Where did the summer go? Many students have already gone back to class, and more will this week. Labor Day, which usually marks the end of the summer season, is less than a month away, as is the start of high school, college and professional football.
Perhaps you’ve been taking some time off or just trying to stay cool, but if you missed the growing brouhaha between Oklahoma County and state health officials, a federal judge blocking a new Title IX rule for Oklahoma, and a new director being named for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, this roundup is for you.
Also, thanks to the largest federal grant in state transportation history, engineering work can start for replacement of the bridge over Lake Texoma, and motorists traveling the Turner Turnpike near Wellston will be shifted to an alternate roadway as the original 1953 bridge over Interstate 44 is being torn down and replaced.
Meanwhile, a slate of other education-related situations have seen developments. And if you can spare a dime, a popular Oklahoma sports journalist might need it thanks to a new lawsuit.
Find updates and details about those matters and more below.
Oklahoma County takes OSDH to court over jail visits
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s office is asking a judge to bar the Oklahoma State Department of Health from conducting unannounced county jail inspections.
With the county’s other jail-related lawsuit against the City of Oklahoma City pending, the latest court fight stems from two unannounced morning inspections attempted by OSDH officials in June and July. In both cases, inspectors were rebuffed by jail staff. In the first instance, jail officials said there was not enough staff to conduct the inspection safely. In the second, jail officials changed tact and began disputing OSDH’s authority to conduct the inspections without prior scheduling. The jail has failed nine consecutive inspections, but the last two were solely based on access to the facility.
In the county’s July 29 petition, Assistant District Attorney Aaron Etherington opened with a quote from former President Donald Trump about “the threat from within” and name-checked Vlad the Impaler while arguing that OSDH lacks statutory authority to conduct unannounced inspections and that such inspections create staffing and safety problems for inspectors. In the filing, Oklahoma County claims each unannounced inspection takes three full days and requires up to a dozen additional staff members to be on duty at the facility while the inspections are conducted.
Oklahoma County wrote that, if relief is not granted, it faces irreparable harm through fines and other administrative actions by OSDH. Meanwhile, the county said in its filing that OSDH does not face significant harm in conducting scheduled inspections. Additionally, the county argues that the public is served by agencies acting within their legal authority.
“At issue in the present case is not the propriety of jail inspections. Everyone can agree that the annual jail inspection may serve some legitimate function,” Etherington wrote. “However, when the department attempts to conduct unannounced inspections, it not only goes outside of the powers granted to it by the Legislature, but it jeopardizes the very goals the inspection process is designed to protect in the first instance.”
Underscoring the complicated relationship between Oklahoma County and OSDH, Behenna’s first assistant district attorney is Mykel Fry, who joined the county after serving as general counsel for OSDH, a role that had her on the opposite side of the table during conversations with the DA’s office about Oklahoma County Jail inspections less than two years ago.
Although OSDH has yet to file a reply to the county’s lawsuit, the agency is likely to argue that pre-scheduling jail inspections would allow counties to cover up issues related to hygiene, overcrowding and under-staffing. In recent years, OSDH inspections have highlighted significant concerns at the jails of Comanche County and Hughes County, where the DA eventually convinced commissioners to shut down the subterranean detention center in Holdenville.
Preliminary injunction pauses new Title IX rule for Oklahoma
On July 31, one day before a sweeping new Title IX rule meant to expand protections for transgender people was set to take effect, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction pausing implementation pending further legal proceedings.
Criticized for its potential effects regarding protections currently in place for women, the rule had already been blocked in numerous other states, and U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma Jodi Dishman’s preliminary injunction order — which applies only to Oklahoma — means the rule only took effect in 24 states this month.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed the case challenging the rule in Oklahoma on May 6.
“This well-reasoned ruling helps to protect both female and male students from invasions of privacy and unnecessary harm,” Drummond said in a press release. “Our students deserve the protections that have long been provided by Title IX.”
In her ruling, Dishman said she found Drummond was likely to succeed on the merits of the case and that the United States would not suffer irreparable harm if the rule was enjoined while the case plays out.
