Posted on 09/04/2009 8:34:03 AM PDT by Star Traveler
By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 9/2/2009 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 9/2/2009 5:05 AM
State troopers arrested an illegal immigrant Tuesday in the hit-and-run death of a longtime bicyclist and clinical psychologist, authorities said.
Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres, 28, is accused of striking Beverly Jean Duffield, 74, of Tulsa with a sport utility vehicle and then driving away, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said.
Duffield was killed Tuesday morning while riding her bicycle near U.S. 75 and the 1700 block of Southwest Boulevard — an area where she was known to ride frequently.
Cherie White, a longtime friend who was at Duffield's home Tuesday evening, said it was not the first time Duffield had been struck by a vehicle while riding a bike.
About five or six years ago, she was hit while riding on 41st West Avenue. She suffered a head injury and bore an extensive scar on her right thigh from that crash, White said.
"She was always trying to educate cyclists about cycling and being aware of their surroundings and being safe," White added.
She said Duffield had just called her husband, Jack Duffield, about five minutes before she was struck Tuesday morning to tell him that she was getting ready to start her ride.
"Ever since the first accident, she wanted to call him and tell him when she started and when she was done to let him know she was OK," White said.
Brown said a witness told troopers that a Chevrolet Suburban hit Duffield when both were heading south at the B and R Service Road and 17th Street near Southwest Boulevard.
Medics who responded about 7:20 a.m. pronounced Duffield dead at the scene with massive traumatic injuries, EMSA spokeswoman Tina Wells said.
The vehicle that struck her had fled the scene. Brown said troopers who were investigating the hit and run found at 31st Street and Southwest Boulevard the 2002 Chevrolet Suburban that they believe Alvelais-Torres was driving.
After finding the vehicle, they were led to Alvelais-Torres, who was arrested about 2:30 p.m. on complaints of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, failure to stop at the scene of a fatal accident, failure to stop at a stop sign, operating a vehicle without a driver's license and not having insurance, according to an arrest report.
Brown said Alvelais-Torres is an illegal immigrant who has been living in Tulsa.
Duffield was born in Cassville, Mo., but had lived in Tulsa for 55 years. She attended the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma and was a clinical psychologist.
Jack Duffield had put her through school with income from his business, Duffield Plumbing, from which he retired about 20 years ago, White said.
The couple has a daughter, Regenia Bean, White said.
"She always loved Tulsa so much" White said of Duffield. "She was well recognized throughout the community and always strived for people to get politically involved whether they were Democrats or Republicans."
Michael Brose, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Tulsa, said that "Beverly has been an incredible human being and professional clinician in this community for many, many years and has served many families and individuals.
"It is an incredible loss to the community and, I know, the entire mental health community."
Todd Swain, manager of Bicycles of Tulsa, said he had known Duffield about 13 years. He said she frequently rode in the area where she was hit.
"She was an awesome lady, full of life. She was a firecracker," Swain said.
Adam Vanderburg, who owns Lee's Bicycles and the Trek Bicycle Store, said she was a longtime customer.
"Cycling was in her blood," he said. "I think it was kind of her own therapy."
Malcolm McCollam, an attorney and member of the Tulsa Wheelmen bicyclists association, said he often saw Duffield riding and that she usually rode alone.
McCollam said it is unusual that the cycling community in Tulsa would suffer a loss so soon after another recent tragedy.
Three area bicyclists were hit from behind on the shoulder of Oklahoma 51 near 165th West Avenue west of Sand Springs on June 9.
Christa Voss, 33, of Owasso and Matthew Edmonds, 34, of Tulsa were killed in that crash. The third bicyclist, John Moore of Broken Arrow, survived.
Tausha Borland of Sand Springs is charged with two counts of first-degree manslaughter plus two other counts — leaving the scene of a fatal accident and DUI involving a personal injury. She is free on bond and awaits an Oct. 26 preliminary hearing.
Customers were coming by Vanderburg's stores throughout the day Tuesday, talking about the loss of another cyclist to a traffic accident.
"People are still absorbing it. Everyone feels like they have been kicked in the gut again," Vanderburg said.
World staff writer Althea Peterson and World photographer Stephen Pingry contributed to this story.
