TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Police called a press conference Tuesday to detail an ongoing investigation resulting in charges being filed on Tulsa Police Department personnel.

District Attorney Matt Ballard announced charges against Officer Ananiaus Carson and Lieutenant Marcus Harper, husband of Tulsa City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper.

“These charges confirm that no person is above the law,” says DA Ballard.

Carson and Harper are charged with Accessory to a Felony after allegedly covering up a shooting in August 2020.

“I am not going to stand idly by and let this department run rampant. I want the best for this department and this city and I’m going to ensure that... You can’t just violate the law and carry a gun and a badge,” says TPD Chief Wendell Franklin.

According to an affidavit, a then-Tulsa police officer’s personal car was used in the shooting at a convenience store near 61st and Peoria.

The affidavit says, one of the shooting suspects, Jonathan Jones, was driving Latoya Dythe’s Chevy Malibu when the shooting happened. At the time, Dythe was a Tulsa Police officer. Jones, is the brother of Dythe’s boyfriend Devon Jones.

An affidavit says, after the shooting, Dythe called Lt. Harper and Ofc. Carson to come look at her car, which reportedly had two bullet holes in the roof.

The affidavit says, while at Dythe’s apartment, Harper and Carson had a conversation with Jonathan and Devon Jones, at which point, Harper and Carson were told about the shooting.

They were also “advised the guns used in the shooting were present in Ms. Dythe’s apartment, and one of the suspects involved in the shooting was Jonathan Jones,” the affidavit says.

The affidavit further states both officers entered and searched Dythe’s vehicle.

They are also accused of telling Jones to get rid of the guns used in the shooting.

“Prior to leaving Ms. Dythe’s apartment, Officer Carson and Lieutenant Harper advised Jonathan Jones, Devon Jones, and Ms. Dythe not to tell anyone they were present at the apartment.”

The affidavit says, after Ofc. Carson and Lt. Harper left, “the Tulsa Police Department responded to Ms. Dythe’s apartment to take an official Tulsa Police Department Incident Report. During the preliminary investigation into the shooting, Ms. Dythe lied to officers about the events surrounding the shooting.”

The affidavit says she also didn’t tell responding officers that Ofc. Carson and Lt. Harper had been at her apartment.

It also states when Eddie Townsell, another suspect in the shooting, was later interviewed by the Tulsa Police Crime Gun Unit, he said there were initially shell casings on the dash and a spent cartridge casing in the back seat of Dythe’s car; however, after Dythe made the official report, officers who searched the car said they found no such evidence.

The affidavit adds the two officers destroyed, concealed and withheld evidence.

Lieutenant Marcus Harper has been with the department since January 1995. At the time of the incident, he was a supervisor for the Major Crimes Unit, which is in charge of evidence collection and crime scene investigations.

Ofc. Carson has been with the department since August 2006 and was assigned to the Riverside Division Patrol Unit at the time of the incident.

Lt. Harper and Ofc. Carson have been on paid leave since last August. As of November 2, 2021 they are on unpaid leave.

Both posted their $50,000 bond not long after they were arrested.

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