After learning that defense attorney Joe White has become the campaign committee chairman for a man seeking to unseat her in the 2026 election cycle, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Susan Stallings recused Tuesday from the lingering criminal case against Ben Harris and David Chaney, the owners of Epic Youth Services who are accused of carrying out what is alleged to be the largest embezzlement scheme in state history.
Meanwhile, the attorney for co-defendant Josh Brock — the former Epic CFO who has agreed to testify for prosecutors in exchange for consideration on his charges — withdrew a motion for Chaney’s attorney to recuse. That motion arose in May 2023 before White, who represents Harris, and Gary Wood, who represents Chaney, could cross examine Brock to conclude the case’s preliminary hearing, which had begun in March 2023. Ultimately, it combined with other procedural issues to pause the hearing for what will ultimately be nearly two years.
“We’re trying to move this along. We believe that if that had gone through, we believe it could have been at least a year to a year-and-a-half by the time it goes through the appellate court,” Irvin Box, Brock’s attorney, said after Tuesday’s hearing. “Since we have been negotiating with the AG’s office, we believe we are in good position and believe that we’d like to have this criminal proceeding moved on, get the preliminary hearing over with so we can resolve it for our client.”
Before recusing, Stallings set Feb. 25, 26 and 27 as dates for the long-delayed preliminary hearing to resume. Box called Tuesday’s hearing “a shitshow” and said he has never seen a case stuck in the preliminary hearing phase for two years.
“Now, I have been in a lot of them that have lasted longer than this trying to get to preliminary,” Box said. “But we already started preliminaries, as you know, and we are right in the middle of it. But nothing like this.”
Stallings’ recusal comes more than a year after White first asked her to step away from the case. While White had initially objected to Stallings’ past employment in the office of former District Attorney David Prater, who filed the racketeering and conspiracy charges in June 2022, he said late Tuesday that his motivation for becoming Warren Plunk’s campaign chairman stemmed from decisions Stallings made before recusing from the ongoing attempt to re-prosecute Richard Glossip.
Asked whether becoming campaign committee chairman for a candidate against a judge handling his defendant’s case inherently set up a conflict or a need for recusal, White said, “No.”
“I can’t speak for Judge Stallings,” he said. “The fact that I’m involved in the Epic case doesn’t have anything to do with me serving as chairperson to Warren Plunk’s bid to unseat (her) and become district court judge in that district. I understand it’s District 7, Seat 10, I believe. You know, I’ve grown up working as a criminal defense lawyer. What I saw happen in the Glossip case reinvigorated my desire to assist whoever might challenge that particular judge that was making certain rulings in the Glossip case that I clearly did not agree with.”
White said he could not discuss his in camera — or private — conversations with Stallings that led to her recusal over his position as chairman of Plunk’s campaign committee, which may still be forming.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma Ethics Commission executive director Lee Anne Bruce Boone said Plunk has not registered a campaign committee with her agency for any office.
With the case finally set to resume its preliminary hearing, White said his client has “speedy trial issues we’re concerned with.”
“We’re not the one that caused this delay. We’re not the ones that sought Gary Wood’s disqualification, and we’ve been battling that issue, I think, completely unnecessarily over this long period of time. And they withdrew it today. So, thankfully, we get to get back to where we were when I was ready to rise and cross examine Josh Brock and the Boxes threw that oddball request to try and recuse Gary. And it’s taken this long — through no fault of our people — to now ultimately have it withdrawn, and let’s go back to preliminary hearing, and let’s get back to business to see if they can get over a demur. Because we don’t believe any crimes have ever been committed, period. End of story.”
While White critiqued Irvin Box’s recusal motion against Wood as “oddball,” Box criticized Wood’s request Tuesday for financial “sanctions” against him.
“He asked for sanctions against us for making his client pay money over the last year — $100,000 he claimed his client has spent defending [our] motion to recuse, which is beyond absurd,” Box said. “But anyway, he did ask for that. The judge didn’t grant that or do anything. She told him he would have to file something.”
Special Judge Jason Glidewell will continue to handle the remainder of the preliminary hearing when it resumes Feb. 25. District Court Judge Richard Ogden, the presiding judge for Oklahoma County, would name a trial judge if Harris and Chaney are ultimately bound over for the case to continue.
White, Box and others in the courtroom said they thought District Judge Lydia Green may have been assigned to the case, but online records did not reflect that by Wednesday morning.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office is handling the high-profile criminal case, which has frustrated onlookers and prosecutors amid the lengthy delays.
“The preliminary hearing should be concluded by the end of February,” Shauna Peters, a spokesperson for Drummond said in a statement Tuesday. “We are pleased that the criminal prosecution is back on track.”
(Update: This article was updated at 3:55 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, to include information from the Oklahoma Ethics Commission that Warren Plunk had not registered a campaign committee.)
