Within this roundup of recent legal happenings in Oklahoma, you’ll find new details about the prosecution of a double homicide involving an anti-government organization and information on a settlement with the family of Bennie Edwards, a homeless man who was fatally shot by an Oklahoma City Police Department sergeant in 2020.
In school-related cases, a woman accused of sending racist messages while impersonating a Clinton teacher has pleaded to avoid trial, and an appellate court has ruled regarding a corporal punishment lawsuit involving Indianola Public Schools.
Additionally, learn more below about new Oklahoma Supreme Court guidance on judge recusals — which could affect the embezzlement proceedings against former Epic Charter School leaders.
Family of man killed by OKCPD to receive $1.05 million
The family of Bennie Edwards has settled a lawsuit against the City of Oklahoma City, Sgt. Clifford Holman and Sgt. Keith Duroy. The lawsuit had been filed in December 2021 by Kimberle Thompson and Juanita Hill — Edwards’ daughter and mother, respectively — and the settlement was reached during a conference Oct. 25, which was attended by the plaintiff’s attorneys, the two police officers, city attorneys, Ward 5 Councilman Matt Hinkle and Deputy Chief Bobby Thompkins.
The OKC City Council approved the settlement by a 7-0 vote during its Nov. 19 meeting, and it totals $1.05 million, according to reporting from Jessie Christopher Smith of The Oklahoman. The action received no discussion by the council other than Mayor David Holt describing the resolution.
“[This item] is a resolution authorizing the municipal councilor to confess judgment without an admission of liability in the case of Thompson and Hill as administrators of the estate of Edwards v. Duroy, Holman and the City of OKC,” Holt said. “Executive session is not requested.”
Edwards was shot and killed Dec. 11, 2020, in north OKC while experiencing a mental health crisis. On the day he died, police were called to a pawn shop by a report that Edwards had been bothering customers. Police surrounded Edwards, who had paper stuffed in his ears and who was in possession of a knife during the encounter. After police deployed pepper spray and a Taser against him, Edwards briefly moved toward police but then attempted to flee through the parking lot. Sgt. Clifford Holman shot Edwards in the back.
Edwards, 60, was homeless at the time of his death. He was well known in the area for selling flowers and for experiencing mental health issues. Holman was charged with manslaughter by then-Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, but new District Attorney Vicki Behenna dismissed the charge in July 2023, citing the analysis and recommendation of Clarence Chapman, a California-based use-of-force expert she hired to review the case.
“In all fairness, he got within about four or five feet. We’ve done measurements of the parking lot and the distances. I mean, that’s one of the things our expert reviewed,” Behenna said during a press conference announcing her dismissal of Holman’s case and two other police shooting cases.
Behenna has declined to release Chapman’s reports on the police shooting cases he reviewed, nor the contract outlining how he would be paid with public funds. NonDoc has filed a lawsuit alleging that Behenna’s refusal to release the documents constitutes a violation of the Open Records Act.
Woman pleads no contest for impersonating teacher to make racist remarks
Casee Hughes, a woman accused of impersonating Clinton Public Schools teacher Ashley Kelley in 2022 and sending a racist message from a spoofed Facebook account, pleaded no contest Nov. 15 to a pair of felony charges.
Hughes had been facing a trial set to start Nov. 18 on one count of falsely impersonating another to create liability and one count of the use of a computer system or network to violate Oklahoma statutes. Now, Hughes faces a sentencing hearing Wednesday, Jan. 22, after the completion of a pre-sentencing investigation.
Kelley’s attorney, Peter Scimeca, said his client intends to wait until after Hughes is sentenced to provide an official statement.
“We want to make sure everything goes smoothly for sentencing,” Scimeca said. “We’ll have a lot more to say after sentencing.”
While it’s unclear exactly how or why Hughes allegedly impersonated Kelley to create public outrage against her, Kelley discussed the situation in a November 2022 statement for a victim protective order application:
On Oct. 14, 2022, at approximately 1:27 in the morning, a person stole my identity, created a fake Facebook account, and posted an untruthful and disgusting message for the sole purpose of destroying my reputation. I woke up to a nightmare! This was not me! I did not do this!
