general’s administration. Her accusations against our office, in particular, are fundamentally untrue. Our office has no authority or ability to take information off the PACER website. Additionally, the information she is claiming we destroyed is still available on PACER. She was also mailed a physical copy,” said Oklahoma Attorney General’s Communications Director Alex Gerszewski.
