(Update: For more information on this story, including details that the Oklahoman had received similar complaints on another event Campfield covered, click here.)
We have learned that Zeke Campfield, The Oklahoman reporter who led the open records battle against the Governor's office, was arrested on assault and battery charges Sunday night at the Cox Convention Center. The arrest took place following graduation ceremonies for Moore's three high schools.
According to testimony from victims and eye witnesses, Campfield, while working as a photographer for the Oklahoman, intentionally bumped into female students from the tornado ravaged town while attempting to take photographs up their dresses. When confronted, Campfield allegedly deleted the photos from his camera the memory card was not in the camera. He tried to leave the scene, but was held by witnesses until police arrived.
Here are the police reports:
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Those charges are pretty sick and disgusting on their own accord, but they're made even worse when you consider he allegedly targeted Moore high school students. Remember, they held one super large graduation ceremony for all three high schools because of the tornado. As if the students were not dealing with enough already, now they have to worry about Merve the Perv creepers chasing them around.
I sent Zeke a Twitter DM for comment, but he never replied. He has posted a couple of things to Twitter since the arrest. One of them, some weird buddhist saying, has already been removed. Other than that, it's a bunch of older tweets. Most of them are questions regarding the Moore tornados that he covered for the Oklahoman. In one tweet, he makes the following statement about the Westboro church:
I guess we'll find out.
Anyway, this whole thing weirds me out. I met Zeke a couple of times while handling our own open records request with the Governor's Office. He seemed like an okay guy – Hell, we even made him a punchline on this site a couple of times – but I guess that goes to show how looks can be deceiving. According to a source within the Ogle Mole Network, this apparently isn't his first brush with the law. He has a somewhat of checkered past in his home state of Montana. Based on this report in the Missoulian, he received a 2003 deferred sentence on burglary charges. The felony conviction likely explains why he now goes by his middle name "Zeke," as opposed to Nathan or Nathaniel.
We'll have more on this sick, revolting and ultimately sad story as it develops.
