Channel 6

The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office filed new assault charges on Jason Nicholson back in June of 2008. Jason Nicholson is the notorious boxer/bouncer who was accused of killing Scott Bolton in 2004. Nicholson was represented by Zach Smith in that trial and acquitted of the charges in March of 2007. The newest petition charged him with two counts of assault and threatening a violent act. Zach Smith set it for jury trial and after two days of testimony, the jury deliberated for almost two hours before finding Nicholson Not Guilty.

Channel 6 ran a story around June 19th that was over two minutes long, that was completely slanted against Nicholson (see for yourself: http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=8528677). The majority of the coverage was old footage of Bolton's case, and they allowed Scott Bolton's ex-girlfriend to get on TV and publicly question the jury's verdict in 2007. Ashley Simms reported that she went to Zach Smith's office, but that he wasn't there. However, this is untrue, as Zach Smith was in his office all day long. They even reported only a portion of the Tulsa County Deputy's report, but they left out the fact that the same deputy also wrote in his report that the "victim" was extremely drunk and that it appeared to be mutual combat.

Zach Smith contacted Ron Harig, the News Director at Channel 6. Zach stated his case, claiming that Channel 6 had not given Zach or Jason an opportunity to give their side of the story and had poisoned a jury they hadn't even picked yet. Mr. Harig didn't seem to care then, not did he seem to care after Nicholson was acquitted. Zach contacted Mr. Harig again after the verdict and was again never given any opportunity to address the public nor able to present the truth about what happened.

It just goes to show you that if you only listen to the news, you will get whatever they want you to see and hear. People will argue over Scott Bolton's tragic death, regardless, and it was and is sad. However, this last incident was ridiculous. And no matter what is said or done, two separate juries of 12 people from this community have found a man not guilty, but it doesn't matter, because stations like Channel 6 don't want to televise the facts. Then again, News Channel 6 and Ron Harig evidently are not interested in getting the facts to the public, just their own agendas.