While a veto from President Joe Biden means Oklahomans will have to wait even longer for new federal judges, Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Judicial Nominating Commission are working to fill several judicial vacancies in Oklahoma. Judicial elections in the state will not arrive until next year, but early retirements can be common, and Stitt is on track to have appointed more than 40 judges to the bench by the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, the City of Tulsa and the Muscogee Nation appear to be working to bring their jurisdictional dispute to an amicable resolution, according to a request to pursue settlement negotiations in a 2023 federal lawsuit. Speaking of tribal government jurisdiction, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma struck a plea deal with Jimcy McGirt that sent him back to prison for a six-month sentence.
Learn more about those topics in this legal roundup, as well as news about two cases involving State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the criminal case against Epic Charter School’s former leaders.
Tulsa, Muscogee Nation talk settlement amid jurisdictional confusion
Settlement discussions between the City of Tulsa and the Muscogee Nation could resolve a lawsuit filed by the nation over the prosecution of tribal citizens by the city. A joint motion to stay the proceedings and allow for settlement negotiations until Jan. 17 was granted by Judge John D. Russell in late December.
The settlement talks appear to have been spurred by new Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, who made “co-governing” with tribal governments one of his major campaign promises. While Nichols appointed Rep. Amanda Swope (D-Tulsa) to serve as his director of tribal policy, she is not scheduled to start her new position until Jan. 29, after the settlement negotiations window.
While the federal lawsuit has languished for more than a year with a seemingly endless flow of motions to intervene from prisoners, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Dec. 5 that municipalities like Tulsa have criminal jurisdiction over a citizen of a sovereign tribal nation who commits crimes within the boundaries of another tribe’s reservation. The court’s decision allows city prosecutors to file criminal charges against some tribal citizens within Indian Country reservation boundaries. (Brett Chapman, the attorney representing the Indian defendant, filed a motion for rehearing Dec. 26 on which the court is yet to rule.)
Heightening the jurisdictional confusion, the U.S. Department of Justice sued two Oklahoma district attorneys days before Christmas in an effort to stop their prosecution of tribal citizens within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation and the Muscogee Nation Reservation. The federal briefs make no mention of the state court’s most recent Indian law decision and maintain that Oklahoma and its subdivisions lack criminal jurisdiction over any tribal citizen in Indian Country.
The resulting jurisdictional mess allows for city prosecutors to file charges against non-member tribal citizens based on state law, while also creating concern that, if they do so, their office subsequently may have to defend against a DOJ lawsuit arguing they are violating federal law.
Biden vetoes JUDGES act, OK judge shortage continues
As long delays in Oklahoma’s federal courts become an irksome norm for both attorneys and citizens, President Joe Biden vetoed bipartisan legislation just before Christmas that would have expanded the number of federal judges in several states, including Oklahoma. The JUDGES Act, which would have created over 60 new federal judgeships, passed unanimously in the Senate, but barely passed the House after Democrats in the chamber opposed the bill.
Last summer, Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) emphasized the need for additional federal judges in Oklahoma after the U.S. Supreme Court functionally affirmed the eastern half of Oklahoma as a series of Indian Country reservations, with only the federal government and tribal governments having jurisdiction to prosecute tribal citizens.
Since the 2020 ruling, criminal case loads have climbed in Oklahoma’s three U.S. District Courts — western, northern and eastern. The significant shift has spurred the hiring of dozens of additional federal prosecutors, as well as rotations of visiting federal judges.
“I’m on the legislation right now to try and add additional judges in the Northern District as well,” Lankford told NonDoc. “We know the desperate need now. What this looks like 10 years from now, we don’t know. So in the meantime, we need more judges here, and so I’m actually on the legislation we’re trying to get done this year to be able to add more judges into the Northern District (and) Eastern District (of Oklahoma).”
According to Politico, Biden worried the legislation would grant President-elect Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint most of the new judges authorized by the bill. It appears as though Biden was particularly annoyed by House Republicans’ refusal to pass the bill until after Trump won the November election, limiting time Biden would have had to nominate and support his own judges.