It's a liberal armpit (politically).
I was assigned a class project and suggested to the rest of the team that we represent the NRA. A journalist team member immediately said she would decline. I sarcastically suggested we represent Amnesty International. She could do that one.
I hate liberals.
Deep pockets, anyone? I might be thinking about suing the refinery that employed him, just for the exercise.
By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 9/2/2009 1:04 PM
Last Modified: 9/2/2009 7:08 PM
Beverly Duffield was a little woman, but she made a big impact on everyone she knew, her friends said.
Duffield, an avid cyclist and healthy-lifestyle advocate, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver near 17th Street and a U.S. 75 exit ramp as she was starting her morning ride Tuesday.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers later arrested Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres — a man they described as an illegal immigrant. An affidavit for a warrant to search Alvelais-Torres’ Chevrolet Suburban states that he admitted to a state trooper that he was the driver who hit Duffield.
The affidavit, signed by Trooper Randall Clark, indicates that Trooper Joel Franks located the Suburban — which had a damaged front-end — in a Sinclair Refinery parking lot near 31st Street and Southwest Boulevard. Franks then found Alvelais-Torres at work at the refinery, the document says.
Duffield was 74 years old, but many people who knew her casually said they would have guessed she was much younger. Even the medics who responded to the crash guessed that she was in her late 50s to early 60s.
Duffield, a clinical psychologist, was well-known in the cycling community, among mental health professionals and at St. John Medical Center, where she frequented the health center and volunteered.
Joy Kordis was her office manager and personal assistant for 13 years until Duffield retired about two years ago.
“She was like a second mother to me, and she was just good person. I could write a book about all of the things that she did for people,” Kordis said.
Duffield also will be sorely missed in her church community, said the Rev. Bob Lawrence, minister of Community of Hope United Church of Christ, 2545 S. Yale Ave.
Lawrence said church members gathered at the sanctuary Tuesday evening to try to deal with the shock of Duffield’s death.
The church was open for anyone who wished to share memories or light a candle in her honor on Wednesday and will be open again from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Lawrence said.
“People are welcome to come by, light a candle, spend some time in silence or whatever they need to do,” he said.
Lawrence has been the church’s minister for only three weeks but said Duffield was one of the first people to approach him and welcome him to the church, “in truly a Beverly kind of way.”
“In just the limited time that I knew her, she made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. As we began sharing stories about her last night, I learned that I was not the only one. She had a way of doing that with everyone.
“As a new pastor, you are not always really sure that you are getting across what you want to get across during services. But Beverly was the one who I could always count on to be looking back and grinning at me, nodding her head.”
A woman who was designated by Duffield’s husband, Jack Duffield, to speak on behalf of the family told the Tulsa World that Beverly Duffield had also suffered severe injuries several years ago when she was struck by another vehicle while riding her bike.
But that did not affect her commitment to exercising and cycling.
Darin Wade, operations coordinator at the St. John Siegfried Health Club, said Duffield had been a member of the club since it opened in 1988.
“She was one of those people who would be here pretty much every day with the exception of maybe Sunday,” Wade said.
Even though more than 20 years have passed, Duffield looked the same the entire time he knew her, he said.
Although most people described her as a “tiny little lady,” Wade said he saw her jump in to help people using free weights on more than one occasion.
State Rep. Lucky Lamons, D-Tulsa, knew Duffield from the cycling community as well as from the St. John health center.
“I saw her almost every day when she was out riding. She was always by herself,” said Lamons, who also is a cyclist. “My heart just sunk when I heard it was her.”
Laurie Thomas, director of the auxiliary program at St. John Medical Center, said Duffield had volunteered in many different hospital units, including the surgical waiting room and emergency department, during the past year or so.
“No matter what the circumstance, Beverly always kept it light and lively,” Thomas said.
Duffield brought her experience as a psychologist to her work in the stressful situations she found at the hospital, Thomas said.
She brought that same positive energy where ever she went, her minister said.
“That was the energy she had, like a golden retriever. No matter what happened, she was full of optimism and would come back at you with a tail wagging,” Lawrence said.
