With District Attorney Vicki Behenna reviewing a completed law enforcement report on the TV nudity debacle at Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ office, emails indicate the firebrand politician is seeking to hire an attorney for “pre-charge criminal defense in Oklahoma County covering advising on and recommending strategies to minimize the likelihood of criminal charges being filed, as well as preparing for the possibility of charges.”
“The in-house legal department does not have sufficient staff to maintain agency business and fully defend this case. In addition, in-house counsel and staff may be witnesses and would thereby be conflicted,” stated a 20i application signed Aug. 8 by Walters and submitted to Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office Aug. 11.
The application and related emails were released to NonDoc by Drummond’s office as part of a broader Open Records Act request about changes in legal counsel for the State Department of Education and the State Board of Education.
According to the 20i application — a reference to the Title 74 statute governing legal representation — Walters has attempted to hire Oklahoma City attorney John Cannon for help responding to the criminal investigation of how a TV in his office reportedly displayed nudity during a State Board of Education executive session July 24.
After reviewing state agency and private reports that examined the Samsung TV in Walters’ office, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) said Aug. 5 that he believes The Protector, a 1985 movie starring Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello, somehow played on Channel 1204 of the television. The movie aired on that channel during the time of the board meeting, and it includes multiple scenes featuring nude women, including one in which Aiello receives fellatio while lying on a massage table.
Hours before Hilbert released his statement about the Jackie Chan movie, OSDE interim general counsel Jacki Phelps contacted the Attorney General’s Office inquiring about how to approve a contract between OSDE and Cannon, the owner and founder of the Cannon & Associates law firm, which primarily handles criminal defense and family law matters, as well as some civil litigation.
Over the course of a week, Phelps corresponded with Assistant Attorney General Kindanne “Kindy” Jones and OAG general counsel Brad Clark, attaching Walters’ formal application to be represented by Cannon to an Aug. 11 email.
“This matter is predicated on accusations raised accusing the superintendent of inappropriate conduct during the State Board of Education meeting on July 24, 2025, and the resulting investigation into potential criminal matters,” Walters’ request stated. “Agency attorneys are potential witnesses and may be conflicted from representation. Out of an abundance of caution and the interest of public transparency, outside counsel is required.”
Under the 20i statute, attorney contracts expected to exceed $20,000 must be approved by the Attorney General’s Office. The OSDE application to hire Cannon listed Walters are the “client” and noted an anticipated total cost of $100,000.
Email records show Phelps met with Clark on Aug. 13, with an email to schedule the meeting saying Phelps had “a couple things” she needed “to run by” Clark. The next day, Phelps wrote back to Jones and said OSDE was withdrawing the application to hire Cannon.
“After some consideration, I believe it is in the best interest to withdraw the application I previously submitted on behalf of John Cannon at this time,” Phelps wrote.
Last week, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson’s office said its investigation into the TV incident has been turned over to Behenna, the Oklahoma County DA, for review. On Tuesday, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation director Greg Mashburn confirmed that OSBI “assisted the sheriff” with the report “turned over” to Behenna.
Walters’ communications director, Quinton Hitchcock, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday morning prior to the publication of this article.
Carson calls Kutmas ‘uncooperative, belittling and argumentative’
In the latest friction between the Oklahoma State Board of Education and Superintendent Ryan Walters, Chad Kutmas, who represented the board as general counsel for about 10 months, has departed that position after three board members contacted Drummond’s office and requested a change in representation. Kutmas had simultaneously represented Walters in pending civil litigation, which raised conflict of interest concerns.
As first reported by Andrea Eger of the Tulsa World, Joel Wohlgemuth, a partner at the Tulsa-based firm Norman Wohlgemuth where Kutmas works, formally withdrew the firm’s services in a letter to Walters dated Aug. 12.
“As you know, this firm has represented the State Board of Education as its general counsel and in regard to select litigation involving the board since October 2024,” the letter stated, according to the Tulsa World. “Based upon recent developments questioning the scope and extent of the power and authority of members of the board, many of whom were appointed after this firm was retained, vis-à-vis your power and authority as chairman and president of the board, we believe it is in the best interest of the board, and appropriate as a matter of our professional responsibilities, to withdraw as general counsel to the board to avoid any conflicts of interest or even the appearance of any conflicts of interest in regard to these issues.”
