Panter gets full term

Pottawatomie and Lincoln County District Attorney Adam Panter has been notified by Gov. Kevin Stitt that he officially has been appointed to serve the four-year term of the late David Hammer.

Panter was appointed by the governor in October to serve out the term of former DA Allan Grubb who resigned effective Sep. 1.

Panter, after notification from the governor, said, “I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited and happy.

Hammer, who was elected over then incumbent Allan Grubb and another challenger Tanya Roland in the June 28 primary election, suffered a heart attack and died July 3, just a few days after the election.

Panter said the term of Grubb he is now serving ends Jan. 1 and that the new term begins Jan. 2. “Associate District Judge Tracy McDaniel (Pottawatomie County) will swear me in on that date and then on Jan. 3, I will participate in the swearing in of all the DA’s across the state in Oklahoma City.”

Panter and his First Assistant District Attorney Adam Kallsnick have been working on hiring additional staff in terms of more Assistant DA’s.

“We have acceptances from several Assistant DA’s out of Oklahoma County. All are very experienced in either sex crimes, child abuse, drug cases and violent crimes,” Panter noted.

Panter addressed a special investigative audit looking into the finances of former DA Grubb’s office by State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd that began earlier this year.

According to a source, that audit reportedly is still ongoing.

Panter stated, “There’s a lot of money that was mismanaged. I would like to know what it was spent on. I’d like to know what my office will have to pay back over the years. We’re working closely with the State Auditor’s Office to still determine that.”

He believes that all of his new assistants will be here by Jan. 1. They’re all people that I know, and have trust in and know me and want to help turn things around and get fixed. We need to get the DA’s office back to where it should be,” he stressed.

Panter pointed out that when the new assistant DA’s come on board, “we’ll have two new ones assigned to Lincoln County. Adam ( Kallsnick) and I will also help as needed.”

Currently, there is no District Attorney’s Task Force, he confirmed.

“The prior administration lost all the grant funding for it. I do intend to get it back up and running and it will be a more collaborative effort among all the law enforcement agencies in the two counties,” Panter explained.

“We’ve been going 100 miles per hour since the appointment earlier in the fall. We want to help supplement our support staff and get our grants back,” the DA emphasized.

“So far, the county commissioners from both counties, have been open to working with us and the willingness also. Everyone recognizes a strong district attorney’s office is a benefit to the two counties,” he thinks.

He also pointed out, “We’ve been working on a collection of older cases that hadn’t been reviewed or were dismissed and didn’t need to be.”