Following her review of law enforcement agencies’ investigation, District Attorney Vicki Behenna announced today she has found “insufficient evidence to file criminal charges” related to Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ bizarre TV nudity saga that disrupted a state board meeting, yielded competing allegations of slander and presumably spiked viewership of Jackie Chan’s 1985 film The Protector.
In a two-sentence press release issued just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, Behenna’s director of communications, Brook Arbeitman, said their office had completed its review of the incident, which originated when two members of the State Board of Education reported seeing images of nude women on Walters’ office TV screen during an executive session of their July 24 meeting.
“The District Attorney’s Office has reviewed the investigation conducted by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office and reports provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation regarding nudity playing on a television in Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office during a State Board of Education meeting,” Arbeitman’s release stated. “After careful review, it has been determined there is insufficient evidence to file criminal charges.”
Five hours after Behenna announced the conclusion of her review, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson held a press conference at the Oklahoma County Courthouse to discuss how his agency handled the investigation.
“We are fact finders. We look at everything, we do thorough investigations, we collect all of the information, we submit it to the DA’s office, and that is their job (to make charging decisions),” Johnson said.
In response to an Open Records Act request, Johnson’s office released a 27-page report detailing the investigation. The report (embedded below) affirms the belief that the Reagan-era martial arts film accidentally playing on Walters’ TV spurred the incident, which Walters had suggested was a “coordinated attack to crucify my character” orchestrated by Gov. Kevin Stitt and his appointed State Board of Education appointees.
“The evidence shows there was nudity on Walters’ TV during the executive board meeting. It also shows this was unintentional and an isolated incident,” the OCSO report reads. “During multiple TV interviews (…) Walters denied this occurring and stated the reporting parties were sent by the governor to do this. No evidence was found that the governor had anything to do with this, nor was Carson or [Deatherage] sent to do this by the governor.”
Walters released a statement around 4:30 p.m.
“This concludes the biggest witch hunt in Oklahoma history,” Walters said. “Lies were spread about me and my character. Not only did the liberal lying media and my accusers sacrifice the truth, they worked to create a narrative to tear my agenda down and mission to reform Oklahoma schools and put parents back in charge. Liberal lies lost again.”
Report: Walters denied nudity to investigators, delayed access to electronics
In early August, Walters asked the Attorney General’s Office to approve the use of state funds to hire attorney John Cannon 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.”
While Walters’ office ultimately withdrew request, the OCSO report released Wednesday indicated that Cannon served as an intermediary between Walters and investigators.
Outlined in the investigatory report, Walters’ interview with OCSO investigators also revealed new details about his initial reaction to the incident. On July 29 — the same day he held a press conference outside Stitt’s office in which he called for State Board of Education members to resign and suggested Stitt ordered them to lie about the incident — Walters conducted his interview with sheriff’s office investigators. The same day, he claimed the OCSO investigation was concluded, which Johnson later refuted
“It’s certainly frustrating because, one, like I said, we had just started our investigation, and how dare anybody try to ruin the credibility of this agency and the professionalism that we bring to this office and to this community every day — to suggest that we would run a 24-hour investigation clearing him. That is not the case,” Johnson said Wednesday during his press conference. “He did come out prematurely and said that we cleared him, but I think I came out publicly right after that and told our citizens, told our community, that that is not the case. We did not clear him, that that investigation was still ongoing.”
Johnson also noted that House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) “came out prematurely” on Aug. 5 with a press release announcing his belief that the Jackie Chan movie had caused the kerfuffle.
“I think his heart was in the right place. I think when you look at the position he’s put in, the people who are potentially coming to him, asking for answers, asking for information, he’s certainly looking to protect his institution,” Johnson said of Hilbert. “He just wanted to bring it to a close as well. Not the appropriate way to go, but his heart was in the right place, and so with that I offer grace. You just saw a guy trying to solve a problem, and you know, we’ve talked through it, and he’s a good man.”
Other details from the OCSO report include:
- Walters stated he did not see nudity on the TV when he went to turn it off, the report states. Walters added it was “the most ridiculous thing he has seen in his life” and that he always had the TV on Fox News.
- Investigators then asked that, if Walters always had the channel set to Fox News, “why wouldn’t he verify what was being displayed.” When Walters said he did not know what was on the TV, so he turned it off, investigators “explained you could take a pause and confirm it was a news station.”
- Also on July 29, Walters told Fox 25 his office had “checked all the devices” involved with the incident. According to the OCSO report, however, OSBI asked Walters’ interim general counsel at the State Department of Education to make all of his electronic devices available for forensic review. However, Walters’ office did not respond to the first request and only on Aug. 5 did Cannon, the criminal defense attorney, respond to investigators. (The request for approval of Cannon for a state contract was signed Aug. 8 by Walters and submitted to the Attorney General’s Office on Aug. 11.)