“[The JUDGES Act] would create new judgeships in states where senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies,” Biden said in a statement. “Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now. Therefore, I am vetoing this bill.”
The veto drew a rare rebuke from the director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., an appointee of former President George W. Bush.
“The president’s veto of the JUDGES Act is extremely disappointing,” Conrad wrote. “This veto is a deviation from the long historical pattern of approving judgeship bills that awarded new judgeships to sitting presidents. The president’s veto is contrary to the actions of Sen. Biden, who helped pass many of those bills.”
Attorney: McGirt received 6-month sentence for violations
As the affects of the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision continue to be litigated, the landmark case’s namesake has been back in jail since Aug. 31.
Arrested on allegations he violated his federal sex offender requirements by residing somewhere other than his registered address, Jimcy McGirt pleaded no contest to a pair of charges this fall in Seminole Nation of Oklahoma Tribal Court, according to his attorney, Richard O’Carroll. However, O’Carroll said the underlying allegations that led Seminole Nation Lighthorse Police to find McGirt residing outside the parameters of his sex offender requirements were found to be false.
“There were two false accusations. I mean, completely false,” O’Carroll said. “There was an accusation of propositioning two children in the neighborhood, and the children were candid about it, and they said the guy who propositioned them was in a blue cart, meaning a motorized wheelchair. And there was a second accusation that an eyewitness supposedly saw Mr. McGirt in a park.”
O’Carroll said another count against McGirt was dismissed after he presented evidence indicating that a different man was likely the person to whom the children had spoken.
“We produced evidence that the next door neighbor drove a blue cart and was handicapped, and we contested like hell the idea that my client was ever near the park,” O’Carroll said. “I actually had video of the next-door neighbor in a cart, and they knew it. And it was kind of stunning to me that someone would make those accusations to begin with. It was more hysteria, but he did screw up. It was lack of real knowledge. He’d been warned. I’m not saying he wasn’t warned, but he didn’t realize he needed to take a tape measure to where he was at.”
O’Carroll said McGirt received a six-month sentence in tribal court and will be on probation afterward and equipped with an ankle monitor.
Seminole Nation Tribal Court does not maintain online court records, and requests to confirm information from tribal prosecutors received no response last week. The tribal court charges $1 per page for copies of records, and payment must be made by cashier’s check or money order. The tribe does not maintain its own jail or prison, and it currently contracts with Seminole County to house inmates. Based upon the daily rate of its renegotiated contract with Seminole County, the tribe could ultimately pay the county around $8,000 to detain McGirt for his six-month sentence.
“There was a whole lot of media about him propositioning those kids, and that was not true. Completely false, and they dismissed those (allegations),” O’Carroll said.
Originally convicted in an Oklahoma court for sexual molestation of a 4-year-old girl in the 1990s, McGirt successfully appealed his conviction by arguing in 2020 that the Muscogee Nation Reservation had never been disestablished by Congress, meaning the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him and other tribal citizens in eastern Oklahoma. Charges were subsequently re-filed by federal prosecutors, who agreed to a plea deal in May to avoid a new trial for the sake of the victim 30 years later. McGirt was sentenced to 360 months in federal prison but was released for time served and required to register as a sex offender.
Stitt appoints 2 judges in December, more vacancies develop
While district court judges in Oklahoma are meant to be elected, when judges leave office early for health reasons, ethics complaints, criminal indictments or any other reason, then the task of replacing judges falls to the Judicial Nominating Commission and the governor. An open Oklahoma Supreme Court seat drew 14 applicants last month, but five other judicial appointments are also in the works.
In Garfield County, the JNC narrowed down the list of candidates to replace Associate Judge Brian Lovell, who resigned amid a dementia diagnosis and a few scandals, to three candidates from Enid:
- former assistant district attorney and assistant attorney general Hope Leslie Bryant;
- Garfield County Special Judge Blake Allen Gibson; and
- assistant district attorney Sean Karl Hill.