Unfortunately for this person, the people who know me, the students in my classroom, and my friends and family know I would never say something so vile. They also know I don’t speak that way.
I have received hundreds of messages, calls, and emails from people who don’t know me but are doing the exact same thing to me, that the message claims that I did to a parent of one of my students. I will not tolerate this behavior any longer!
To the person(s) who are responsible, justice will be served.
The Facebook message sent from the account spoofing Kelley’s included racist statements about Indigenous and Black people. Screenshots of the message quickly circulated online, causing mass outrage from Clinton community members, parents and students. Many comments critical of Kelley and Clinton Public Schools remain on Facebook and other social media platforms.
New charges added in panhandle murder case
After the bodies of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley were found buried in a freezer in Texas County this past April, five members of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits” were charged with their murder. One of the alleged perpetrators, Tifany Adams, is the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children. Now, reporting from Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman indicates macabre new allegations: that Adams involved Butler’s children in the disposal of their mother’s body.
In new child neglect counts, prosecutors allege Adams had the children, ages 6 and 8, “help carry a ratchet strap at the Guymon Tractor Supply that was to be used to wrap around the freezer containing the deceased bodies.” The two counts of child neglect brings the total number of felony charges facing Adams to nine. The other seven charges include two counts of murder in the first degree, conspiracy, two counts of unlawfully removing a dead body and two counts of unlawful desecration of a human corpse.
Adams — who was the chairwoman of the Cimarron County Republican Party at the time of the crime — and Butler were involved in a “problematic custody battle,” according to earlier reporting from The Oklahoman. Butler, who lived in Kansas, was picking up the children in the Cimarron County town of Keyes to take them to a birthday party. Kelley, a pastor’s wife, attended to supervise the visit.
Two of the other individuals facing charges were endorsed as witnesses for the prosecution Nov. 18. Paul Jeremiah Grice and Cora Twombly — who both face two counts of murder in the first degree, one count of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of kidnapping — are slated to provide testimony at a preliminary hearing in December. Cora Twombly is the wife of Cole Twombly, who faces the same murder and conspiracy charges as the other defendants, along with two counts of desecrating a human corpse and two counts of unlawful removal of a dead body. Cole Twombly is related to Clint Twombly, who won election in June to become sheriff Cimarron County. Although court documents indicate Cole and Cora Twombly borrowed his “blue flatbed pickup” at some point after the murders, Clint Twombly is not believed to be involved in the crimes.
The fifth suspected perpetrator is Adams’ boyfriend Tad Bert Cullum. He faces the same charges as Cole Twombly.
Court of Civil Appeals denies new trial in corporal punishment case
On Nov. 18, the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals issued an opinion reaffirming a district court denial for a new trial in a corporal punishment case. The ruling appears to conclude a six-year civil lawsuit filed against Indianola Public Schools for alleged negligence and against former principal Gary Gunckel for assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In September 2018, two fifth-grade boys were involved in a playground argument and were sent to see Gunckel, who told the boys they could either receive two to three days of in-school detention or receive two to three “swats” as a form of corporal punishment. The two students agreed to the corporal punishment.
After getting parental consent, court records say Gunckel used a wooden paddle to “strike” the boys on their “bottoms.”
Once the boys got home, the parents reportedly saw severe bruising on both of the boys and reported the incident to the Pittsburg County sheriff. Gunckel was then arrested and charged with felony child abuse, but the criminal charges were later dismissed in March 2019.
The parents filed a May 2020 civil lawsuit in Pittsburg County District Court that detailed the “beating” their children received from Gunckel. The petition said the “swat” the first boy endured was administered with such force that it “knocked [the boy] to the ground and made him wet his pants.” The second boy waited outside the office listening to the first boy “screaming, crying, and begging not to be hit again.”
The petition also alleged that when Gunckel called the second boy’s mother to inform her that her son had opted for corporal punishment, Gunckel “cut [the boy] off and would not allow him to speak and Mr. Gunckel himself hung up the phone before [the boy] could tell his mom what was really happening.”
