Former Edmond Police Department officer Timothy Owen will not return to his job as quartermaster with the agency despite a felony criminal case against him being dismissed about three weeks prior to a scheduled preliminary hearing.
Charged in April with engaging in sexual communication with a minor, Owen was placed on administrative leave by EPD, but a spokeswoman said Tuesday he will not return to the department.
“He was already set to retire a few weeks after his arrest,” EPD public information officer Emily Ward said.
Owen, 69, served as an Edmond police officer from 1986 to 2015, transitioning to an EPD quartermaster position that year.
According to a probable cause affidavit and three search warrant applications filed during the criminal investigation, Owen was accused of sending sexual text messages to a 14-year-old girl in his extended family. Although Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna requested dismissal of the felony charge “in the best interest of justice,” the case was dismissed by a district court judge without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled at a later date.
“Regardless of who you are, what you do for a living, or where you work, if you commit a crime in Oklahoma County and the DA’s office has the evidence to proceed with a prosecution, we will do so without hesitation,” said Brook Arbeitman, director of communications for Behenna. “Although the allegations against (Timothy) Owen are serious and troubling, we consulted with the minor victim’s immediate family as we pursued a case against him.
“With their direct input, it was determined it was not in the victim’s best interest to pursue prosecution at this time.”
Tommy Adler, Owen’s attorney, said Owen had been “slandered” by the allegations.
“People need to realize that there is often a big difference between the accusations people make and the actual evidence in a case. We’ve believed in Tim’s innocence from the beginning, and we hate that his good name and reputation were slandered by this unfortunate case,” Adler said. “We’re thankful to see justice done in his case, and this dismissal absolutely represents exactly that.”
Family member: Owen ‘thinks he can’t be touched’
Behenna’s office had filed the sole charge against Owen in May after police investigated the origin and details of an anonymous letter mailed to Edmond Police Chief J.D. Younger. According to a probable cause affidavit filed ahead of Owen’s April 10 arrest, Owen was the only EPD employee who matched the description provided in the letter, which investigators confirmed had been sent by the girl’s grandmother.
“We have not pursued this because we love his wife,” the grandmother wrote in the letter to Younger. “She is ill and will depend on half his retirement to live. She has no home now, parents recently deceased and no other family. He manipulated her parents and anyone else in his path. He has no conscience. He now lives in Oklahoma City jurisdiction but still thinks he can’t be touched.”
Owen and his wife, who emailed NonDoc on Dec. 31 with a screenshot showing the case had been dismissed, “recently sold their home and live in an RV, at an RV park in Oklahoma City,” according to the affidavit from EPD Lt. Mark Oak.
In a trio of search warrant applications filed April 18 for Owen’s American Coach Motorhome, his 2022 Jeep Wrangler and his electronics, EPD Detective Sgt. Jason Kushmaul outlined interviews with the girl, her father and her grandmother.
According to the search warrant applications, the grandmother said she introduced her granddaughter to Owen after she expressed a desire to become a police officer sometime around June 2022. As a result, Owen “was allowed to take [her] to purchase supplies for the police department and other work duties” as an EPD quartermaster.
Kushmaul wrote in the search warrants that the grandmother:
… advised she became suspicious about Tim’s intentions with [the girl] and stated they were texting a lot. [She] advised Tim Owen was purchasing [the girl] gifts, like a $140 pair of shoes, and giving her $100 bills. [The grandmother] stated she had a conversation with [her granddaughter] about their relationship and was advised Tim was talking to [her] in a sexual manner, as described in the letter to Chief Younger.
Kushmaul wrote that the girl’s grandmother and father reviewed the messages in late August 2022 and took her phone away Sept. 1 of that year.
“This testimony is corroborated by the phone records already examined,” Kushmaul wrote. “The text and call logs indicate that after three months of intensive contact, it ends abruptly on Sept. 1.”
Kushmaul said he and Oak interviewed the girl April 7:
[The girl] stated Tim Owen asked her if she was a virgin, if she ever had sex. When she told him no, he stated he wanted to be her first. [The girl] also advised Tim would tell her she looked hot and would comment on her body or the outfits she was wearing. [She] advised he would call and text her at all hours of the day and night. She stated he would tell her about how bad his wife (…) was and that she would not have sex with him. [The girl] stated she has not taken any nude pictures or videos of herself, but did take some with some of her outfits and did send one when she was wearing her camisole with shorts.
According to Kushmaul’s search warrant application, the grandmother “stated she received a copy of a letter in the mail from Tim’s wife” that “was from [the girl] to Tim.”
“In the letter, [the girl] tells him she cares for him and that she loves him,” Kushmaul wrote. “[The grandmother] also stated [the girl] told her that Tim offered to purchase a ‘burner phone’ for her, when she believed her phone was about to be taken away. She stated she confronted Tim about the relationship and the texting, around Aug. 31, 2022.”
During the girl’s interview with detectives, she said Owen would video chat her using Google Duo, where he would call her “hot” or “sexy.” According to the affidavit, she told detectives that Owen asked her to delete their messages. Additionally, he discouraged her from telling his wife about their correspondence, she told detectives.
The day after his April 10 arrest, Owen was released from the Oklahoma County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond. Owen’s preliminary hearing had been scheduled for Nov. 2, but Assistant District Attorney Sydney Nelson requested and received a continuance “for further negotiation” until Jan. 10, according to the court log.
(Correction: This article was updated at 8:40 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 3, to correct attribution of documents between EPD Lt. Mark Oak and EPD Sgt. Jason Kushmaul.)
