OK: Oklahoma woman busted for planting lewd images on husband’s phone

Over the years, we’ve criticized cops for disregarding the rights of innocent people. But it’s equally important to applaud cops for doing the right thing and remembering that they are supposed to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty.

One such example comes from Wynnewood, Oklahoma, where a woman reported her husband for having hundreds of child sex abuse images on his phone. But her story didn’t pass the smell test with police and Garvin County sheriff’s deputies. After further investigation, the woman is now in jail herself, and faces charges that could potentially put her in prison for life.

According to Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR-TV, the story began on April 18, when Angel Moore came to the Wynnewood Police Department with a potentially frightening story—she’d seen a man using his phone to download child sex abuse material. Watch KFOR’s coverage here:

As Moore’s story went, the man’s wife, Lacey Hucks, managed to get the phone away from her husband and gave it to Moore so she could alert police. The man was swiftly arrested, and Wynnewood police quickly sought the assistance of the Garvin County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies found over 800 child sex abuse images on that phone.

However, according to the McClatchy DC Bureau (non-paywalled version here), the story started unraveling that night when deputies noticed that the phone that the husband had on him at the time of his arrest didn’t have any content similar to what was on the phone Moore had given them. They only kept the husband in jail overnight, and got a warrant for Hucks’ phone—which showed that she and Moore had been discussing plans to make the police report before April 18.

According to an affidavit filed by Garvin County deputies, Moore quickly folded under questioning:

Moore had said previously that she did not know Hucks. But in an interview, she told a deputy that Hucks had encouraged her — even coached her — to deliver the false report against her husband.

“(Moore) admitted that she was never at (the husband’s) residence and never observed him with the phone,” the affidavit said, but Hucks had described the home to her. “(Moore) stated that she thought she was doing the right thing for (Hucks).”

Further investigation revealed that Hucks cooked up the scheme in hopes of winning a child custody battle. Garvin County Sheriff Jim Mullett told McClatchy that Hucks and Moore believed that if they could “get him out of the picture,” getting her kids back would only be a formality.

To that end, according to KFOR, Hucks and Moore scoured the dark web for child sex abuse images sometime in December 2021. McClatchy reports that deputies believe the two women downloaded these images within just a few days from the same website.

Now Hucks and Moore are the ones in hot water. Both were arrested on charges of conspiracy and knowingly reporting a false crime. Hucks faces an additional charge of aggravated possession of child sex abuse material; if convicted on that charge, she faces up to life in prison. 

In a colossal understatement, Mullet told KFOR that he found Hucks’ and Moore’s actions “very, very disturbing.” He also said that the husband was “upset, obviously.” 

Reading this story brought back memories of how I was framed up in a similar manner by my first wife 16 years ago. She got a girl who was staying with us at the time to claim I’d made her watch X-rated movies and threatened to beat her up if she told anyone. Two problems—she claimed she’d discovered this just hours after they arrested her son for making good on threats to beat me up, and I’d supposedly threatened the girl at a time when I was at work. My lawyer, a former DA here in Charlotte, knew within minutes of looking at the charge sheet that this was retaliation. When I gave him my time card for that week, I thought this would have been the end of it, as it would have been DNA-level evidence that this was false. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t: When my lawyer mentioned the time card, the DA handling the case wailed that they had a right to present their case. Never mind that with hard proof that I was at work at the time, there WAS no case. And because neither the DA nor the police were willing to put two and two together, I had to call pretrial release for five months until the case was finally thrown out in January 2007 after my first wife and her friends missed two court dates. Apparently someone told them that they were facing perjury and subornation of perjury if they peddled that story in court.

Had anyone actually done their jobs, this ordeal would have ended a lot sooner than January 2007, and my first wife and her cronies would likely be staring down the same barrel that Hucks and Moore are staring now. I’m really glad that Hucks’ husband didn’t have to endure the ordeal I had to endure; I’m still scarred by it today. Indeed, when I saw the story of Hucks’ and Moore’s depravity roll across my feed, it was all I could do to keep from crying.

Hucks and Moore thought they could get Hucks’ husband out of the picture—and now they may be the ones out of the picture for a long time. And all because police actually did their jobs. The cop or deputy who realized this didn’t pass the smell test deserves a medal.

Source