“The final rule elevates gender identity and its accompanying protections above that of biological sex — i.e. women,” Dishman wrote in her ruling. “Such a contradiction of Title IX’s text and an erosion of its purpose cannot be permitted absent congressional action.”
Dishman wrote that while the U.S. Department of Education seemed well-intentioned with the rule, the revisions constitute too much of a deviation from Title IX’s original purpose.
“The debate regarding the relationship between sex and gender identity is a motivating factor behind countless lawsuits, legislation, and political debates,” Dishman wrote. “The enactment of the final rule is the essence of an agency claiming to discover, in a statute that has been enacted for over 50 years, a previously unknown power to decide how broadly ‘sex’ is defined and applied — i.e., a decision of vast political significance.”
Dishman’s order on Drummond’s case challenging Title IX comes as no action has been taken on a nearly identical case State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters filed the same day as Drummond.
Walters has been critical of the new Title IX rule since the Biden Administration announced its intention to issue new rules. When the rule finally came out, Walters filed a lawsuit, the case number of which is separated from Drummond’s by only a few digits. Dishman is also presiding over Walters’ case.
But despite Drummond’s case resulting in a preliminary injunction July 31, no filings had appeared in Walters’ case since the day after it was filed. That changed Aug. 6 when Dishman ordered Walters to “show cause” that he had served the defendants, which include the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Walters had declined to address the discrepancy when asked about it after a State Board of Education meeting July 31.
“I appreciate the attorney general supporting us and our work on that. We made very clear from day one — we will not comply with Joe Biden’s Title IX rewrite. Him and Kamala Harris woke up one morning and decided that boys can turn into girls.” Walters said. “We’ve made very clear we will not comply as a state. We were the first state department of education in the country to file that legal remedy against the Biden Administration, and sue them. So we’re very happy at where this is going.”
Walters’ attorneys responded to Dishman’s order Aug. 7 with a filing that said the lawsuit had been served a month after it had been filed, as evidenced by certified mail receipts.
Sellout Crowd staffers sued for $600,000 by Big Dog Media
A company that financially backed the now-shuttered online sports journalism website Sellout Crowd is suing four former staff members to recover more than $600,000 of the $1.5 million line of credit for which the defendants signed personal guaranty agreements.
In their July 30 petition, a company called Big Dog Media LLC named former Sellout Crowd writer Berry Tramel and content editor Mike Sherman as defendants, along with Kris Murray and Mike Koehler, who came up with the Sellout Crowd concept and recruited a slate of high-profile sports journalists to join the startup.
Formed Aug. 15, 2023, Big Dog Media advanced a $1.5 million line of credit to Sellout Crowd LLC which had formed June 7. The fledgling publication launched as August turned to September and the 2023 college football season began.
On Sept. 5 — after the site had begun publishing content — Sellout Crowd, LLC “executed and delivered to Big Dog a non-revolving advancing line of credit promissory note in the original principal amount of $1.5 million,” according to the petition. That same day, Koehler, Sherman, Tramel and Murray each signed a “guaranty agreement securing the indebtedness of Sellout Crowd to Big Dog.” (The parties amended the line of credit in Feb. 5.)
According to the financial instruments attached as exhibits in lawsuit, managers of Sellout Crowd LLC on Feb. 5 were Murray and Stelen Covel, the son of country music star Toby Keith, who died in February. Hunter Miller, the son-in-law of former OU and Dallas Cowboys football coach Barry Switzer, is listed as the manager of Big Dog Media LLC.
Because all four defendants signed guaranty agreements for the line of credit, they are now liable for the outstanding balance plus 12 percent interest, Big Dog Media alleges. Miller and Big Dog Media are also asking for attorney fees.
“The undersigned guarantor hereby jointly and severally, absolutely and unconditionally, guarantees to lender the complete and punctual payment, performance and discharge [of] all of borrower’s obligations set forth and described in the note,” according to Section 1 of each guaranty agreement signed by Koehler, Sherman, Tramel and Murray.
