Former Oklahoma Commissioner’s Early Release Request Denied

An Oklahoma County judge has denied a request for former state Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher for early release from a private prison.

State Attorney General Drew Edmondson had opposed the 69-year-old Fisher’s request, which Fisher’s attorney says District Judge Kenneth Watson declined to grant.

Watson had sentenced Fisher to six months in the private lockdown facility in Tulsa after Fisher pleaded no contest to accepting bribes. Watson also ordered Fisher to spend four years and six months on probation after his release and pay $5,000 to a state victims’ compensation fund.

Fisher began serving his sentence on March 3.

Fisher, a Tulsa Democrat, was insurance commissioner for nearly six years before resigning in September 2004.

Information from: The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com