

It has been a fraught few weeks for Oklahoma’s relationship with the U.S. Department of Justice. Days after releasing a report calling Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County and the state itself “discriminatory” against those with mental illness, the federal agency released a report finding that the brutality of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was “state-sanctioned.”
In this roundup, you can learn more about that report, along with a new ethics fine for a former Department of Human Services leader, the latest on a planned behavioral health center in Oklahoma County, details on a settlement reached with the family of a 15-year-old shot and killed by Oklahoma City Police Department officers, an update on August 2024 election drama and more.
‘State-sanctioned brutality’: DOJ releases Tulsa Race Massacre report

The U.S. Department of Justice released a report about the Tulsa Race Massacre on Jan. 10, finding that no criminal charges could be filed for the “state-sanctioned brutality” more than 100 years after it occurred. While the report adds to the historical record of one of Oklahoma’s greatest tragedies, the continued lack of legal action left many Tulsans feeling disappointed, a fact acknowledged by the report.
“Despite yielding what what will, for many, be a painful and dissatisfying outcome, this review of the Tulsa Race Massacre corrects the record; it recognizes and documents the trauma and loss suffered by the residents of Greenwood,” the report read. “Although legal and practical limitations prevent the perpetrators of the crimes committed in 1921 from being held criminally accountable in a court of law, the historical reckoning is far from over. Legal limits may have stymied the pursuit of justice, but the work to ensure that future generations understand the magnitude of the atrocity continues.”
The report details how vigilantism grew in acceptance in Tulsa during the late 1910s into the early 1920s with the tarring and feathering of labor organizers and the possibly police chief-sanctioned lynching of a white prisoner in Tulsa. The growing violence was exacerbated by the return of World War I veterans with military training who both joined vigilante groups and were more likely to attempt to defend their community from vigilante attacks.
Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, the last two living survivors of the massacre whose public nuisance and unjust enrichment lawsuit was dismissed in Oklahoma courts, released a statement saying the report “falls heartbreakingly short.”
“The DOJ confirms the government’s role in the slaughter of our Greenwood neighbors but refuses to hold the institutions accountable under federal law,” Randle and Fletcher wrote. “Justice is not saying to survivors that the entities that ran us out of town, hindered our rebuilding efforts and erased us from history are absolved of their crimes. Justice is holding guilty parties to account so that the community can heal.”
The 126-page report included both a detailed timeline of general events as well as details on the involvement of specific Tulsans, from the influential Sheriff Willard McCullough and Police Chief John Gustafson, to the more obscure Native American Ku Klux Klansman Andre Wilkes and criminal-turned-deputy-for-a-day Claud “Yellow Hammer” Cranfield. Police deputized Cranfield despite his identification as “a probable ring leader in the attempt to lynch” Dick Rowland, the Black elevator operator whose arrest on specious allegations led to the confrontation at the jail where a shot was fired by an unknown party and “all hell broke loose.” As violence unfolded, the report notes that “police deputized as many as 500 white men in less than 30 minutes” with little regard as to their character or sobriety.
While the report does not definitely conclude the Tulsa Race Massacre included aerial bombings — one of the most hotly contested historical details of the massacre — it does note that city officials hired planes with “heavily armed” pilots carrying “signal rockets” two years prior to observe a May Day rally, and it says it is possible that similar planes and equipment were deployed during the massacre. It is undisputed in the historical record that planes were used for surveillance during and after the massacre.
When reviewing whether government agencies engaged in misconduct during the massacre, the report found:
- The Tulsa Police Department, under Gustafson, contributed to the massacre by deputizing hundreds of unqualified men;
- McCullough focused solely on protecting Rowland and largely ignored the massacre;
- Tulsa National Guard battalions successfully defended Tulsa’s National Armory before following Gustafson’s direction and contributing to the massacre;
- Oklahoma National Guard units from outside of Tulsa contributed to the internment of Black residents after the massacre; and
- Former Mayor T. D. Evans largely ignored the massacre as it occurred, although there are some unverifiable allegations he privately encouraged killing and burning in Greenwood.
Corporation Commission approves PSO rate agreement