Gov. Kevin Stitt will appoint one of those three applicants to fill the Garfield County vacancy. Applicants Jenna Willene Brown, Chad Nathan Davis and Justin Louis Lamunyon were eliminated after the 15-member JNC concluded its vetting process and privately selected its three required nominees.
In Custer County, Associate Judge Donna Dirickson was appointed Nov. 13 as the district judge for Judicial District 2, which includes Beckham, Custer, Ellis, Roger Mills and Washita counties. (Dirickson has subsequently applied for the open Supreme Court seat.) On Dec. 31, the JNC released a list of the four applicants for Dirickson’s old seat on the bench:
- Dana Jean Hada, Weatherford, is a former assistant district attorney for Beckham, Custer, Ellis, Roger Mills and Washita counties and an associate examiner for the Oklahoma Bar Association. She has also worked as an associate professor at Olivet Nazarene University and Southwestern Oklahoma State University;
- Lynn Lawrence Housley, Weatherford, is a former assistant district attorney and an associate examiner for the Oklahoma Bar Association;
- Sheri Marie Johnson, Foss, is an assistant attorney general and a former probation and parole officer; and
- Stephanie Celeste Parker-Jones, Clinton, is a former assistant district attorney and municipal prosecutor for the City of Clinton.
Hada, Johnson and Parker-Jones each applied for district judge position that Stitt ultimately awarded to Dirickson.
In southeast Oklahoma, Stitt appointed Associate Judge Brett Butner on Oct. 4 to succeed Timothy Olsen as district judge for Judicial District 22, which includes Seminole, Pontotoc and Hughes counties. Butner’s appointment left Seminole County’s associate judge office vacant, and the JNC announced applicants Nov. 27:
- Christopher Gene Anderson of Wewoka, who was hired as a special judge for Seminole County in 2019;
- Blayne Phillips Norman of Wewoka, an assistant district attorney for District 22;
- Ryan Harley Pitts of Holdenville, a private practice attorney who serves on the Seminole State College Board of Regents;
- Joshua Lynn Pyron of Seminole, a private practice attorney; and
- Peary Livingston Robertson of Seminole, a private practice attorney who has served as a judge in the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.
In Payne and Logan Counties, Stitt appointed his former general counsel, Jason Reese, to replace District Judge Phillip Corley on Dec. 16. Reese was selected over District Judge Louis Duel Jr. and Special Judge Katherine Thomas for the appointment. (Duel has also applied for the open Supreme Court seat.) Reese previously mounted unsuccessful campaigns for labor commissioner, as well as both houses of the Oklahoma Legislature.
In Lincoln County, Stitt appointed Joseph A. Dobry to replace Associate District Judge Sheila Kirk on Dec. 18. Dobry was chosen over candidates Heather N. Huff and Kevin Lewis for the nomination. A private attorney whose practice specialized in bankruptcy, probate, civil litigation and family law, Dobry unsuccessfully campaigned for an Oklahoma Senate seat in 2014.
In Creek County, District Judge Douglas W. Golden has announced he will retire on Feb. 1, and the JNC is accepting applications for the office until Jan. 31. Applicants must be a legal resident of Creek County when they assume office and must have been a licensed attorney in the state for four years prior to their appointment. Applicants may submit their applications to the JNC either by mail or in person at the Administrative Office of the Courts in Oklahoma City.
OKC City Council defers Rodriguez settlement vote
In its last meeting of 2024, the OKC City Council voted 4-3 to defer a vote on a lawsuit settlement with the mother of the late Stavian Rodriguez to its Jan. 14 meeting. The council made the move after a brief time in executive session.
Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher made the motion to defer the vote to the council’s next meeting. He was joined by Ward 1’s Bradley Carter, Ward 5’s Matt Hinkle and Ward 6’s JoBeth Hamon. Mayor David Holt, Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper and Ward 7 Councilman Lee Cooper voted against deferring the item. Ward 3 Councilwoman Barbara Peck and Ward 4 Councilman Todd Stone were not present.
