By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 61-year-old Yale man has been accused of setting fire to grass in and around Eagle Road and Airport Road in rural Payne County while intoxicated, in a case investigated by Yale Assistant Police Chief Ken Moore.
If convicted of third-degree arson, Stephen Douglas Farmer could be given as much as a 15-year prison term and a $10,000 fine. If convicted of public intoxication, Farmer could be given up to a 30-day jail term and a $100 fine, court records show.
Farmer was released from the Payne County Jail on $2,500 bail on Oct. 21, the day after his arrest at 8:30 pm, court records show. Farmer was scheduled to appear on a November preliminary hearing docket, for which a court minute has not yet been posted.
A sheriff’s deputy from Tulsa County notified the Yale assistant police chief, “he witnessed Stephen Douglas Farmer knelt down trying to light grass on fire with a white BIC lighter west of Eagle Road on Airport Road, the north side of,” and detained him, an affidavit alleged.
“I was advised by Yale Police Chief Phillip Kelly that he spoke to (Payne County) Sheriff Joe Harper, and he gave us the authority to respond to this call,” outside the city limits of Yale, Moore wrote in his affidavit.
“When I spoke with Mr. Farmer, he told me he was trying to put an ember out and was going to light a cigarette. I looked and I did not see a cigarette near Mr. Farmer. Mr. Farmer told me he was going 25 mph when he saw the ember.
“It is unlikely that Mr. Farmer could have seen any embers at any speed due to his intoxication. I still cannot see how a cigarette lighter could assist in putting out an ember of any size. I observed Mr. Farmer have thick slow speech, bloodshot watery eyes, and an odor of alcoholic beverage,” Moore alleged in his affidavit.
“Mr. Farmer had a truck that was in the road with the motor running and a small dog in the back seat. There was an open Budweiser Chelada, what is known as a ‘Tall Boy,"” the affidavit alleged.
The truck was blue to light blue but had a heavy dusting of dirt making it appear darker in color, the affidavit said.
“There was a dark crew cab truck seen in several areas where grass fires started on this day, to include going north on Eagle Road,” the affidavit alleged.
“Chief Kelly told me that Payne County requested us to take this case,” Moore wrote in his affidavit.
