Prater Releases Statement Regarding Fired Assistant DAs

District Attorney David Prater released a statement Wednesday regarding the two assistant DAs who were suspended, and later terminated last week for alleged ethics violations.

Assistant District Attorneys Pam Kimbrough and Stephanie Miller were suspended on Monday, April 2, while Prater's office conducted an internal investigation.

Today Prater issued a press release going into greater detail on the reason the two ADAs were fired. The release stated that the alleged misconduct stemmed from the 1^st Degree Murder trial of Billy Thompson, in which Kimbrough and Miller did not disclose inconsistent information given to them by a witness to the original crime to the defense counsel.

4/4/2012 Related Story: Two OK Assistant District Attorneys Suspended For Alleged Misconduct

"Prosecutors must be different than any type of attorney," Prater said in the release. "We are duty-bound to seek justice, period…That duty includes protecting the constitutional and substantive rights of criminal suspects and criminal defendants."

The release went on to say, "To protect the integrity of this office, its dedicated employees and most importantly, our justice system, I have taken quick and definitive action…Though I am heart-broken [sic] over their loss to this office, my decision to terminate them was an easy decision to make."

The completed internal investigation has been forwarded to the Oklahoma Bar Association and the Oklahoma Attorney General's office to assign a special prosecutor to evaluate the investigation to possibly pursue criminal violations.