66 Facts About Bill LaFortune

William LaFortune was born on August 23,1957 and is an American politician who served as the 37th Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2002 to 2006 and is currently a district judge in Tulsa County.

Bill LaFortune's grandfather, Joseph Aloysius Bill LaFortune, was an oil executive and a noted philanthropist in Tulsa.

Bill LaFortune attended Cascia Hall Preparatory School, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Tulsa College of Law.

Bill LaFortune served as district attorney of Tulsa County, as a special judge for Tulsa County, and as Assistant Attorney General for the state of Oklahoma.

Bill LaFortune personally selected world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli as the architect for the venue and his outstanding achievement that is the BOK Center.

Bill LaFortune was elected to a four-year term as District Judge for the 14th Judicial District of the State of Oklahoma in 2014.

Judge Bill LaFortune brought his legacy of public service to the bench in 2015.

Bill LaFortune has presided over a full-time criminal felony docket since that time.

Bill LaFortune has handled approximately 15,000 felony case docket settings over that period.

Bill LaFortune has presided over approximately 60 felony jury trials, including trials of multiple defendants.

Bill LaFortune was affirmed, and new law was made, as to the application of the Uniform Interstate Detainers Act.

Administratively, Judge Bill LaFortune was elected by his fellow criminal division judges as Chief of the Criminal Division within just his first year of taking office.

Bill LaFortune has championed alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenses, specifically Tulsa's Women in Recovery Program.

Bill LaFortune served as a licensed legal intern for the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office in the spring of 1983 during his third year of law school.

Immediately after his graduation from the University of Tulsa College of Law, Bill LaFortune was hired as a contracts administrator for Telex Computer Products, Inc He was later promoted to Senior Contracts Administrator, acting as second in command of the contracts administration department that tripled in size during his tenure.

Bill LaFortune represented the State Board of Osteopathic Examiners and the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, prosecuting licensees of these Boards against whom formal complaints had been filed.

Bill LaFortune handled all civil litigation and appellate work for these state agencies before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The Oklahoma Attorney General later tapped Bill LaFortune to organize and impanel Oklahoma's first multi-county grand jury.

In November 1988, Bill LaFortune was appointed as an Assistant District Attorney for Tulsa County by then District Attorney David Moss.

Bill LaFortune was initially assigned to the Juvenile Division of Tulsa County District Court, prosecuting only child abuse and neglect cases in juvenile court, rising to Chief of the District Attorney's Juvenile Division, supervising assistant district attorneys and support staff in that division.

Bill LaFortune acted in that capacity as one of two lead prosecutors on a felony trial team, responsible for representation of the State of Oklahoma at jury trial, non-jury trial, motion and sentencing criminal dockets.

Bill LaFortune was chosen by the Attorney General to accomplish this task.

In June 1993, Bill LaFortune sought appointment by then elected Tulsa County district judges as a special judge.

Bill LaFortune was unanimously elected to this position by the district judges and immediately assumed his duties as a special judge.

Bill LaFortune later was assigned to domestic order, mental health and juvenile dockets.

Bill LaFortune applied for the position and in December 1995, he was appointed by then Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating as the Tulsa County District Attorney.

In June 1998, Bill LaFortune was offered, and accepted, a partnership at the prestigious Tulsa law firm of Norman Wohlgemuth Chandler and Dowdell.

Bill LaFortune's practice focused on land use planning and zoning matters before the City of Tulsa Board of Adjustment and the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission.

Bill LaFortune represented numerous clients in every type of civil litigation.

Bill LaFortune served as General Counsel for the Tulsa Housing Authority and even represented the Philadelphia Housing Authority in a class action matter filed in Oklahoma.

In 2010, Bill LaFortune established a successful solo law practice, again specializing in land use planning and zoning as well as all varieties of civil litigation.

Judge Bill LaFortune has presided over numerous jury trials and cases involving child abuse and neglect.

Bill LaFortune was affirmed on appeal by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Demesmin to 2 consecutive life terms and 3 concurrent 25-year prison sentences.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Jones to 175 years in prison, to be served consecutively.

Judge Bill LaFortune sentenced Jennings to 115 consecutive years in prison.

In sentencing Cato to more than 200 consecutive years in prison, Bill LaFortune noted that Cato had consistently tried to minimize, justify or otherwise rationalize his actions against the boys, who were ages 7 to 17.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the jury trial of Paul Owen Hamilton, who was convicted of distribution of child pornography and aggravated possession of more than 100 images of child pornography.

Bill LaFortune was affirmed on appeal by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in a published decision.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Stanley to a 20-year term, 15 years after that on probation.

Judge Bill LaFortune sentenced Hyden to 20 years in prison and Crawford to life in prison.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the child neglect case of Victor Castro-Huerta and Christina Calhoun.

Bill LaFortune followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced the convicted serial rapist to 365 consecutive years in prison.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the case involving Defendant Christina Cantrell.

Bill LaFortune entered a blind guilty plea to 2 counts of first degree manslaughter, driving under the influence, causing great bodily harm and other related charges.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the case of Defendant Whitney Tatum Wheeler.

Bill LaFortune was charged with 1 count of first-degree manslaughter and 1 count of driving under the influence and causing great bodily injury.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over Defendant Christopher David Mitchell's second-degree felony murder case.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Mitchell to life in prison after he entered a blind guilty plea.

Judge Bill LaFortune has presided over many jury trials in first-degree murder cases.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Ashton to 2 consecutive life without parole terms for the murders.

Bill LaFortune was affirmed on appeal by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in a published decision.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the jury trials of David Ruble and Travis Lozada, who were convicted of felony murder first-degree in the random slaying of a 14-year-old girl who was innocently traveling home with her family along the Gilcrease Expressway after a day of recreation at Keystone Lake.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Ruble to a life term plus 10 years and Lozada to life in prison without parole plus 10 years.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the trial of Frankie Jackson Jr.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Jackson, who was convicted of felony murder by a jury, to life in prison and Savory, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, to life in prison.

Knapper was 16 at the time Bill LaFortune imposed the sentence.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the jury trial of Kenneth Hopkins who was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a woman who was about 8 months pregnant with a boy who would have been her second child with Hopkins.

Pursuant to the jury's sentencing recommendations, Bill LaFortune sentenced Hopkins to 2 consecutive life-without-parole terms for the killing of the 19-year-old woman and their unborn child.

In May 2016, the district attorney's office asked Judge Bill LaFortune to hold Vernon Majors without bond or set bond to $300,000 for charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon case in which Majors is accused of running over Haifa Jabara, an Arab-American Christian, with a car in September 2015.

Bill LaFortune was the judge for the trial of Stanley Vernon Majors, accused of killing his neighbor, Khalid Jabara, on August 12,2016.

Judge Bill LaFortune presided over the jury trial of Ronnie Dean Haskins, who was convicted of fatally stabbing a man in his home in 2013.

Bill LaFortune sentenced Haskins to 2 consecutive life sentences, one of which was without parole, upholding the jury's recommendation.

Bill LaFortune followed the jury's recommendation in imposing a life sentence.

Bill LaFortune has been active in local bar association activities, having served on the Tulsa County Bar Association Professionalism Committee and Board of Directors.

Bill LaFortune noted that, at his instigation, the University of Tulsa Psychology Department had begun a pilot program to address the issue.