
(Update: On Sunday, Jan. 26, Sen. Regina Goodwin entered a plea of no contest and paid $249 online to resolve the traffic citation referenced below. The following article remains in its original form.)
Sen. Regina Goodwin is challenging a traffic citation that turned into a half-hour ordeal captured by body camera footage showing the longtime legislator repeatedly arguing with a deputy sheriff, refusing to provide her driver’s license and being encouraged to conclude the discussion by an attorney and Tulsa’s new mayor.
“The issue will be handled in court,” Goodwin said by text message Thursday.
Goodwin (D-Tulsa) was stopped along Archer Street west of Cincinnati Avenue shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, when Tulsa County Sheriff’s Deputy Freddie Alaniz said she floated two stop signs. The tense scene recorded by Alaniz’s body-worn camera (embedded above) opens with Goodwin standing outside her vehicle insisting she had not run any stop signs. After Alaniz asked Goodwin for her driver’s license 15 times, he eventually placed her in handcuffs and detained her in his patrol vehicle.
“Ma’am, I’m not going to ask you again. Can I get your driver’s license, or can I take you to jail on running a stop sign?” Alaniz asked Goodwin shortly after pulling her over. “I’m not going to ask you again. It’s not for debate.”
Although Alaniz detained Goodwin in handcuffs for about 12 minutes, she ultimately was released at the scene with a citation for failure to stop at a stop sign. She faces a Feb. 25 court appearance unless she pays the ticket before then.
While the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage, a spokeswoman said no reports were written about the incident because it was a traffic stop. The spokeswoman also declined to make a copy of Goodwin’s citation available and said Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado had no comment “at this time.”
Known as an impassioned debater willing to confront her legislative colleagues, Goodwin was elected to her first term as a state senator in November. Before that, she served nine years in the Oklahoma House, meaning she is eligible for only one four-year term in the Senate before she is term-limited.
Deputy to Goodwin: ‘You just keep making things up’

Although she was not arrested, Goodwin becomes the third Oklahoma legislator over the last two and a half years to be recorded on body camera arguing with law enforcement officers. In October 2022, then-Rep. Ryan Martinez (R-Edmond) falsely claimed the Legislature was in session — and that lawmakers could not be detained during session — while being arrested for DUI. In March 2023, then-Rep. Dean Davis (R-Broken Arrow) also falsely argued that police “can’t detain” legislators during session when an Oklahoma City Police Department officer found him on a bar’s patio after it had closed.
While Goodwin’s encounter with Alaniz in Tulsa only stemmed from a traffic stop, she repeatedly argued with the deputy about what had or had not recurred, falsely arguing that she never refused to provide her driver’s license. As Alaniz led a handcuffed Goodwin into his vehicle, his frustration with Goodwin’s ongoing debate grew.
“You just keep making things up,” Alaniz said. “You just keep saying these different things and different words. You keep saying that I’m saying things that I did not say.”
Minutes later, Alaniz described to another deputy the details of the traffic stop, saying he pulled Goodwin over for rolling two stop signs and “hauling butt” down Archer Street.
“She ran this stop sign back here and the other one that’s a little further down. Just came up, slowed down, and then [zoom] right through them,” Alaniz said. “She was driving so fast that, when she was hitting the puddles of water, it was just [splash] shooting them out. So that’s why I came up and pulled her over. And (as) I was getting out, she got out of her car, ‘Why are you stopping me?’ You know, just kind of got very verbal. I asked for her driver’s license numerous, numerous times, and she wouldn’t give it to me.”
After she was handcuffed, Goodwin again attempted to argue with Alaniz about their interaction:
Goodwin: “I’m disputing that I didn’t stop at the stop at the stop sign, but I said, ‘Why would you arrest me for that?’ is what I said.”
Alaniz: “Cause you’re refusing to give me your driver’s license.”
Goodwin: “That is not true. That is not true at all. I was having a conversation, and you just all of a sudden said, ‘I’ll arrest you.'”
Alaniz: “No, I said, ‘Or, I can arrest you if that’s what you want.’
Goodwin: “I think you really escalated something. No, sir — that is, why would that even be an option for you?”
Alaniz: “Because you’re refusing to give me your driver’s license.”
Goodwin: “There was no refusal of me to give you my driver’s license.”
Alaniz: “I asked you over five times to give me your driver’s license and you kept debating your driver’s license.”
Goodwin: “I was not at all debating my driver’s license, sir, that is not correct.”
After Goodwin was placed in the vehicle, an attorney with whom Goodwin was preparing to meet — and who witnessed the interaction — spoke with the deputy on her behalf, apparently revealing for the first time that Goodwin is an elected legislator.
“I realize you have a job to do, officer,” said Mike Manning. “I realize Sen. Goodwin can be a little bit strong-headed at times, but don’t you think you can write her a citation or something? She’ll give you her driver’s license.”
“Yeah, yeah, I can absolutely do that,” Alaniz said. “I don’t need to ask her 10 times for her driver’s license.”
Manning replied: “I saw it. I realize.”
“I don’t have an issue writing her a citation or letting her go, but I’m the one that’s in command of the traffic stop, not her,” Alaniz said. “She blatantly ran two stop signs, and I was just going to give her a verbal warning and tell her not to do that, but her demeanor — the way that she was — I can’t have that.”
While Alaniz initially told Goodwin he was giving her a citation, Manning said he understood the deputy’s position.
“If I don’t allow other people to do that when I do a traffic stop, I’m not going to allow her either,” Alaniz said.
Manning accompanied Alaniz back to his vehicle and implored Goodwin to cooperate with the deputy.
“Can we just give the ID, give the driver’s license, take a deep breath and everything and then let’s go from there, OK?” Manning asked Goodwin.
Perhaps channeling the Senate’s unlimited debate rule, Goodwin continued to be disagreeable, initially declining to provide her first name before ultimately complying with requests for information.
Eventually, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols appeared at the scene, and Tulsa City Councilwoman Laura Bellis also apparently witnessed the incident.
Until November, Nichols had served alongside Goodwin in the House Democratic Caucus.
“This is just someone who got pulled over who happens to be a state senator, and a common friend that we have who happens to call her former colleague who is the mayor who was close enough and in the area to stop by who then had a very calm and fine exchange with sheriff’s deputies, and at the end of the day that’s all that happened,” Nichols told News on 6, which first reported the incident. “Before I was mayor I was always Monroe, and you know how you had a friend who could have been in a situation where maybe it’s good to have a friend there with you, and that’s all that was.”
After Goodwin was released from handcuffs, she again attempted to argue with Alaniz about details of their encounter.
“Ma’am, I’m not going to debate that,” Alaniz said. “It’s on body cam.”
That exchange prompted Nichols to speak up.
“Regina, let’s take care of it in court,” Nichols said.
Alaniz offered Goodwin parting advice.
“You’re free to go,” he said. “Make sure you stop at all the stop signs when you’re coming through downtown.”