Well, you may be surprised to hear how conservative that Oklahoma, including Tulsa voted this last election then... :-)
All the counties in Oklahoma voted for the Republican ticket. And that included the two major metropolitan areas of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Usually you’ll hear of major metro areas going liberal in these Presidential elections, while other areas vote conservative.
But, not Tulsa, as it voted conservative with the rest of the state. In fact, the State of Oklahoma was the only state in the United States which had all the counties on the state going for the Republican ticket. And in addition to that, Oklahoma had the highest percentage of popular vote for the Republican ticket of any state in the United States.
That doesn’t sound real liberal to me... :-)
Besides, Tulsa didn’t get the nickname for being the “Buckle of the Bible Belt” for nothing, ya know...
I am surprised the liberal Tulsa World allowed the writer to use the term “illegal alien”, they are usally so PC. I wrote to the news department of local radio station(the one that airs Rush and Hannity) for repeatedly calling the driver a undocumented worker.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
By P. Solomon Banda
Denver - Attorneys for Oklahoma went before a federal appeals court Monday to defend a law that requires companies doing business with the state to use a federal database to verify their workers and contractors are eligible to work in the U.S.
Sections of the law were blocked by a federal judge in Oklahoma in June after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others challenged it, saying the "E-Verify" program is unreliable and unfairly imposes penalties on employers.
State attorneys told a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday that Congress didn't bar states from requiring employers to use E-Verify.
The appeals court judges did not indicate when they might rule.
The electronic system allows employers to quickly verify a worker's eligibility through a computer with an Internet connection using information from an I-9 form, which is a required from everybody working in the U.S.
"Isn't it a lot simpler" to used the computer system instead of a paper form that takes days to mail, Judge Paul J. Kelly quizzed Carter Phillips, an attorney representing the chamber. "Isn't it the same database?"
"I don't understand what the big problem is, quite frankly," Kelly said.
Congress created E-Verify as part of an immigration bill in 1996 as four-year pilot program in five states, but later expanded it to all 50 states in 2003. Most states don't require employers to use it.
[ ... ]
I am surprised the liberal Tulsa World allowed the writer to use the term “illegal alien”, they are usally so PC.
Well..., you are talking about a conservative area here... Some would say that the so-called "liberals" here are conservatives in comparison to how the term is used elsewhere... LOL...
A judge in Maryland has upheld a rule requiring federal contractors to verify the legal immigration status of workers through an electronic system, E-Verify, run by the Department of Homeland Security. In a ruling late Wednesday, the judge, Alexander Williams Jr. of Federal District Court, dismissed a lawsuit by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and several human resources associations, who argued that the system imposed unreasonable costs on employers. The rule requires federal contractors to check the immigration status of current workers as well as new hires. The decision clears the way for the rule to take effect on Sept. 8....
Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres is an illegal immigrant who has been living in Tulsa.
Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres is an illegal immigrant who has been living in Tulsa.
You know, protesting, complaining, voting, border watches, petitions, books, news reports, Statewide laws and full length movies do not seem to be getting the point across to the ØverLords in dee-cee.
What have we not done regarding this plague on American Citizens?
By Legal News on June 15, 2009 1:06 PM
The Oklahoma legislature has passed a new law that allows the state to deport illegal immigrants who are currently serving prison sentences for non-violent crimes.
The Oklahoma Criminal Illegal Alien Rapid Repatriation Act, which easily passed in both houses of the Legislature, could potentially save the state at least $4 million in its first year.
Under the new law, non-violent criminal offenders who are in the country illegally can be considered for deportation as long as they have served one-third of their sentence. The law also prohibits private prisons in Oklahoma from housing federal detainees, and requires those facilities to get approval from the state Department of Corrections for any new construction plans.
Rep. Randy Terrill, the state representative who authored the bill, said the goal of the new law is to return responsibility to the federal government to pay for housing illegal immigrants, which Terrill says has been shifting to the state governments.
Currently the state of Oklahoma pays approximately $19,800 to house a prisoner. According to the Corrections department, 230 inmates now being held in the state would be eligible for deportation under the new law.
According to Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for the central region of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the transferring of inmates could begin next month as long as final deportation orders are issued. Without a deportation order from the federal government, an inmate cannot be deported.
How much could his BAC have declined from 7:20 am to 2:30 pm, assuming he was at the .08% threshold at the time of the accident?
