WILBURTON — A year after a Wilburton mother called police to report her ex-husband’s violent attack on their teenage son, the accused abuser, Latimer County Undersheriff Markus Ward II, walked out of a Haskell County courtroom in September with probation and a $100 fine.
Ward, 41, pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor count of assault and battery Sept. 23. Along with serving as the undersheriff for Latimer County, Ward is also the vice president of the Wilburton Public Schools Board of Education.
Latimer County Sheriff Adam Woodruff said in a Nov. 27, 2024, press release that he placed Ward on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.
But Woodruff did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the matter now that it is adjudicated. The Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training’s records show Ward’s full-time peace officer certification remains active, and Ward is still listed as an undersheriff on the Latimer County Sheriff’s Office website.
Minutes from the Wilburton Board of Education show Ward remains active and attending meetings. Representatives from Wilburton Public Schools also did not respond to requests for comment via phone or email.
The case began in October 2024, when the victim’s mother reported to the Wilburton Police Department that her 16-year-old son had been assaulted by his father, Ward, who shared joint custody of the teen.
According to a probable cause affidavit prepared by Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent Morris Stewart, the violence stretched back at least a year. The document, which Ward later acknowledged as the basis for his plea, outlined a pattern of abuse, which included slaps, punches and incidents of strangulation.
Stewart’s report states that, over the 2024 spring break, Ward punched his son in the face after feeling a vape in his pocket, leaving the teen with a busted lip and cuts in the mouth from his braces.
In another incident over Labor Day weekend in 2024, Ward allegedly backhanded the teen before forcing a vape into the boy’s mouth and making him breathe through the vape for a minute. The affidavit says Ward then grabbed his son by the neck and squeezed until the teen could not breathe. Witnesses, including the victim’s mother and 11-year-old half-sister, later corroborated parts of the story.
The worst accusation of violence came Oct. 5, 2024, at Ward’s home in rural Latimer County. Ward accused his son of using a confiscated tablet to message his girlfriend. When the teen denied it, the affidavit says Ward threw him to the ground, kicked him, and struck him “10-15 times” with a belt. He then allegedly kneed the teen in the chest and kicked him in the groin.
The victim said Ward struck him several more times, and he was concerned he was going to be knocked out “because every time he was struck, his eyes would flash white,” the affidavit states.
When the teen was being driven to his mother’s house, Ward allegedly called the teen’s mother and said, “I’m bringing you your son because if I don’t, I’m going to kill him by the end of the night.”
The mother told investigators her son arrived home bleeding and shaking, with cuts in his mouth from his braces and his eyes swelling shut.
The boy’s stepfather said he went outside to confront Ward, who admitted he had “lost his temper.” Ward later refused an interview with OSBI but said in a written statement that he had “disciplined” his son with a belt and only “accidentally” hit him in the face while trying to block the teen from swinging at him. Ward claimed the bruising to the teen’s eyes was from “horseplay at school.”
District 17 District Attorney Mark Matloff filed a misdemeanor charge for domestic assault and battery against Ward on Nov. 26, 2024, after District 16 District Attorney Kevin Merritt recused himself from the case owing to a conflict.
Records show Latimer County judges also recused themselves from the case. Haskell County Judge Brian Henderson was assigned the case.
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Victim to Ward: ‘You broke me’
The victim’s attorney, Brecken Wagner, said he was hired out of fear that Ward would receive preferential treatment given his occupation.
“This case started nearly a year ago in October of 2024, when Mr. Ward was arrested. I was hired to represent my young client’s interests under the concern that Mr. Ward would receive some special treatment due to his law enforcement position,” Wagner said in a statement on Facebook Sept. 25. “Well, that is exactly what happened.”
Matloff, in December 2024, filed an unopposed motion and order to amend the charge against Ward from domestic assault and battery to simple assault and battery.
Ward’s attorney, Wesley Cherry, filed a motion to dismiss the misdemeanor charge in May 2025, arguing that Ward was disciplining his son, which is allowed under state law.
Federal law prohibits those who are convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence from owning a gun, with no exception for law enforcement. Title 21, Section 1272 also prohibits someone convicted of assault and battery from carrying a firearm.
When Ward pleaded no contest to the new charge Sept. 23 at the Haskell County Courthouse in Stigler, the plea agreement called for six months of probation and a $100 fine. If he completes probation without additional violations, the case would be eligible for dismissal and expungement from his record.
“Mr. Ward agreed that the basis for his plea of ‘no contest’ would be the allegations made in the probable cause affidavit,” Wagner said. “Mr. Ward did not plead guilty to those allegations, but he did state on the record that those allegations are undisputed by entering his plea.”
Before the court finalized Ward’s plea, Wagner said the teen asked him to read a statement he had written.
“On the fifth day of October of 2024, you broke me,” the letter said.
The teen described his father’s insults — “fucking piece of shit, dumbass” — and said that he relived “every single punch, slap, kick, headlock and choke hold.”
Wagner said the teen also wrote about what happened after he came forward, losing his savings, his reputation in town and his contact with his father’s side of the family.
“I feel like I don’t belong in my community because of the lies that you spread to protect yourself,” Wagner said the victim stated. “I feel unwanted and unwelcome. You made me believe I was a failure in life. I am just a kid.”
In his Facebook post, Wagner said he struggled to keep his voice from cracking when he read the final sentence written by the teen victim.
“You might have broken me and knocked me down,” the letter said, “but I got up.”
(Correction: This article was updated at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, to note the existence of Title 21, Section 1272, Subsection A6 regarding the carrying of firearms.)