On Jan. 15, Oklahoma Corporation Commission finalized a rate increase for Public Service Company of Oklahoma customers that went into effect about three months ago.
Commission Chairwoman Kim David and Commissioner Todd Hiett voted to issue a final order approving a $119.5 million settlement agreement reached last year. Commissioner Brian Bingman, elected to the three-member regulatory panel in November, was attending his first commission meeting and abstained from voting. Commissioners on Nov. 26 voted 2-1 to give preliminary approval for the increase. Then-commissioner Bob Anthony dissented.
Before taking final action, Hiett and David said they were concerned about PSO’s 15 percent increase to residential customers, among the largest in the utility’s history. Ratepayers have already been paying the higher rates, which is common in utility rate approval cases. PSO residential customers have been paying an additional $12 per month since October.
PSO, which serves nearly 573,000 customers in the Tulsa area and other sections of Oklahoma, originally proposed a $218 million rate increase. Among other changes, the approved settlement agreement dropped the average monthly increase for residential customers from nearly $16 to $12. An OCC administrative law judge on Oct. 3 recommended commissioners approve the settlement.
“A lot of thought has gone into it,” Hiett said Jan. 15. “I do think that the expenses that have been incurred were justified. I do think the investments were found to be prudent.”
David emphasized that the commission’s action was to formalize the same increase that took effect Oct. 23.
“I feel like in the past, the headlines have been like, we just raised your rates again,” she said. “And I get these scary emails from everybody, my constituents especially back in the Tulsa area, that they think that they just got an increase and now we’re going to get another increase.”
Hiett agreed with David that Thursday’s vote was not a second increase, but he wanted to acknowledge that the increase that went into effect in October is significant, especially when considered with a prior increase in 2023.
“It’s stacked on top of a very recent increase, a base rate increase that we put into effect (…) not very long ago, and could potentially be intertwined with another potential increase. That case is still pending,” he said. “So, I think it should be noted that this is significant.”
Before the most recent rate hike, PSO received approval for a rate increase in 2023 that raised residential bills about $5 a month. Meanwhile, the company is proposing another increase this year that would raise residential bills about $7 a month. That rate increase would go toward PSO’s plans to purchase a natural gas combined-cycle generation plant in Jenks. If approved by the OCC, the facility would add 795 megawatts of long-term power to PSO’s generation mix by June, which primarily includes renewable energy and natural gas, according to the utility.
In addition, PSO is seeking a separate rate increase this year of $5 a month for a net operating loss case. If all of those increases are eventually approved by the Corporation Commission, average PSO residential electricity customers would see average monthly bills about $29 higher than they were at the start of 2023.
As part of the settlement approved Jan. 15, PSO agreed not to file a new base-rate increase before Jan. 1, 2026, but that does not affect the two pending increases awaiting consideration this year. If the utility were to file for a rate increase on the first day of 2026, customers potentially wouldn’t see an increase until that July.
After the Jan. 15 vote, PSO’s president and chief operating officer, Leigh Anne Strahler, said the increase was vital for enhancing grid resiliency and reliability, which will lead to shorter and less frequent outages.
“With the increasing challenges posed by Oklahoma weather and growing energy demands, PSO recognizes the need for a grid that can effectively withstand these pressures and continue to serve our communities without interruption,” she said in a news release. “PSO is dedicated to ensuring that the infrastructure we provide is equipped to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s needs.”
OKC settles lawsuit over Stavian Rodriguez police shooting

The OKC City Council approved an $875,000 settlement for the family of Stavian Rodriguez during its Jan. 13 meeting. OKCPD officers shot and killed Rodriguez, who was 15 years old, in November 2020 as he surrendered following his botched robbery of a southwest Oklahoma City convenience store. The payment settles a lawsuit filed against the City of OKC by Cameo Holland, the mother of Rodriguez.
Ward 1 Councilman Bradley Carter, Ward 5 Councilman Matt Hinkle and Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher voted against the settlement. Ward 2 Ccouncilman James Cooper, Ward 3 Councilwoman Barbara Peck, Ward 4 Councilman Todd Stone, Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon and Ward 7 Councilman Lee Cooper voted in favor of the settlement. Mayor David Holt was not present during the portion of the meeting when the vote was conducted.
Surrounded by police and locked in owing to the store’s security system, Rodriguez climbed through a window and into the parking lot. He reached into his pants and grabbed a gun by its muzzle, which he dropped on the ground. With multiple officers shouting commands about getting on the ground, he reached toward his pants again. Several officers opened fire, hitting Rodriguez 13 times.
Initially, former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater charged five officers in connection with the shooting. However, Prater left office before the case proceeded to trial. After hiring a long-time law enforcement expert witness from California to review Prater’s charging decisions, new District Attorney Vicki Behnna dropped all charges against the officers who shot Rodriguez, along with charges against officers in two other police shootings.
The OKC City Council had placed the Rodriguez case’s settlement on the agenda for its last meeting of 2024, but members voted to defer further action until January. In November, the council approved a reported $1.05 million payment to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Bennie Edwards, an unhoused man who was fatally shot in the back by an OKCPD sergeant while running away from officers. Edwards, who had a knife at the time officers responded to a disturbance call, was experiencing psychosis and had paper products shoved in his ears when he was killed. Behenna dropped the charge against the officer who shot Edwards, as well.
Flintco tapped as Oklahoma County mental health facility contractor

