By Patti Weaver
(Perkins, Okla.) — In a case investigated by Perkins Police Chief Bob Ernst, a 38-year-old Stillwater man on probation for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm has been ordered held in the Payne County Jail on $100,000 bail pending a court appearance Feb. 3 on a felony charge of sexting a 16-year-old co-worker in Perkins, as well as possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Due to his criminal record, James Blake Quigley, who previously lived in Cushing, could be given a prison term of two years to life if convicted of sexting the Perkins girl between July 26, 2024, and Sept. 10, 2024. Quigley could also be given two years in jail and a $2,000 fine if convicted of his drug-related misdemeanor counts.
On the night before Thanksgiving at 11:46 pm, the girl’s guardian reported to local police that she was missing and had possibly run away from work in Perkins, Chief Ernst wrote in an affidavit filed with the charges last week. The guardian said that the girl had clocked out of work 30 minutes early and left the business on foot, the affidavit alleged.
“The guardian stated (the girl) and Quigley had been communicating via text messages and possibly other apps because she had ‘blocked’ Quigley’s phone number from (the girl’s) phone when she found out the two were communicating. The guardian stated she had talked to Quigley since she went missing, and he stated he did not know the whereabouts of (the girl),” the affidavit alleged.
When the police chief located and interviewed Quigley on Thanksgiving at his girlfriend’s residence, he denied any involvement regarding the girl’s running away or being missing, the affidavit said. “Quigley further stated he had no idea of her whereabouts,” the affidavit said.
Quigley said that on the afternoon before Thanksgiving, he had taken his girlfriend to work in her maroon 2004 Nissan X-Terra before going home to his residence in Stillwater where he said he stayed by himself before picking his girlfriend up at work at about 2 am on Thanksgiving, the affidavit said.
“Quigley stated he did not have any utilities at his house in Stillwater, but he made do using candles for lighting. Quigley denied texting or messaging (the girl),” the affidavit said.
When Chief Ernst told Quigley that Perkins police had observed messages on the girl’s phone that came from his number, “Quigley continued denying texting or messaging (the girl) — stating his phone must have been hacked,” the affidavit alleged.
On Thanksgiving at about 10:30 pm, officers located the girl in Stillwater at Quigley’s house, which did not have active utilities such as electricity and water, the affidavit said. Quigley was not home when the girl was found, the affidavit said.
Surveillance cameras in Perkins in the area of Main Street and Highway 33 showed the girl getting in the passenger’s seat of a dark vehicle, consistent with Quigley’s girlfriend’s 2004 Nissan X-Terra, the affidavit alleged. The vehicle then left and “traveled west towards 177 North, which is the most common route used to travel to Stillwater from this location,” the affidavit alleged.
With a search warrant, Quigley’s phone was seized by police on Dec. 6, 2024; “there were approximately 2,450 instant messages between Quigley’s phone and (the girl’s) phone, from July 21, 2024, through Oct. 7, 2024,” the affidavit alleged. Chief Ernst “located messages wherein Quigley encouraged, offered or solicited sexual conduct with (the girl),” the affidavit alleged.
Quigley was arrested at his workplace in Perkins at about 6:15 pm on Jan. 20, the affidavit said. “Officer Devin Freel located a purple in color Crown Royal bag in Quigley’s right front jeans pocket,” which contained a pink glass smoking device and a baggy with a substance that field-tested as methamphetamine, the affidavit alleged.
According to Payne County court records, Quigley had been placed on probation under a deferred sentence for possessing methamphetamine in Perkins in 2014, but that was changed in 2017 to five years of probation under a suspended sentence, which he violated and received a 90-day jail term on March 19, 2019.
Also on March 19, 2019, Quigley was placed on three years of probation for domestic assault and battery by strangulation and six years of probation for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, except for serving a concurrent 90-day jail term.
