MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Wesley Wayne Hunter, Jr. age 28, of Yukon, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty to destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in a federal investigation.

The Government’s Superseding Indictment alleged that on July 20, 2023, while on duty in his official capacity as a Canadian County Sheriff’s Deputy, Hunter purposefully deactivated the mobile tracking system on his work phone, altering and falsifying the official record of his activities.  As part of his plea, Hunter admitted to deactivating the mobile tracking system while transporting a female pretrial detainee from Bryan County to Canadian County before pulling his patrol car off the transport route.  Hunter further admitted he did this to conceal and impede any future investigation into his subsequent criminal misconduct.

The charges arose from investigations by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Honorable John Russell, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing in Muskogee.  Hunter will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending a presentence investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Paladino and Richard Lorenz, in consultation with Trial Attorney Laura Gilson from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, represented the United States.

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