In emails to the Attorney General’s Office on July 28 and July 29, State Board of Education members Becky Carson, Ryan Deatherage and Chris VanDenhende accused Kutmas of constantly acting in Walters’ favor and with little regard for broader board member interests.
Carson, Deatherage and VanDenhende were appointed to the board by Gov. Kevin Stitt this year, and all three have clashed with Walters in various capacities. Deatherage and VanDenhende, who were appointed alongside Michael Tinney in February when Stitt determined the board had “fallen prey to needless political drama,” openly questioned the board’s prior oversight of Walters’ agency in their first meeting.
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Walters’ relationship with the new board members has only soured since then, and Carson and Deatherage reported seeing nudity on Walters’ office TV during a July 24 executive session. Walters called their claims “lies” and suggested they were working with Stitt in a coordinated political attack. Carson, in turn, accused Walters of lying and “character assassination.”
Carson wrote the first formal request for Kutmas’ removal July 28.
“As a member of the board, I believe that we no longer have trust in Mr. Kutmas. He is often uncooperative, belittling and argumentative with board members,” Carson wrote. “He does not represent the best interest of the board, which is what he is contracted to do. He has made it apparent in his actions, or lack of, that we as a board are not his priority.”
Deatherage made the second request July 29, five days after the TV debacle.
“In my opinion, Mr. Kutmas does not adequately represent the interests of the full board, but rather aligns solely with State Superintendent Walters,” Deatherage wrote. “As such, I believe it is in the best interest of the board to reconsider this contractual relationship.”
Chris VanDenhende rounded out the three requests in a July 29 email noting he had previously spoken with Clark over the phone about the issue.
“I have found the legal representation [provided] to the State Board of Education by the firm of Norman Wohlgemuth and specifically Chad J. Kutmas to be unacceptable,” he wrote. “Mr. Kutmas appears to believe he is Superintendent Ryan Walters’ personal board attorney and in that regard is obstructionist in his behavior and legal guidance.”
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Agencies, governing boards have different legal interests
Kutmas — a partner at the Tulsa-based law firm Norman Wohlegumuth — had served as the board’s legal counsel since a last-minute attorney swap in October 2024 when Drummond denied OSDE’s request to rehire former board counsel Cara Nicklas, who had been retained in October 2023.
Issues between OSDE and the AG’s office arose after Nicklas advised board members they did not have to allow state legislators to enter and observe the meetings’ executive sessions, a move Drummond said was a “willful violation of the law.”
Drummond temporarily placed Clark, who had served as general counsel for OSDE and the State Board of Education under former Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, in the position. Then Drummond approved the board’s request to hire Kutmas as its attorney.
In recent years, concerns about state agencies and their governing boards sharing legal counsel have been highlighted during periods of upheaval. Now, entities like the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, the Oklahoma Veterans Commission and the State Board of Education all maintain different legal counsel than the agency attorneys who previously represented them as well.
During Hofmeister’s tenure as state superintendent, Clark served as both department and board counsel. What was then common practice began to be questioned after Hofmeister decided to run against Stitt in the 2024 gubernatorial race, subsequently frustrating his appointed OSBE members.
Following Hofmeister’s announcement, OSBE members asked to have separate legal counsel from the department.
In recent months, Kutmas’ work as the State Board of Education’s attorney raised concerns regarding a possible conflict of interest, as some noted he is representing Walters personally in a defamation lawsuit filed by then-Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller.
Although the concerns were never discussed publicly at OSBE meetings, Stitt’s newly appointed board members have frequently gotten into public spats with Kutmas during OSBE meetings regarding control over what appears on meeting agendas and the overall decision-making power that board members have.
At the new board members’ first official meeting Feb. 27, Deatherage, VanDenhende and Tinney attempted to wrest some control over the meeting away from Walters, and they asked for a new vote on a controversial immigration rule the board had approved the month before. Kutmas said such a vote could not occur because it was not on the day’s agenda. At one point, the new members seemed frustrated with Kutmas’ repeated assertions that control of board meeting agendas lies only with Walters, the board’s chairman.
In his July 29 email to Clark seeking a change in board representation, VanDenhende attached examples of correspondence with Kutmas, although the Attorney General’s Office redacted those exchanges before releasing the emails to NonDoc.
“Thank you for your time and assistance and I look forward to hearing how we can move forward with removal of Mr. Kutmas,” VanDenhende wrote.
Read the emails released by the AG’s office
(Correction: This story was updated at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, to correct the spelling of Chris VanDenhende’s name.)
