OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A southeast Oklahoma sheriff who was among several county officials filmed discussing the murder of reporters and the lynching of black people will not face criminal charges or will be removed from office, the state attorney general said Friday.
In a letter to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said his office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation have completed their investigation and found no legal basis to fire the sheriff. of McCurtain County, Kevin Clardy.
“There are countless examples of incidents across the country where public officials make inflammatory comments that elicit harsh condemnation,” Drummond wrote. “Often the offending official resigns in disgrace. Sometimes the outrage subsides and the matter is forgotten.
He added, “Either way, there is no provision in Oklahoma law for firing elected officials just for saying something offensive.”
Drummond said McCurtain County voters will make the final decision on whether Clardy will stay in office and suggested that Stitt appeal to voters there and perhaps identify someone to run against Clardy.
Clardy and several other county officials sparked outrage after a local newspaper audio recording captured them complaining about two of the newspaper’s reporters and knowing about hitmen and where two holes were being dug. Stitt quickly called for the resignation of Clardy, Sheriff Captain Alicia Manning, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix. Jennings was the only one to quit.
A message left Friday at the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News, said the recording was made on March 6 when he left a voice-activated recorder in the room after a county commissioner’s meeting because he suspected that the group was continuing to conduct business in the county after the meeting. had ended in violation of the state’s Open Meeting Act. Chris Willingham, a journalist at the newspaper, is the son of Bruce Willingham.
Bruce Willingham said he thinks local officials are upset by “the stories we’ve put out that cast an unfavorable light on the sheriff’s office,” including the death of Bobby Barrick, a Broken Bow, Oklahoma, man who died in a hospital in March 2022 after McCurtain County deputies shot him with a stun gun.
With a population of around 31,000 and bordering both Arkansas and Texas, the county has a long history of lawlessness dating back to days before statehood, but in recent years it has become a tourist hotbed, drawing thousands of visitors to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. .
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Follow Sean Murphy on Twitter: @apseanmurphy