While Sellout Crowd was started with a $1.5 million line of credit, some staff members were told a different story. According to a story by Dylan Goforth of The Frontier, some Sellout Crowd employees were told the website had $5 million in funding that could last at least three years.
Sellout Crowd was shuttered in May as the company missed a payment to Big Dog Media. The website had laid off most of its staff earlier in the year.
Tramel, who is among the most prominent sports journalists in state history, has said that declaring bankruptcy could be an option given his inability to pay the $600,000-plus amount being sought by Big Dog Media.
Oklahoma Supreme Court denies St. Isidore request
On Aug. 5, the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied without explanation a request for it to stay its June 25 order that the Statewide Charter School Board cancel its contract with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
The proposed religious charter school had filed the motion with the state Supreme Court asking justices to stay their order pending a U.S. Supreme Court appeal. Lawyers for the school specified they were not seeking a stay of any other part of the ruling beyond the order to rescind the contract.
“The requested stay would be limited. It would affect no other portion of this court’s decision and (…) it would not permit St. Isidore to open to children or allow state charter-school funding to go to St. Isidore while review by the U.S. Supreme Court is sought,” lawyers for the school wrote in their motion. “The limited stay would simply preserve the current contract in the event the U.S. Supreme Court reverses.”
But Oklahoma’s highest court denied the request without explaining its reasoning. Only Justice Dana Kuehn dissented.
The denial means the SCSB remains under orders to cancel its contract with the school. Over the course of its first two meetings since the state Supreme Court’s ruling, the new board has declined to cancel the contract, causing Attorney General Gentner Drummond to threaten the board with contempt charges.
“The Oklahoma State Charter Schools Board will be reviewing today’s ruling,” Shelley Hickman, the board’s communications director, said in an emailed statement Monday. “The next scheduled meeting of the board is on Aug. 12 at 1 p.m.”
The agenda for that meeting features discussion and possible action on the St. Isidore contract as its first order of business.
Former students sue Wetumka Public Schools, former officials over sexual abuse allegations
Two men are suing Wetumka Public Schools, its former superintendent and a former special education teacher over sexual abuse allegations.
In an Aug. 2 petition filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, former students Brandon Rhinehart and Zachary Williams allege that special education teacher Brent McGee groomed and molested them while they were students in the Hughes County school district. They also allege his wife, former district Superintendent Donna McGee, knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue.
“(Brent) McGee strove to portray himself to the community as a man who was a hero for taking care of underprivileged kids,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint. “In reality, however, McGee used his influence and these gifts to groom boys in order to initiate or perpetuate sexual abuse.”
Rhinehart and Williams say Brent McGee encouraged them to move in with him owing to their unstable living situations. While living there, Brent McGee would sexually molest the boys, they alleged. At school, they said, he made innuendos and took Rhinehart off campus to abuse him once.
“Donna McGee, an educator trained in the prevention of child sexual abuse, knew about Brent McGee’s sexual abuse of plaintiffs and other boys, but she took no action despite having authority to conduct disciplinary measures at the school,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.
The McGees married in 1997 and have been prominent members of the Wetumka community, serving as leaders of the school district and operating the Dairy Queen on the south edge of town. Underscoring his community influence as a former Wetumka mayor, Brent McGee spoke out publicly in 2020 to encourage James and Rebecca Jackson to resign from the Wetumka City Council. (Ultimately, both Jacksons were sentenced to state prison for actions involving child pornography, although Rebecca Jackson was released early after a controversial sentence modification.)
Now, the federal lawsuit against the McGees and Wetumka Public Schools comes after former Noble Public Schools student Casey Yochum alleged his own abuse at the hands of Brent McGee. Yochum spoke during the public comments section of a State Board of Education meeting Oct. 26.
“I was molested by Brent McGee for years,” Yochum, 49, told the board. “He starts grooming these kids at 13, 14 years old.”
At the October meeting, board members suspended Brent McGee’s teacher certificate.