OKC Police fatally shot the 15-year-old Rodriguez in November 2020 as he surrendered to conclude his botched robbery of a gas station in south OKC. Five officers were charged with manslaughter by former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater. His successor, Vicki Behenna, later dropped those charges in 2023. At the same time, Behenna also dismissed the case against Sgt. Clifford Holman, who fatally shot 60-year-old Bennie Edwards in the back as he ran from police in a parking lot.
Edwards, who had history of mental illness, had a knife and was experiencing psychosis when police were called to the shopping center where he was known to sell flowers to shoppers on the sidewalk. The OKC City Council approved a reported $1.05 million lawsuit settlement with the family of Edwards in November.
If approved, the proposed settlement for Rodriguez’s death would be worth $875,000. Rodriguez’s mother, Cameo Holland, filed a civil suit against the City of OKC in 2021. Throughout the aftermath of her son’s death, Holland has criticized the entire criminal justice system, including a juvenile judge who had presided over misdemeanor charges against Rodriguez prior to his death.
“There were some fines I had to pay in Midwest City. I knew that it was fines, but it was a juvenile judge, and I figured when we went in front of him that the man would have something to say like, ‘Don’t do this,’ or, ‘You need to get it together,’ or something. And he didn’t say anything like that,” Holland told NonDoc in December 2020. “He just told us how much it was going to be and where to pay. So I tried to provoke him into, ‘At least can I get a lecture here or something?’ What I said to the judge is, ‘I’ve tried to talk to my son. I’m not really sure why he’s making some of the choices he’s making. I’m not really sure what to do from here that I haven’t already done.’ But there was no response except to tell me the directions to exit the courtroom and the directions to the window to pay the money. And when we left that day, I talked to my son again, and I told him, ‘These people don’t care about you. That man didn’t have one word to say to you about your future.’ (…) I was trying to tell him, ‘I care about you. I’m trying to talk to you. (…) Basically, it’s me and you. That’s who cares about me and you — me and you.’”
Although it failed to mention relevant police shooting cases in Oklahoma County, a U.S. Department of Justice report released Friday threatened litigation against the state of Oklahoma and the City of Oklahoma City regarding how emergency response services play out for vulnerable individuals experiencing mental health disorders.
Tulsa County judge denies Walters’ motion to dismiss defamation lawsuit
On Dec. 23, Tulsa County District Judge Daman Cantrell denied State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought by Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller.
The lawsuit spurred from comments Walters made after a July board meeting calling Miller a “liar” and a “clown” in response to Miller’s criticism of the Oklahoma State Board of Education’s timeline for passing federal funding to local school districts.
Walters’ attorney Chad Kutmas — a partner at the Tulsa-based law firm Norman Wohlegumuth — argued for dismissal during a Nov. 26 hearing on the basis that Miller’s counsel did not provide “clear and specific evidence” of derogatory and defamatory comments. Ultimately, Cantrell disagreed with that claim.
“The court finds that plaintiff has identified enough in the July 31 press conference to make prima facie claim as required under the [Oklahoma Citizen Participation Act] on his causes of action, especially the comments regarding ‘all kinds of financial problems in his district,’” Cantrell wrote in his order.
Miller’s counsel, Michael Barkett and Rusty Smith, accused Walters of making knowingly false statements about Miller mismanaging funds as Bixby’s superintendent. They said Walters attacked Miller in his personal and professional capacities.
To refute Walters’ comments, Barkett provided the court with a letter he said was sent from OSDE to Miller two days before Walters’ comments. Barkett said the emailed letter contained Walters’ recommendation for accreditation with no discrepancies, and he argued it would be impossible for Walters to grant full accreditation if Bixby Public Schools were facing an abundance of financial issues.
With Walters’ motion to dismiss denied, the defamation lawsuit will continue further into the discovery process.
