He has also previously said Musseman, who received the assignment from Nightingale on Jan. 6, couldn’t have had enough time to become knowledgeable about the case by the time he made his ruling against Kepler on Jan. 7.

O’Carroll said Holmes was a customer in 2003 at a Tulsa-area massage parlor that had been prosecuted for pandering and that he represented the business owner in that case. She was an assistant district attorney at that time, and O’Carroll has implied that Holmes has treated Kepler unfairly based on her past dealings with O’Carroll when working on the 2003 case.

Holmes has denied multiple motions O’Carroll has filed in Kepler’s case, including a request to hold a hearing on a motion to disqualify Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler based on O’Carroll’s claim that Kunzweiler told Lake’s 13-year-old brother, a witness, what to say during Kepler’s preliminary hearing.

Kunzweiler has denied that claim and emphasized that he simply told the teenager to tell the truth about what happened the night Lake died.

“Mr. Kepler’s attorney realized he should have immediately urged Judge Holmes’ recusal because of the pandering case, but was reluctant to do so,” O’Carroll wrote in the appeal. Holmes received the case in August after another judge recused herself.