The future of the much-maligned Oklahoma County behavioral care center got a little clearer as county commissioners unanimously approved a contract with Flintco on Jan. 15 to build the $44 million facility at 1901 E. Grand Boulevard near Del City. Some residents and activist groups have fought against the location, hoping to see the project moved somewhere else or killed altogether.
The facility will be paid for with $38.96 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and another $5.44 million from the county’s capital budget.
The project comes against the backdrop of a 45-page U.S. Department of Justice report earlier this month that found considerable deficiencies in how Oklahoma City police — and the county as a whole — interact with people with mental health problems.
“Oklahoma unnecessarily institutionalizes, or puts at serious risk of unnecessary institutionalization, adults with behavioral health disabilities in the Oklahoma County area, in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the report stated. “Together, the deficiencies in Oklahoma County’s behavioral health service system and Oklahoma City’s emergency response system lead to an unnecessary cycle of hospitalization and law enforcement contact.”
The behavioral health center is expected to be completed in late 2026. As proposed, the health center will connect to the new Oklahoma County Jail, which faces a major funding gap but was cleared for construction following a recent attorney general’s opinion that functionally invalidated the City of Oklahoma City’s efforts to block construction.
Supreme Court locks Keyes out

Robert Keyes, an oilman who narrowly lost a Senate District 15 Republican runoff in August, seems to have reached the end of his legal battle alleging election irregularities after the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently declined to take up his case.
The saga began three days after the Aug. 27 election when Keyes lost to Sen. Lisa Standridge (R-Norman), who is already making headlines two months into her legislative career for a proposal to prohibit every municipality other than OKC and Tulsa from providing services or shelters for the homeless.
Alleging election irregularities, Keyes filed a petition Aug. 30 arguing there was a mathematical discrepancy between the tally of votes reported by the Oklahoma State Election Board’s unofficial results website and the state’s Election Data Warehouse. His counsel further sought to establish whether Standridge’s campaign treasurer, Kay Osborne, had notarized more than 20 ballots in the election, a violation of Title 26, Section 14-108.1(C). (Under Title 26, Section 14-108(B), it is illegal for a campaign treasurer to notarize any ballots in an election involving their campaign, but Keyes’ lawyers did not list that statute as being in violation in their initial filing.)
The parties met in court Sept. 6 after a recount. According to court documents filed by lawyers representing the Oklahoma State Election Board, the Cleveland County Election Board and District Judge Jeff Virgin to the Supreme Court, Keyes’ counsel admitted alleged irregularities were “clearly not enough to create a mathematical discrepancy” in the election results, and both parties agreed to dismiss the petition after submitting “a proposed finding of fact” for Virgin’s ultimate finding. The parties were unable to agree on the content of the proposed orders, and they submitted different ones. Virgin approved Standridge’s proposal, which deemed the petition “withdrawn” instead of “dismissed” and as such would not consider proffered evidence. Keyes filed a motion to modify the ruling, arguing it was not what he had agreed to in court. That motion was dismissed in court Oct. 7, leading to Keyes’ Oct. 31 appeal to the Supreme Court that asked for Virgin to be directed to consider his counsel’s proffered evidence.
On Jan. 13, all nine Supreme Court justices concurred in denying Keyes’ application.
“While I am disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision not to consider my application without even stating a basis for not doing so, the evidence of illegal ballot harvesting is certainly now a matter of public record,” Keyes said in a press release.
The press release also called on Cleveland County’s incoming district attorney, Jennifer Austin, to prosecute both Osborne for notarizing ballots and Standridge for directing Osborne to do so. The press release cites the laws Keyes believes Osborne and Standridge violated, including Title 26, Section 14-101.1(A)(7). Ironically, new Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) has introduced SB 654 to make violations of that statute a misdemeanor, but Paxton’s proposal would eliminate the subsection Keyes alleges that Osborne violated.
“I will continue to fight for accountability, including, as here, looking to our elected officials to enforce laws that were designed to protect the sanctity and fairness of our election system,” Keyes said. “Justice may have been delayed here, but it should never be denied.”
Ethics Commission forwards rule changes to Legislature