Gunckel later filed for summary judgment dismissal of himself from the case — which the court granted — arguing that because he admitted to administering the punishment and IPS agreed, Gunckel was “acting within the scope of his employment” and was protected from litigation. IPS also filed for summary judgment, but the district’s request was denied and the school proceeded to a January 2023 trial.
The jurors returned a 9-3 verdict in favor of the school. The plaintiffs filed a motion for a new trial on the basis of juror misconduct. That motion was denied, as was the plaintiffs’ appeal last week.
The alleged juror misconduct arose during deliberation in the IPS trial, when jurors discovered and subsequently discussed an article revealing Gunckel’s dismissal in both the criminal and civil cases filed against him. A juror asked the court if their knowledge of that information would be a problem, and after the issue was discussed with both counsels, jurors were told to proceed with deliberation and only to consider the instructions provided to them by the court.
“An argument-only hearing was held on the issue, and the court ultimately found that there was insufficient evidence to grant a new trial, and the jurors’ allegedly inappropriate conduct did not amount to discussion of ‘extraneous prejudicial information which will lead to further inquiry,’” Appellate Judge Gregory Blackwell wrote in his Nov. 18 opinion, for which Judge James Huber and Judge Stacie Hixon concurred.
Blackwell said that to preserve the issue, the plaintiffs should have filed the motion for a new trial when their counsel was first informed of the alleged misconduct during deliberations instead of after the trial had concluded.
Supreme Court expands rules for district court recusals
On Nov. 18, the Oklahoma Supreme Court amended rules concerning the recusal of district judges to clarify how cases should proceed when recusal motions are made.
In Oklahoma, the Supreme Court not only deals with questions of law concerning civil cases, but it also serves as administrator of the state judicial system, meaning it sets the rules by which lower courts must abide.
With all justices concurring, the court added three new sections to District Court Rule 15, which deals with judicial disqualification. The justices wrote that judges cannot continue to handle a case while a motion to disqualify them is pending, but they clarified that another judge could handle the case during that time.
“Nothing in this rule shall prevent another judge from proceeding forward with the case, pending resolution of the requested disqualification or recusal of the subject judge,” the court wrote.
The court also added a rule specific to civil proceedings, which says courts can impose sanctions on parties who file “frivolous” motions to disqualify judges for the purpose of delaying or disrupting a proceeding.
The new rules come as an embezzlement case against Epic Charter School co-founders has been on hold for months while one of the defendants pursues a disqualification motion against an Oklahoma County District Court judge. Although the amended rules now clarify that a case can move forward under a different judge while a recusal motion is pending, it is unclear if that case will do so.
Third time’s the charm? Ben Harris appeals double denial of motion to disqualify judge
Speaking of judicial recusal, Ben Harris, the Epic Charter School co-founder who is a co-defendant in the criminal embezzlement case related to his leadership of the school, filed an appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeals on Nov. 8 seeking to overturn two Oklahoma County District Court judges’ denial of his motion to disqualify Judge Susan Stallings from presiding over the case.
“Judge Stallings has exhibited a biased attitude in favor of the state and against Mr. Harris,” Harris’ attorneys wrote in their appellate brief. “Judge Stallings has also made her personal bias clear by her verbal actions, body language, and facial expressions, which cannot be adequately expressed on a black and white record.”
Harris’ attorney, Joe White, originally raised the issue in July. White said he took issue with various instances where Stallings set hearings whose timing he claimed seemed detrimental to his client and her conduct at those hearings. White also said Stallings did not disclose that she previously worked in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office while that office was handling the Epic investigation.
Stallings has said she did not work on the Epic investigation while employed as an assistant district attorney.
After Stallings herself and Oklahoma County Presiding Judge Richard Ogden both denied the disqualification motion, White appealed their denials to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Stallings has until Dec. 14 to answer White’s petition.
The embezzlement and racketeering case against Harris, fellow Epic co-founder David Chaney and their former chief financial officer Josh Brock has been on hold for months while the disqualification motion against Stallings and another disqualification motion against Chaney’s attorney are pending.
Once those motions are adjudicated, the case is expected to pick back up with its incomplete preliminary hearing, which lasted five days in March and was set to resume in May before the recusal motions put the case on hold.
(Update: This article was updated at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 25, to include additional information.)
