While responding to allegations from sex crime victims that some Edmond Police Department officers handled their cases indelicately, an EPD lieutenant revealed last month that the department unintentionally “failed” to include state-mandated sexual assault training for cadets in its 2024 police academy.
“I think our last academy, we failed to make that happen. That won’t happen this time,” Lt. Mark Oak told members of the Edmond Community Policing Board on Sept. 18. “I was told after the fact, and I was like, ‘We see the statutes, we need to do that. We have to do that.'”
EPD has faced criticism from women who allege their rights as victims were ignored and their claims were not always taken seriously during sex crime investigations.
The law at hand
Since 2008, Title 70, Section 3311.5 B has stipulated that Oklahoma law enforcement certification requires “a minimum of six hours of evidence-based sexual assault and sexual violence training.”
Moriah Norman, who was raped by a masseuse in 2021, has led that charge. At the ECPB’s August meeting, Norman spoke on behalf of a group of women and encouraged public discussion about how the department handles sexual misconduct cases.
That spurred Oak’s presentation at the September meeting where he acknowledged the 2024 policy academy omission. Norman took notes as Oak spoke, and she delivered her own remarks at the end of the meeting, saying it was difficult to wrap her head around what she had just heard.
“Police departments hosting academies are required to receive training by an attorney general-certified agency. YWCA Oklahoma City is the certified provider for Oklahoma County,” Norman told the board. “I’m concerned that the 2024 academy did not receive the required training. This is a clear violation of state-required training.”
Andrew Hill, public information manager for the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, said non-compliance with academy requirements can carry consequences.
“In general, if a peace officer had missed some requirements in the basic certification academy, and that training deficiency has not been rectified, then they could be subject to a suspension of certification until the minimum mandatory training was completed,” Hill said.
All seven members of EPD’s 2024 police academy were male. They ultimately received sexual assault response training months later, according to EPD public information officer Emily Ward.
“Our officers completed the annual state-mandated training in the fall of 2024 and most recently completed additional training in March of 2025,” Ward said.
Oak explained some of what that training entails at the Sept. 18 meeting. He said officers are taught to try to preserve as much evidence as they can, including evidence from the victim’s body, which he characterized as “a crime scene in and of itself.”
“When we talk about a response to sexual assault, it’s going to be a multi-disciplinary approach. We’re going to have law enforcement, we’re going to have medical people, we’re going to have prosecutors, we’re going to have the YWCA, [sexual assault nurse examiner] advocates associated with that. Everybody has their role within that process, and it’s extremely important that, if everybody does that, our hope is that we have a successful prosecution, and that means putting the bad guy in jail for a long time,” Oak said. “I will tell you, we don’t always get that done, and it really comes back to us. It’s not a matter of what we believe (…) It’s all about proof in the court of law. Just because we believe somebody — we can believe them all day long — we’ve got to be able to prove it.”
Pending case of Melvin Platt ‘makes no sense’
(Editor’s note: This article includes details about sexual misconduct allegations.)
Christy de la Torre believes her ex-boyfriend, Melvin Carlos Platt, is the type of bad guy Oak talked about. But after Platt was convicted in July 2024 for attacking her, and even after he seemingly violated his parole with a police chase months later, he has avoided being in jail for a long time.
Now a sex offender registered at an address in east Norman, Platt pleaded no-contest to assault with intent to commit a felony — sexual battery — and domestic assault and battery for his 2021 actions against de la Torre. She told police Platt attacked her outside her back door, held her hostage and photographed her against her will. While de la Torre said she now realizes she should not have tidied up her home before police arrived, she alleged the EPD officers who responded that night made little effort to examine the crime scene after making contact with her.
“They didn’t believe me, they didn’t take fingerprints,” de la Torre told NonDoc earlier this year. “They didn’t really tell me what my options were. They didn’t tell me anything. They just simply asked me one time, are you hurt? Do you need to go to the ER?”
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During the attack, de la Torre said Platt showed her photos and videos he had secretly taken of her and other women “in a braggadocious kind of way.” De la Torre said she managed to take Platt’s phone as he left, but he returned to retrieve it and assaulted her again, she said. The incidents occurred in the downstairs portion of her home while her children were asleep in their rooms on the upper floor.
Platt was originally charged with kidnapping, burglary and a peeping tom offense as well, but under a plea agreement with Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna, those three charges were dismissed.
For the two felony convictions, District Judge Cindy Truong sentenced Platt on July 24, 2024, to five years on one count and one year on the other, but she suspended all but the first two months of incarceration, which included time-served at the Oklahoma County Jail.
Platt was released from jail Sept. 25, 2024. Three weeks later, he was arrested Oct. 18 after leading police on a car chase in a vehicle with a stolen tag. The incident involved Platt entering Quail Springs Mall to change his shirt, and he discarded “a duffle bag containing some fake documents and a large amount of cash,” according to an OKCPD spokesman.
After filing charges against Platt for endangering others while eluding police and for possessing stolen property, Behenna moved to revoke Platt’s suspended sentence in November 2024. However, more than a year after his subsequent arrest and charges, the revocation motion has yet to be heard in court.
