Judge denies sentence reduction for former Tulsa officer

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A federal judge has ruled that a former Oklahoma police officer who is serving a 10-year prison sentence following his 2011 conviction in a police corruption trial isn’t entitled to a reduced term.

The Tulsa World reports that U.S. District Judge John Dowdell rejected a request for release from former Tulsa Police Cpl. Harold R. Wells on Wednesday. Wells filed his motion in May 2015.

In the request, Wells argued that a testimony he gave during an evidentiary hearing in 2012 helped free a man found to be wrongly convicted. But Dowdell said the federal government didn’t seek a modification to Wells’ sentence, a requirement for him to be able to consider the request.

Wells is scheduled for release in February 2020. He’s being held in a federal facility in Minnesota.