The minimum state campaign contribution that must be reported would increase from $50 to $200 and lobbyists would be able to spend up to $750 instead of $500 on gifts and meals for an elected official in a calendar year if lawmakers agree with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission to amend its rules.
The five-member commission voted unanimously Jan. 17 to send 13 ethics rule amendments to legislators for their consideration during the 2025 legislative session. Any proposed rules not approved or disapproved by the Legislature are sent to the governor for his consideration.
Commissioners, for the most part, approved the amendments unchanged as they were presented during a public hearing last month. But they did make two significant changes:
- Removing the requirement that a contributor to a campaign must have a telephone number that must be answered by a person physically located in Oklahoma more than five hours per day; and
- Removing the requirement that if a contributor is acting on behalf of a corporation or nonprofit corporation, the corporation must be incorporated in Oklahoma.
Thomas Schneider, deputy general counsel to Attorney General Gentner Drummond, said prohibiting persons and PACs of corporations that are not based in Oklahoma from contributing to campaigns could violate the company’s constitutional rights and the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled that corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections.
“The first holding of the court of Citizens United is where you really can’t bar corporate spending or corporate speech in this area, and by eliminating the ability of foreign corporations, even Oklahoma-based foreign corporations, to engage in that speech, I think would be a bigger issue,” Schneider said.
A foreign corporation, as referenced by Schneider, refers to an existing corporation (or other type of corporate entity, such as a limited liability company) that conducts business in a state or jurisdiction other than where it was originally incorporated.
“As written, I think there are some problems that could be brought by either Oklahoma-based companies or companies who are foreign but have regular business dealings and in fact, you know, very robust business dealings in the state of Oklahoma by adopting the incorporation language,” Schneider said.
Rule amendments approved by the Ethics Commission and forwarded to the Legislature for its consideration include proposals that would:
- Add a new definition for foreign national, including “political caucus committee” as a type of political party committee;
- Clarify the definition of “independent expenditure”;
- Prohibit contributions by foreign nationals;
- Increase the floor for mandatory reporting of a campaign contribution from $50 to $200;
- Remove the requirement that a lobbyist or lobbyist principal physically attend an event — such as a dinner, concert or sporting event — provided to a legislator or state official;
- Increase the allowable aggregate total of meals and other gifts provided to an individual by a legislative liaison or legislative lobbyist from $500 to $750 in a calendar year; and
- Shorten the blackout period to receive a complaint alleging an ethics rule violation so that it concludes after the primary election if that election determines a race’s outcome.
Ethics Commission fines former DHS director of child care services
The former director of child care services for the Department of Human Services has been fined $2,000 for violating state ethics rules in connection with a substitute child care business that she founded and where her husband works.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission on Thursday announced it had reached a settlement agreement with Brittany Lee, who had been child care services director for DHS since 2020. At that time, she had 20 years experience in the early childhood sector.
Lee was fined $2,000 for violating Ethics Rule 4.4, which deals with misuse of office by a state officer, and Ethics Rule 4.7, which addresses state officer impartiality. She was given 60 days to pay by certified check to the Oklahoma Treasurer’s Office and provide proof of payment to the Ethics Commission. A spokeswoman for DHS declined to comment on the settlement other than to say Lee resigned from the agency Sept. 3.
The settlement said Lee was “fully cooperative” during the investigation, which she was notified of in a Dec. 18 letter. In the settlement agreement, the Ethics Commission provided few details of the situation that spurred the inquiry. However, the agency said there was no finding that her “failure to issue the warranted update of her husband’s occupational and financial status was intentional and knowingly made.” She had no prior allegations or findings of ethics rules violations, the agreement states.
Lee’s husband, Harold Lee Jr., co-founded Kidvation Global in October 2022. With after-school programs in northeast OKC and Norman, the company has received strong inspection scores from DHS. The company reportedly received a $1.95 million “Childcare Desert Grant” from DHS in 2023.
Brittany Lee, meanwhile, is the founder of Sensational Substitutes LLC in Oklahoma City. Formed in 2017, Sensational Substitutes offers substitutes for child care services, according to its website. It screens for qualified substitutes that the company matches with organizations of all sizes.
