After filing a sexual battery charge against Sen. Bryce Marlatt (R-Woodward) on Wednesday, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater is also considering whether to file charges against Travis Brauer, a former aide to Gov. Mary Fallin.
Brauer has been under investigation for allegedly taking an upskirt photo or video at the Oklahoma State Capitol during a legislative meeting. According to a report from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Brauer made numerous Google searches about phone-data manipulation, including “How to completely wipe a phone before police” after he was alerted to the investigation.
Prater told NonDoc that OHP said they have completed their investigation into Brauer.
“I feel like I have a completed report regarding the incident related to Mr. Brauer’s activity,” Prater said. “I will be making a determination of those charges within the next week.”
Embedded below, the 256-page report’s six-page summary paints a damning picture of Brauer — who told investigators he ultimately lost his phone at a lake — and raises questions about other Capitol insiders.
A call to Brauer today went unreturned before publication of this story. In August, Brauer described the situation to NonDoc as a “false allegation” and said he had no further comment.
‘Fuck the house’
Among those tied to the report are former Fallin staffer Jana Miller, who appeared in a Snapchat photo with Brauer on the evening of May 23 captioned “Fuck the house”. The photo shows the pair displaying middle fingers in front of the House of Representatives chamber. Brauer and Miller are no longer employed by Fallin, and a call to Miller was not returned before publication of this story.
The OHP report details a string of Brauer’s other actions the same evening, including Brauer and Oklahoma Municipal League lobbyist Missy Dean appearing in Snapchat sequences at the Capitol drinking Coors Light.
One video features the caption, “#Chug #Budget OKLAHOMA STATE CAPITOL, Oklahoma City, OK”. A second video was captioned: “#ForYouBretBuganski #OfCOORsWeLoveYou.” Buganski is a reporter with KOCO Channel 5.
Dean was interviewed twice by OHP investigators “to clarify inconsistent information from her first interview.” In that interview, Dean said she did not recall Brauer being in the JCAB meeting, according to the report. But trooper statements in the report say conference-room video showed the pair walking into the room together.
A call to Dean was not returned before publication of this story.
‘I did tell him to get another attorney’
The OHP report includes complex details about the involvement of Oklahoma Board of Dentistry executive director Susan Rogers and Oklahoma Highway Patrol legislative liaison Capt. Randy Rogers (who are not related). Brauer’s statement in the report says the pair alerted him that he may have been the person facing the allegation.
At the time of this publication, NonDoc had made contact with Randy Rogers but had not been able to ask him questions related to the report. In the report, he told investigators it was his idea to show Brauer surveillance video from the night in question so Brauer could help establish a timeline.
In his formal interview with investigators, Brauer said Susan Rogers — an attorney who previously worked for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs — was representing him as legal counsel. The report states that when an investigating trooper, Lateka Alexander, told Brauer that turning over his phone for forensic download was the best way to clear his name, Susan Rogers told the trooper she did not want to do that right now.
Reached Thursday, Susan Rogers told NonDoc she is not representing Brauer as an attorney and that she did not advise him whether to turn over his phone. She said she had simply agreed to help Brauer as a friend by accompanying him when he wanted to make a statement to Alexander.
“We’re friends. I agreed to sit with him as a legal representative,” she told NonDoc. “In theory, yes, I was being his lawyer at that time because he wanted to go clear himself.
“Beyond that, I did tell him to get another attorney.”
That is reflected in the OHP report. In her interview with investigators, Susan Rogers said she told Brauer he should make a statement or get a lawyer, but that she would not be representing him. The dental board director is noted in multiple areas of the report as having expressed concern that demonstrators might be trying to set Brauer up owing to his application to work at the White House for President Donald Trump.
‘How to completely wipe a phone’
Ultimately, the report details the accusation that Brauer — seated on the floor during a crowded House Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget meeting — placed his phone near the foot of Oklahoma City resident Sara Bana, who was broadcasting the meeting live on Facebook from her phone.
Bana and others in the room were advocating for the state’s gross production tax incentive rate to be raised to 7 percent. The meeting occurred during the final week of this year’s legislative session and included passage of the Smoking Cessation and Prevention Act of 2017, which the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional Aug. 10.
Bana, who works as a public advocate for Oklahomans needing assistance with civic processes, was approached after the meeting by another audience member named Amanda Christie. Christie said she believed a man had taken a photo or video up Bana’s dress because she saw the man’s phone placed an arm’s length away from him next to Bana’s foot on the floor.
Bana spoke with NonDoc and said she did not want to make an official comment while Prater is determining what action he may take.
During OHP’s investigation, Christie told troopers that she did not know the identity of the man she observed, so she approached him after the meeting to ask his name. Christie said the man replied “uh Henry” and was “shoved” out of the conference room by Dean. The report does not note whether Christie identified Dean personally.
During her interview with investigators, Christie picked Brauer out of a six-person photo array with 85 percent certainty, according to the report. Christie said Brauer and Dean had been “giggling” and making faces while seated on the floor together.
OHP investigators contacted Brauer by phone Friday, May 26, and asked if he was willing to submit his personal cell phone for forensic analysis. The report states Brauer said he was willing to submit his phone but was headed to a lake and would not be able to submit the phone until the following Tuesday.
The report notes Brauer never provided his phone, telling troopers he lost it at the lake. After Brauer voluntarily submitted his laptop June 5, investigators found a one-hour gap of no documented phone activity. They also found Snapchat images taken prior to the meeting and Snapchat images taken after the meeting, but none taken during the meeting.
On Brauer’s laptop, investigators found more than a dozen Google searches made between the time OHP requested Brauer’s phone and the time he ultimately met with investigators to say he had lost it, according to the report. The searches concerned how to manipulate phone data. Those searches included, “how to completely wipe a phone,” “how to recover deleted pictures on android” and “what information will be pulled from phone when law enforcement scnas (sic) it.”
Six-page summary of 256-page OHP report
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