Yochum is mentioned in the new lawsuit, although he is not a plaintiff.
No criminal charges have been filed against either McGee. In November, District Attorney Erik Johnson said state and federal law enforcement were investigating Brent McGee. Yochum is a tribal citizen.
Speaking after the District Attorneys Council meeting in January, Johnson told NonDoc the McGee investigation “is a high-priority case for our office.”
“The feds were involved. Their reports all came back to local law enforcement, and before we just accept all of their reports, we have to do our own due diligence on the information that is contained therein,” Johnson said. “There are some additional interviews that are going to need to be done.”
In January, Johnson confirmed reports that an outburst had occurred at a Wetumka football game where allegations were voiced publicly against Brent McGee.
“It’s been documented,” Johnson said Jan. 18.
Sunday evening, Johnson told NonDoc the matter “is still under investigation.”
Polk says OKCPS has 97 percent of staffing positions filled
As Oklahoma City Public Schools students prepare for the first day of school Tuesday, administrators held a press conference Friday to discuss new Superintendent Jamie Polk’s plans for her first year leading the district.
“(It is) day 40, and it has been busy, but it’s been a great busy because I have a great team,” Polk said. “I have a great team in place, because when I say one voice, they say ‘First choice,’ and we will be the first choice in Oklahoma City. I am just excited.”
As Polk said “first choice,” the administrators and educators seated behind her also chanted the phrase.
Polk said the district has 97 percent of its staffing positions filled, although the district has eliminated some teaching positions and increased class sizes compared to last year.
Meanwhile, Polk said the district is “on track” regarding implementation of the $955 million bond issue voters passed in 2022.
Polk faced numerous questions about school safety during Friday’s press conference. Her director of security, Wayland Cubit, said the district will continue its use of technology that deters weapons from being carried into schools.
“We did implement last year a new weapons detection system that’s a little different than your typical metal detector. This is a system designed just to detect weapons, so it doesn’t go off on keys, it doesn’t go off on phones, it doesn’t go off on belts and other metal objects. It’s just designed to identify weapons,” said Cubit, who is running for Oklahoma County sheriff. “It makes it a lot easier for them to come into school. It’s not as intrusive.”
Polk was also asked about State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ recent directive that all school districts place the Bible in classrooms. Like other districts, Polk said OKCPS will continue to follow Oklahoma laws and its own policies to teach social studies.
Roosevelt Bridge replacement moving forward at Lake Texoma
The U.S. Highway 70 Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, one of the state’s oldest, longest and most perilous bridges, is being replaced with a taller and wider structure at Lake Texoma. Built beginning in 1942 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Roosevelt Bridge opened in 1945 to provide a way to cross of the newly created Lake Texoma, which spans the Red River border of Oklahoma and Texas.
According to ODOT, the two-lane bridge in southeast Oklahoma carries about 8,500 vehicles a day — twice that on weekends during lake season — and connects the communities of Kingston and Durant. Since 2015, the narrow Roosevelt Memorial Bridge has seen more than 50 accidents, including a fatal crash in 2018 and a 3 a.m. wreck in May that left a semi-truck’s engine hanging over the water.
“As far as connectivity is concerned, this particular bridge location is one of the most critical junctions there is because there’s no easy way around it if the bridge was taken out of service,” ODOT executive director Tim Gatz told members of the Oklahoma Transportation Commission during their Aug. 5 meeting.
The awarding of a $124 million federal grant, the largest in the history of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, is expediting project plans. Transportation commissioners approved a maximum $250,000 contract with Gransberg & Associates, Inc. in Norman to develop engineering plans.
Construction on the new bridge originally was scheduled to start in 2029, but now work could begin as soon as in 2026 or 2027, Gatz said.
“On a narrow bridge that’s 20 feet wide, that’s not a good condition, so we’re going to do what we can to hurry it up,” he said after the meeting. “We’ve had some very serious truck crashes that were on that bridge, and anytime you have an accident or crash or somebody makes a mistake on that narrow two-lane, it closes. [In May], we had a truck get through the guardrail on the truss part of that bridge, and so it’s hanging there, through the guardrail. You talk about a condition that causes panic in our ranks, that’s one of them.”