Tupper declares board action on trans student’s records null and void
On Tuesday, Dec. 31, Cleveland County District Court Judge Michael Tupper ruled that although a controversial State Board of Education rule concerning gender markers on student records is enforceable, a vote the board took pursuant to the rule was null and void because it violated a transgender student’s due process rights.
Tupper released his 13-page order Dec. 31, 12 days after a hearing on a motion for summary judgement made by the plaintiff, an anonymous student in Moore Public Schools.
The plaintiff filed the case against State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education arguing that the board’s rule preventing school districts from changing student gender markers on historical records was invalid.
In his order, Tupper said the rule was valid, but he said the board violated the student’s due process rights by not giving them a hearing before voting to bar Moore Public Schools from changing its records to reflect the student’s court-ordered gender change.
“The judge found our rule to be valid and enforceable. There will be a hearing on this issue in short order,” Dan Isett, the State Department of Education’s director of communications, said by email.
The student’s attorneys with the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Oklahoma Equality Law Center celebrated the ruling as a “significant step forward” for trans students’ due process rights, but said they plan to appeal the part of Tupper’s order that said the rule was valid.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s interpretation of the legality of the administrative rule,” Joshua Payton, attorney and director of the OELC, said in a press release Dec. 31. “We firmly believe the board stepped outside their authority to create this rule. Separation of powers and cabining in the executive branch are cornerstones of our democracy, and we will continue to fight for these principles through the appellate process.”
Appellate court denies recusal motion against Epic judge
On Dec. 20, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied a motion that Oklahoma County District Court Judge Susan Stallings recuse herself from presiding over the criminal embezzlement case against the former co-founders and chief financial officer of Epic Charter School.
The court’s decision marks the third denial of the motion, which was made by defendant Ben Harris and his attorney, Joe White, although the appellate court denied it because the motion was not filed within the correct timeframe.
“Petitioner’s pleading is not timely. Accordingly, we decline jurisdiction of petitioner’s request for a writ of mandamus,” stated the order, which was signed by Presiding Judge Scott Rowland, Vice Presiding Judge William Musseman, Judge Gary Lumpkin, Judge David Lewis and Judge Robert Hudson.
Harris and White filed the appellate motion Nov. 8. The appeal came after Oklahoma County District Court Presiding Judge Richard Ogden had denied the same motion Aug. 30. Ogden’s denial came after Stallings herself denied the motion Aug. 15.
The judges noted in their order that the court’s rules require appeals to be filed within five days of an adverse ruling.
Harris, Epic co-founder David Chaney and former CFO Josh Brock were all charged in June 2022 with 15 counts related to fraud, racketeering, and embezzlement after a years-long investigation into whether they stole state funding meant for Oklahoma’s largest online charter school. After a series of voluntary judge recusals, the case came up for a preliminary hearing in March 2024, with Special District Judge Jason Glidewell presiding over the hearing and Stallings set to preside over all other aspects of the case.
Despite a full week of testimony, the preliminary hearing’s conclusion was delayed when Brock filed a motion seeking the recusal of Chaney’s attorney, Gary Wood.
Brock testified in March that he agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors to keep him out of prison in exchange for testifying against his former bosses. Brock alleges that Chaney’s attorney, Gary Wood, once represented him while he worked for Epic, meaning Wood’s cross-examination of him on a witness stand would constitute a conflict of interest.
But White and Harris put Brock’s recusal motion on hold with their own recusal motion against Stallings, whom they said “exhibited a biased attitude in favor of the state and against Mr. Harris.”
The two motions have delayed a preliminary hearing that began more than nine months ago. With the matter of Stallings’ recusal apparently resolved, she must now turn to the motion against Wood before the preliminary hearing can continue, after which another judge will determine if enough evidence exists against the men to take the case to trial.
(Update: This article was updated at 10:45 a.m. Monday, Jan. 6, to correct reference to Garfield County Special Judge Blake Gibson and to include additional information about a Judicial District 22 associate judge position.)