- According to the OCSO report, deputy sheriffs and OSBI investigators had discussions “regarding obtaining the electronic devices issued to Superintendent Walters from the state, including the television witnesses reported seeing the nudity,” as well as Walters’ personal cell phone.
- When Cannon replied Aug. 5, he requested 14 days to respond to OCSO’s request. The same day, investigators replied to Cannon, stating that his 14-day timeline “seemed like a long time to process this request and the state issued equipment should be readily available.”
- Also on Aug. 5, OSBI and OCSO began to collaborate on potentially executing a search warrant for the devices. According to the report, “the probable cause for the search warrant was drafted but not signed or executed.”
During Johnson’s press conference, he and OCSO investigator Paul Harmon said Walters never relinquished his devices to investigators, but rather released downloaded information from his desktop computer, laptop computer, cell phone and an iPad.
“They provided us their own forensic download that they sent us, but they did not respond to our request,” Harmon said, later telling NonDoc that he believed Walters ultimately turned over a complete download of his devices.
Despite being frustrated by Walters’ premature claim that the criminal investigation had concluded, Johnson spoke positively of Walters’ compliance with his office.
“He was extremely compliant throughout the entire investigation,” Johnson said, declining to speculate as to whether Walters had been confused or deliberately incorrect about whether the investigation was continuing into August. “I can’t speak to what he thought.”
Further persons of interest interviewed by OCSO included Rep. Dick Lowe (R-Amber), seven Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers who escorted Walters the day of the TV nudity incident, Bethany Public Schools Superintendent Reuben Bellows and a parent who was part of the executive session. However, no one interviewed aside from Carson and Deatherage said they had a view of Walters’ office television.
Still, OCSO investigators were able to confirm with a Samsung representative that, during the time of the meeting, The Protector would have been airing on Samsung’s “Movie Hub Action” channel, which the TV opened to when examined July 29.
Walters’ reaction deepened divide with board members
Review of the TV nudity incident accelerated in late July after State Board of Education member Becky Carson filed a complaint through the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which asked the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the matter.
The already strange saga escalated into a public political spat when Walters accused Carson and other OSBE members appointed by Stitt of lying about the incident at the governor’s direction.
“My family has watched as board members stopped at nothing to stop education reform in the state of Oklahoma,” Walters said during his July 29 press conference. “These board members have a lot to answer for, and so does the governor of the state of Oklahoma. Did he direct these board members to lie about me? Did he direct his board members to go in and disrupt everything in these board meetings? Did he have the board fight against bringing private schools into the state for families?”
On July 30, Carson joined fellow OSBE members Ryan Deatherage and Michael Tinney for a News 9 interview, denying Walters’ collusion allegations.
In the OCSO report, investigators indicated that Deatherage and Carson were shown clips of The Protector featuring nudity, and each indicated that they were “comfortable” that the nude scenes were what they had witnessed on the TV.
Walters did not attend the most recent OSBE meeting, the first since the nudity incident, which was forced by board members after Walters canceled the board’s August meeting. During the Sept. 3 meeting, members voted to replace their former legal counsel, Chad Kutmas, whom some board members felt prioritized representing Walters as an individual, rather than the board in its entirety.
Speaking to the ongoing turmoil on the board under Walters’ direction, board member Chris VanDenhende compared the experience to “hand-to-hand combat.”
“Every single day, there is something else that we have to deal with,” VanDenhende said.
Board member Michael Tinney told NonDoc on Wednesday that questions of criminality had not been his primary concern throughout the saga.
“I am not aware of any law that is broken by the movie being on the TV. That did not bother me near as much as just the strenuous denials by Superintendent Walters that it ever happened and what I believe is defamation of certain board members,” Tinney said. “And the fact that he appeared to keep changing his stories, that is what bothers me.”
Asked about Walters suggesting that Stitt and his appointees had orchestrated the kung fu calamity, Johnson said he would leave that to the statewide politicians.
“The quarrel between everybody involved really isn’t my business,” Johnson said. “What we were charged to do was find the facts, what happened. And I think our guys did an amazing job of doing that, and that is reflected here. Everything else is certainly something that they are going to have to handle amongst them.”
Read the OCSO investigatory report
(Update: This article was updated at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, to include comment from Walters and Michael Tinney. The article was updated again at 9:02 p.m. to correct attribution of a quote to Chris VanDenhende. NonDoc regrets the error.)