Total cost of the project is about $250 million, Gatz said. After the new structure is built, plans involve tearing down the Roosevelt bridge along with its causeway.
“It’s going to be every bit of a three-year project,” said Gatz, who also serves as transportation adviser to Gov. Kevin Stitt.
ODOT also received assistance on the project from the Legislature during this past session, which Gatz said helped to accelerate the construction timetable. House Bill 2915 gave ODOT officials permission to bond up to $200 million for the project.
Preliminary plans call for replacing the current two-mile long structure — which consists of a mile-long bridge and a mile-long causeway — with a two-mile bridge. The Roosevelt bridge will remain open to traffic as the new four-lane structure is built to its south.
The new bridge in addition to having four lanes will also have safety additions such as rumble strips and shoulders on each side and lighting, he said.
In addition to being wider, the new bridge will be about 10 feet taller and will have rumble strips, shoulders and lighting. In 2019, heavy rains caused water to top the bridge, which closed U.S. 70 to traffic for a period of days.
“There’s potential for pedestrian and bicycle crossing as part of that project,” Gatz said.
As original Turner Turnpike bridge near Wellston is replaced, SH 66 will close below
A bridge over State Highway 66 west of Wellston that was part of the Turner Turnpike when it opened to traffic in 1953 is being replaced.
A temporary four-lane roadway is being built for turnpike motorists that will take them north of the turnpike and around the “outdated” bridge, Joe Echelle, executive director of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, told board members during their meeting Aug. 6.
“That bridge is at a severe skew,” he told board members. “It needs to be replaced, and it’s a challenging location to work in. (…) In order to replace that bridge, and the reason’s it’s never been done is because it’s such a challenge, we have to take the entire Turner Turnpike traffic off that bridge.”
About 33,000 vehicles travel that section of the Turner Turnpike daily, with the number increasing to about 40,000 during summer months and on University of Oklahoma home football game days, he said.
“The people who are on the Turner, other than having to slow down a little bit, it’s just a regular construction zone for them,” Echelle said after the meeting.
Work to tear down the 71-year-old, four-lane bridge and replace it with two bridges that each can accommodate three lanes of traffic will require the temporary closure of SH 66 below starting Aug. 21, he said. Eastbound motorists on the Turner Turnpike wanting to access Wellston will be detoured east on SH 66 to U.S. 177, south to U.S. 62, north to SH 102 and then east on SH 66 on the west side of Wellston.
“We’re going to send people on state highways because we know those are rated for trucks,” Echelle said. “The people it adversely impacts are the people who are used to going under that bridge because you won’t be able to get by there anymore until our project is complete.”
The cost to tear down the Turner Turnpike bridge and built two new three-lane bridges while widening about a mile of the turnpike to six lanes is estimated to be about $50 million, Echelle said.
With an estimated cost of about $50 million, replacing the Turner Turnpike bridge over SH 66 and widening both highways should be completed in about a year, Echelle said, meaning it would be finished well before the 2026 centennial of Route 66.
Clemency recommended for Emmanuel Littlejohn
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he is disappointed by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s 3-2 vote Aug. 7 recommending clemency for Emmanuel Littlejohn.
Lilttlejohn was convicted of murdering 31-year-old Kenny Meers during a Oklahoma County robbery in 1992. After three decades on death row, his execution date is slated for Sept. 26. Drummond spoke before the board to argue against clemency.
“I am disappointed by the Pardon and Parole Board decision today but appreciate their thoughtful deliberation,” he said in a statement after the vote. “I remain steadfast that the family of Kenny Meers has waited far too long for justice to be done. My office intends to make our case to the governor why there should not be clemency granted to this violent and manipulative killer.”
The recommendation goes to Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has only commuted the sentence of one death-row inmate since becoming governor in 2019: Julius Jones.