Published July 07, 2008 10:44 pm
By Wally Kennedy
During a ceremonial signing of a new immigration bill on Monday in Joplin, Gov. Matt Blunt said the state of Missouri could not wait for the federal government to respond to what has become a serious national problem.
“This significant legislation will protect the safety of Missouri families and the security of our jobs from the threat of illegal immigration, and I am pleased that Missouri’s legislators responded to my call for action where Washington has failed to act,” Blunt said.
He said the United States is, for the most part, a nation of immigrants and that we “welcome legal immigrants to come here, learn our language and work here,” but that the rule of law with regard immigration must be enforced.
House Bill 1549 enacts into law policies Blunt proposed to crack down on illegal immigration, including prohibiting illegal immigrants from obtaining a license to drive. A press release issued by Blunt’s office characterized the bill’s provisions “as some of the strongest legislation in the country to fight illegal immigration.”
Flanked by state legislators from across Southwest Missouri, Blunt said the bill requires verification of lawful presence in this country for every individual arrested for incarceration.
It also prevents the creation of sanctuary cities in the state; requires verification of legal employment status of every public employee; allows for cancellation of state contracts for contractors if they hire illegal immigrants; requires public agencies to verify the legal status of applicants before providing welfare benefits; criminalizes the transportation of illegal immigrants for exploitative purposes; and enacts provisions to punish bad-acting employers who hire illegal immigrants.
But the fallout could have serious economic consequences for the state, according to Adolfo Castillo, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Castillo said he has not had an opportunity to read the bill, but understands that it mirrors similar legislation adopted last year in Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma HB 1804 affected the Oklahoma economy. It caused a mass exodus of legal and illegal immigrants that left the state,” he said. “It left a lot of companies without workers and the state received less revenue from the Hispanic community. It cost the state revenue from local businesses.”
Whether the Missouri legislation causes the same thing to happen here, he said, remains to be seen.
“That’s an unknown. But we have a pretty basic idea of what happened in Oklahoma and the Missouri legislation is the same thing,” he said. “There is the potential for an economic impact in this area because of the poultry and pig productions. Those companies hire a lot of immigrants.”
Castillo, like Blunt, said the federal government had an opportunity to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
“It offered a workable solution, but in the end it was defeated. The guest-worker program that would have been part of the solution is not a reality today,” he said. “People like to simplify this issue, but it is a very complex issue. There are workers willing to work and business people who need these people. Instead of finding a way to make this legal, they are punishing them both.”
But Castillo said the bill has been signed into law.
The decision clears the way for the rule to take effect on Sept. 8....
Just a few days too short for this lady bicyclist...
Why not mention where this illegal was employed? His employer should be locked up in an adjoining cell. If you harbor these criminals in your place of business, you ought to be considered an accomplice when they commit other crimes.
Passing a law mandating this would do wonders in drying up the market for illegal alien labor in this country.
Religiously, Tulsa is overwhelmingly Protestant. The city is located in a geographic strip of high church attendance and widespread beliefs in biblical Christianity often called the "Bible Belt", and its history as a hub for televangelists such as Oral Roberts along with a predominance of Christian beliefs and values often lead Tulsa to be considered the "buckle of the Bible Belt." In 2000, the metropolitan area of Tulsa had 364,533 Protestant Christians, including 166,550 Southern Baptists and 78,221 Methodists. Meanwhile, the area had 43,854 Catholics, 2,650 Jews, 2,200 Muslims, and 1,590 Unitarian-Universalists, which includes the largest Unitarian Universalist one-church congregation in the world.
Wikipedia link ...
In fairness, both papers do a darn good job of covering local news, unlike two other dailies which leap to mind, the NYT and the Boston Globe. And the TV stations do an impressive job, too.
Yes, they do. And in Tulsa, if you want to know what is happening, what is going on, what events to go to, any local news, etc..., you're gonna have to look at the Tulsa World. I like it and it's a good paper.
Besides, my parents were featured (as a news article) in the Tulsa World when they got married here in Tulsa, way back when (right after the war...). :-)
I thought taht if you are doing something illegal and someone is killed by your actions then you get charged with murder. Being here illegally should qualify.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.