While original reports suggested police would be banned from parts of state and federal roadways, the order that was filed Wednesday in district court in Sallisaw essentially limits Moffett Police patrol to the original township.
Associate District Judge A.J. Henshaw granted the temporary injunction on Sept. 25 in a case that involves an argument over the legality of Moffett's 2001 annexation of U.S. Highway 64, State Highway 64D to Dora, old Highway 64, and other tracts of land.
The filing of the injunction on Wednesday lays out the details of the land that is off limits to Moffett Police, pending trial on Dec. 10.
In the motion filed Wednesday, seven tracts of land are described, including all three highways, as well as various rights of way.
"(the) Town of Moffett is restrained from exercising jurisdiction for any purpose whatsoever on the tracts of land described below. The town of Moffett's jurisdiction is restricted to its original municipal limits," according to the order.
"They roughly have less than a half-mile of roadway that they can patrol," Frank Sullivan III, a Sallisaw attorney who has gotten in on the annexation debate, said Thursday. Sullivan is referring to the part of old Highway 64 that goes through Moffett.
Sullivan said Moffett is not allowed on U.S. Highway 64 or State Highway 64D at all, and he said the public needs to know that.
Your TIMES was unable to reach a Moffett official for comment about the order.
The annexation issue has been debated over the years, but in January the town's then attorney asked for a declaratory judgment to confirm the town's annexation was done properly.
In response to the declaratory judgment request, Sequoyah County Commissioners in April 2006 hired Sallisaw attorneys Dan George and Fourth Scoufos to represent the county in the court case.
George and Scoufos rejected the declaratory judgment request and filed the motion for temporary injunctive relief, leading to Henshaw's Sept. 25 decision. Sullivan also entered the debate, representing Preston Cloud, the owner of Cheyenne Gentlemen's Club, who claims that he and his customers have felt harassed by Moffett Police.
Sullivan's research into the 2001 annexation led him to attempted annexations by the town that dated back to 1974 - annexations that were rejected by the county commissioners and by landowners at that time. Sullivan has even uncovered county meeting minutes from 1975 that shows an annex being denied by the county commissioners.
Sullivan argues that the town has been patrolling roads for over 25 years that were never theirs to patrol in the first place. Sullivan maintains that the earliest the town can make any claim to rights to patrol U.S. Highway 64 is 2001 - the annexation that is currently under debate in court.