For more details about the Aug. 7 hearing, read Ashlynd Huffman’s story for The Frontier.
Cleveland County sheriff denied funds for attorney during audit
Confusion surrounding the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office budget dilemma appears to be getting worse before it gets better.
At the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners’ July 29 meeting, Sheriff Chris Amason requested funding to hire an attorney to represent his office in a state audit of the agency’s finances.
Commissioners questioned whether the sheriff’s office had room in its budget for the proposed hiring already, and they further asked why legal representation would be necessary for a state audit. Ultimately, they denied the request for additional funding.
“I can’t support hiring legal counsel to oppose the state auditor,” District 2 Commissioner Jacob McHughes said in an interview with Archiebald Browne of The Norman Transcript. “The auditor serves as a neutral entity, dedicated to ensuring accountability and fiscal integrity within our state and local government.”
Previously, legal counsel was hired to represent the sheriff’s office when Amason claimed his office received only a portion of the funds in its allocated budget. Amason told county commissioners that legal work had concluded.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond previously ruled the sheriff’s office could bring on legal counsel to pursue the alleged unreceived funds from the Cleveland County Budget Board. The Cleveland County DA’s office has recused itself from representing more than one elected agency at a time.
County commissioners, though, noted that the recusal did not apply to the state’s audit.
“The AG’s decision to allow outside counsel was based on the conflict between elected officials, not a state agency like the state auditor,” McHughes told The Transcript.
Earlier this year, the Board of Commissioners approved more than $3 million in bailout funds for the sheriff’s office after previous overspending. That funding came after the county settled an age and sex discrimination lawsuit with former sheriff’s office CFO Terri Allison, who had previously alleged that Amason inappropriately used public funds for travel expenses and equipment purchases before being demoted and replaced by an employee she said did not share her qualifications.
In June, Amason was reelected with 53 percent support in a three-way Republican primary despite the budgetary questions about his office.
Retired admiral takes over as ODVA director
Even before his duties officially began as executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans affairs, James “Jay” Bynum stopped by the agency’s newest veterans home being built in Sallisaw.
“I’m sort of an adventurous type,” Bynum said Friday, Aug. 2, his second day on the job leading the ODVA. “I kind of like to jump into things and see where it goes.”
Bynum, who served as a consultant the past three years since retiring from the U.S. Navy, was driving west to Oklahoma from the Washington, D.C., area when he decided to stop and tour the Sallisaw home, which is about 80 percent complete with construction scheduled to conclude in December. Veterans are expected to be placed in the long-delayed facility early next year, pending federal licensing approval.
“I can tell you it’s flagship, it’s fantastic,” he said.
Bynum, 61, replaces Greg Slavonic, who also was a retired Navy officer. A former rear admiral and former undersecretary of the U.S. Navy, Slavonic was named interim executive director of ODVA in March 2023 and executive director six months later. He announced April 9 that he planned to retire May 31 but stayed a month or so longer until his vacancy was filled. Slavonic is credited with stabilizing operations at the beleaguered agency, as well as improving employee morale after frayed relations developed between the previous director, the Veterans Commission and Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Bynum will be paid an annual salary of $172,000. His Navy service included deployments during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and assignments with fighter squadrons. He also held positions at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington and worked at the Pentagon.
Bynum grew up in Texas and moved with his family to Lawton during his senior year of high school, graduing from Lawton Eisenhower High School before earning a degree from the University of Oklahoma and graduating from OU’s Navy ROTC program. He was in the ROTC program with Sidney Ellington, a member of the Veterans Commission that governs ODVA.
“We got commissioned the same day,” Bynum said, noting that Ellington mentioned ODVA’s activities and Slavonic’s plans to retire. “I talked to the family and thought, ‘Well, let’s throw our hat in the ring and see how it works out.'”
Bynum said he met with staff at the ODVA headquarters during his first day as director.
“(I told them) here’s what you can expect from me on communication, here’s what I need from you on the way of feedback and clear communication and solving problems at the lowest level and giving you the resources and authority to do that,” Bynum said.