Instead, court records indicate that:
- Platt appeared in court Dec. 19 for an arraignment and pleaded not guilty, without a representative of Behenna’s office present;
- Platt again appeared Jan. 15 for a preliminary hearing conference, which was continued to Feb. 26 because his attorney was unavailable;
- Platt, his attorney and an assistant district attorney appeared in court Feb. 26 and set a May 1 preliminary hearing;
- On May 1, Platt waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was bound over for trial with a $2,000 bond and a July 9 date for formal arraignment;
- On July 8, Platt’s attorney, Scott Anderson, and an assistant district attorney agreed to continue the arraignment until Sept. 3; and
- On Sept. 3, the matter was continued to Dec. 1 for a hearing on Behenna’s motion to revoke Platt’s suspended sentence for his 2024 convictions.
Jacqui Ford, a defense attorney in Oklahoma County, entered an appearance in Platt’s case as de la Torre’s victim advocate under Marsy’s Law, a constitutional provision that outlines certain rights for victims. She said the fact Platt’s suspended sentence has not been revoked over the past year “makes no sense to me.”
“I cannot find a good-faith basis that he would not be in custody right now,” Ford said. “The eluding and the possessing and concealing of stolen property stands on its own as a basis to revoke him. He doesn’t have to be convicted. The law doesn’t demand that he be convicted before he be revoked.”
Beyond Platt’s subsequent arrest and his new pending charges, Ford and de la Torre told NonDoc that law enforcement agencies have been in possession of a trove of videos Platt allegedly made of himself having sex with women.
De la Torre said she became aware of those interactions after a woman who had also dated Platt — and who initially defended him — found the videos and contacted her after Platt had pleaded no contest in April 2024 but before he was sentenced in July 2024.
An August 2024 Lawton Police Department report released to NonDoc said de la Torre called and reported “that she has recently learned from a third party that Platt secretly recorded (video) their sexual activity in that hotel room and that the video evidence is currently in the possession of the Oklahoma City Police Department.”
A records request to OKCPD for all reports and videos involving Melvin Platt yielded only dash-camera and body-camera footage from his October 2024 police pursuit. EPD, however, ultimately received the purported videos.
Ward, the EPD public information officer, confirmed that a new investigation into Platt began in August 2024.
“The investigator on the case is Detective [Denton] Scherman,” Ward said Oct. 14. “Because it’s an open and active investigation, I can’t comment on anything regarding the district attorney’s office.”
Asked to review her office’s files on Platt, Behenna said Oct. 10 that the only charges police have presented to her office were the 2024 charges for endangering others while evading police and concealing stolen property.
“That’s the only case,” Behenna said. “We haven’t gotten anything else.”
Ward confirmed that digital evidence is being reviewed by EPD.
“In this case, the duration of the investigation is largely related to the significant amount of digital evidence that investigators received,” Ward said. “Reviewing and analyzing large volumes of digital data takes time, so the extended timeline likely reflects the effort required to thoroughly process and understand that information.”
De la Torre said more than 100 video files of Platt were included in the data sent to law enforcement.
“I haven’t seen the other videos except for my own,” de la Torre said. “I did not want to violate — I mean, do I dare say the privacy? I don’t even know what to call it, but I didn’t want to re-offend one more time Melvin Platt’s victims by viewing anyone else’s videos.”
De la Torre said she is confused why Behenna has not pushed to revoke Platt’s existing suspended sentence and why the other investigation into his actions has lingered for so long.
“There’s videos of me that he took without my consent (…) and I never knew about any of them. You see him setting up the video every single time,” de la Torre said. “If that is not incriminating evidence, I don’t know what you have (to have) to meet the definition of incriminating evidence. I don’t know why this guy is still out.”
As she “begs” for updates, de la Torre said she feels there is “no sense of urgency” from the police or the DA.
“If this were a serial killer, would you wait to find all the bodies before you incarcerate the person, or at least hold them for trial so that they couldn’t hurt someone else?” de la Torre said. “I begged them to do something, because as long as this man is out, women are at risk.”
Ford said she “can’t give you a good reason” about why Platt’s suspended sentence has not been revoked for the October 2024 police chase, because “he’s either eluding police or he’s not — he’s either possessing stolen property or he’s not.”
“They won’t talk to me as her advocate. They just refuse, so I can’t even give you a legal analysis of what’s going on except that they are just not prioritizing this. And I don’t know if it’s based out of fear because they know that we know what they knew at the time (he was sentenced). I don’t know what it is. He’s not a rich, powerful person. He’s not a politician,” Ford said. “They file charges on less every day. And I don’t know if it’s a challenge between Ms. Behenna’s office and local law enforcement or if it is some personal response to their frustration with me and Ms. de la Torre, who has been very verbal with expressing her frustration with them.”
Ford, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for Oklahoma County district attorney in 2022, said de la Torre and the public at large deserve an explanation.
“The only person who can push this to justice is Vicki Behenna and her agents, and they are not doing that,” Ford said. “I don’t want to be quoted as guessing why. I would encourage her to tell you why.”
