With a removal action pending before the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary, Garfield County Associate Judge Brian Lovell resigned Monday, saying a recent diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia “explains the behavioral disturbances” that have drawn criminal charges and internet infamy.
While the resignation made Lovell’s removal case moot, he still faces criminal charges in Garfield County and Travis County, Texas, for separate incidents involving the unlawful discharge of a firearm.
Lovell revealed his dementia diagnosis in court filings Aug. 28. Since Lovell resigned during a pending discipline investigation, he is barred by statute from ever holding judicial office in the state again.
“During the last several weeks I have undergone a psychiatric evaluation of myself and certain behavioral disturbances in order to determine the cause of these disturbances,” Lovell wrote in his resignation letter. “This diagnosis, according to [Dr. Jason Beaman], explains the behavioral disturbances that have been attributed to me in the past, and which to me and my family seem totally out of character for me. (…) Both Dr. Beaman’s diagnosis, the results of MRI and CT scans, surgical operations and procedures and their findings convince me that I am no longer able, in good faith, to continue as a member of the judiciary. The disease I have been diagnosed with is progressive, there is no known cure, it can only be medically managed until death. It has been my honor and privilege to serve the people of the state of Oklahoma.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt will appoint Lovell’s replacement, his fifth judicial appointment of 2024. Stitt’s last judicial appointment came June 27, when he appointed Sarah L. Bridge to replace District Judge Traci L. Soderstrom in Lincoln County.
As news of his criminal charges spread, Lovell was suspended from adjudicating cases but remained in office. On June 27, Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice M. John Kane IV filed a petition seeking Lovell’s removal from office by the Court of the Judiciary, a special panel with jurisdiction over judicial misconduct in Oklahoma’s state courts.
Notably, Kane’s petition did not focus on Lovell’s alleged criminal wrongdoing, which included firing at his brother-in-law’s home and shooting at vehicles in Austin, Texas. Instead, the allegation’s against Lovell focused on a combination of various technical mistakes, alleged favoritism for some attorneys in his court and salacious affairs with court staff.
Lovell initially responded to the petitions by accusing the Court of the Judiciary of acting as a “gestapo” and a “star chamber,” claiming the removal action was an attempt to “humiliate” him into resigning. The married judge had also argued that the sexual misconduct allegations against him were made public for the same reason.
“[Lovell’s] removal is sought because news of the Travis County and Bison incidents are embarrassing to the Oklahoma Supreme Court,” Lovell’s response, submitted by attorney William Jewell, argued. “The amended petition is an amalgamation of allegations against respondent relating to setting bond, interacting with attorneys, and sex. It is intended to embarrass respondent, his family, his friends, colleagues, former colleagues, and others. The objective of the amended petition is to humiliate respondent to the point that he will voluntarily resign. (…) It is an expression of sexual shaming against two innocent women who served the Garfield County District Court for years.”
Lovell has been accused of and investigated for two affairs with bailiffs, at least one of which involved sexual encounters at the Garfield County Courthouse.
In his response to the removal petition, Lovell took a sex-positive position in his filings by arguing that “in Judeo Christian life, sex is viewed to be a gift from God.”
Lovell defended his first relationship with a bailiff, back in 2011, by arguing it had “judicial sanction” because other judges learned of the allegation and still voted to retain him as a special judge. On his second relationship with a bailiff, he argued the affair constituted a matter of “private morality” and included no appearance of impropriety because no one in the court knew about the relationship before his suspension.
Lovell defended courthouse affairs, criticized sexual shaming
Lovell’s Aug. 13 brief was highly critical of Kane’s amended removal petition and the decision to publicly release the names of the two bailiffs with whom he had affairs.
In 2011, Lovell was an appointed special judge when he had an affair with Judge Paul Woodward’s bailiff. After the affair was discovered, the woman resigned but Lovell was allowed to keep his job, which he later described as “judicial sanction” of his conduct.
According to court filings, five district court judges — Greg Zigler, Doug Haught, Ray Dean Linder, Paul K. Woodward and Dennis Hladik — were informed of Lovell’s first affair and deliberated on whether he should remain on the bench. While a majority voted to keep him in office, it is unclear how many or which judges voted to retain Lovell in 2011.
In 2023, after Lovell had become an associate district judge, he again engaged in sexual pursuit of another bailiff assigned to Woodward. According to a deposition given by the woman, she and Lovell “made out one time in Judge Woodward’s bathroom” and did other less specific sexual acts on an allegedly impressive courthouse table she had brought from home.
“I was really proud of that table,” the bailiff said in her deposition. “But not for that reason.”
The second bailiff also left their job at the courthouse after the affair with Lovell came to light. While the first affair happened more than a decade before his dementia diagnosis, the second affair occurred in 2023, less than a year before Lovell was arrested for firing a pistol at vehicles in Texas. According to a newsletter from the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, individuals with the disease may experience “hypersexuality” and “decreased abilities to inhibit sexual needs and desires.”
As Brian Lovell resigns, his drive-by shooting cases continue
Oklahoma’s multi-county grand jury indicted Lovell on May 9 on two felony charges related to his drive-by shooting at his brother-in-law’s home: use of a vehicle to facilitate the discharge of a firearm and discharging a firearm at or into a dwelling. Comanche County District Judge Grant Sheperd was appointed by Kane to oversee an Aug. 30 preliminary hearing.
At the hearing, Sheperd ruled there was enough evidence for the case to continue, de facto denied a motion to quash the indictment, and set Lovell’s arraignment for Sept. 27.
On Sept. 3, Kane appointed Comanche County District Judge Emmit Tayloe to oversee Lovell’s criminal trial. Lovell’s dementia diagnosis could affect his criminal trials if the court finds he was not mentally competent at the time of the shootings.
Read Judge Brian Lovell’s resignation letter
