Fomer Oklahoma State basketball coach Sean Sutton, who has admitted an addiction to pain killers, was arrested by agents for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Thursday in Stillwater on complaints of attempting to possess controlled dangerous substances, according to a story posted Friday morning by the Tulsa World.
OBNDD spokesman Mark Woodward told The Worlds that Sutton remained jailed Friday. It was not certain when Sutton, 41, might be arraigned in court.
Woodward said he expects charges to be filed today.
Sutton has been a familiar sight this basketball season at Big 12 games, along with his father Eddie Sutton.
In addition to the controlled substance charge, Woodward said a charge of using a communication device (a cell phone) to commit a felony would also be filed.
Woodward said Sutton has admitted to OBNDD agents that he is addicted to painkillers. Woodward said drugs were obtained last year from several doctors by fraudulent means, and more recently through shipments from sources in the states of Washington and New York.
A shipment that arrived in Stillwater on Thursday was intercepted and found to contain Adderall and Clonazepam, Woodward said.
Adderall, an amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, is used to treat narcolepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to drugs.com.
Clonazepam is in a group of drugs called benzodiazepines. It is prescribed to control seizures and panic disorders and is in the same drug family as Valium, Xanax and Ativan.
"When Sean Sutton arrived to pick it up, our agents confronted him again," Woodward said today.
"He confessed and said he was ordering medications to support his addiction. We interviewed him throughout the evening, and then late last night transported him to the Stillwater jail and he was booked for attempting to possess (controlled dangerous substances) and use of a communications device to facilitate a felony."
"We have authorities in (Washington and New York) assisting us with this," Woodward said. "(Sutton) may face an additional charge or charges of obtaining (drugs) by fraud dating back to those August multiple visits . . . to doctors, and failing to disclose to those doctors that he was seeing other physicians."
Sutton's activities have been investigated for several months, Woodward indicated.
Last fall, "we did confirm that (Sutton) was going to multiple doctors and unlawfully obtaining painkillers," Woodward said. "We confronted him and he admitted to it. He confessed that he had a prescription-drug addiction, and this is what he was doing. He agreed to go to treatment (last fall), and he did go to treatment. When he got out, he continued to stay in touch with our agents and demonstrate that he was trying to commit to a life of sobriety.
"Over the last few weeks in January, our agents had lost contact with Sean. At the same time, we started getting alerted by other sources that he was routinely ordering and illegally possessing shipments of controlled drugs from out-of-state sources. . . . But (on Thursday), one of these packages arrived in Stillwater. It was intercepted and inspected by the shipping company. They found a single bottle containing at least four different prescription medications."
In 1990-92, Sutton was a point guard on OSU teams coached by his father, Eddie. For 13 seasons, the younger Sutton served as an assistant on Eddie Sutton's staff.
In 2006, Eddie Sutton was involved in an auto accident in Stillwater. Payne County court documents revealed that at the time of the accident, his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Eddie Sutton pleaded no contest to aggravated drunken driving, driving left of center and speeding. He was placed on probation for one year, and the incident led to his retirement from the head-coaching position.
Sean Sutton was promoted to the head-coaching position in May 2006. After two seasons, during which the Cowboys were 39-29 with two National Invitation Tournament first-round defeats, Sutton and OSU athletic director Mike Holder agreed that Sutton would resign.
With three years remaining on his contract, Sutton collected a net settlement of $1,359,673.58 from OSU.
Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=1&articleid=20100212_93_0_Former887568
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