WEWOKA / SEMINOLE NATION RESERVATION — In a five-minute hearing this afternoon, federal sex offender Jimcy McGirt was arraigned on three charges in Seminole Nation of Oklahoma Tribal Court, and a preliminary hearing was set for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15.
A designated sex offender in the federal system whose successful U.S. Supreme Court appeal vacated his state convictions for sexual molestation of a 4-year-old girl in the 1990s, McGirt was charged Sept. 6 with a felony count of unlawfully residing within 2,000 feet of a school, park or childcare facility. He was also charged with a pair of misdemeanors: failure to register as a sex offender and providing false or misleading sex offender registration information.
On Tuesday afternoon, McGirt appeared before Tribal Court Judge Steve Barnes via video stream from the Seminole County Jail, just across 2nd Street from the Seminole Nation Courthouse.
“Mr. McGirt would stand before the court and ask to reserve any possible motions,” McGirt’s attorney, Richard O’Carroll, told the judge.
Barnes had already set a $25,000 bond on McGirt for the failure to register as a sex offender charge, but he set $250,000 bonds on each of the other two charges Tuesday. As a condition of the bond, Barnes said McGirt must not violate any city, state, tribal or federal law, and he said McGirt must have no contact with children under age 18.
“The court will find it has jurisdiction over this matter,” Barnes said before setting the Oct. 15 preliminary hearing in front of Tribal Court Judge Greg Bigger.
Attorney: Allegations ‘some foolishness from children’
Questions about what governments have jurisdiction over McGirt have been litigated for a decade.
In July 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McGirt v. Oklahoma that the Muscogee Nation Reservation had never been disestablished by Congress, meaning only the federal government and the tribe have criminal jurisdiction over tribal citizens accused of violations of the Major Crimes Act within reservation boundaries. Oklahoma’s top criminal court subsequently applied that ruling to other tribes’ Indian Country reservations in eastern Oklahoma.
Following a May plea deal with federal prosecutors — who said they sought to avoid a new trial against McGirt for the sake of the victim — he was sentenced to 360 months in federal prison but released for time served. He was required to register as a federal sex offender, which he did at his stepbrother’s property just south of the town of Spaulding in Hughes County.
According to an affidavit filed by Seminole Lighthorse Police Officer Zachary Jared, police responded to an incident in a Seminole Nation Housing Authority neighborhood northwest of Seminole, within reservation boundaries. McGirt, a Seminole Nation citizen, allegedly spoke with two siblings in a manner that made them report the conversation to their parents, according to police and court records. Both parents spoke with police, with the mother saying the children said they experienced a “kidnapping” attempt. The father said he saw McGirt in an electric wheelchair after the children reported their interaction with him, and the mother said she identified McGirt based on statements the children relayed about the man’s relative in the area.
Police contacted McGirt at a house in the same Housing Authority neighborhood. McGirt’s son answered the door, and Jimcy McGirt allegedly claimed he had only been staying at the house for a few days after his car broke down. He told officers that he had communicated that to his federal parole officer. However, police reported that was not the case:
After placing Jimmy into custody he requested he be allowed to get shoes out of the residence prior to heading to the jail. While walking through the house I did not see any form of wheelchair, electric or otherwise as described in the original call, upon reaching a room on the west side of the house Jimcy requested I grab his wallet that was located on a piece of furniture next to the bed side that was being used as a nightstand. Additionally inside the room was multiple document holders that Jimcy, unprovoked, stated contained all his paperwork from his federal court case. This is something I would consider odd as Jimcy had previously stated that the only reason he had been at the residence for the time he had was due to his car being broken down and it seemed unusual that someone would carry that many documents around on a day to day basis if not planning for an extended stay. The room that Jimcy had ben staying in also appeared to contain other items that would indicate that he intended to stay at the residence on a more permanent basis.
Speaking to media after Tuesday’s arraignment, O’Carroll cast doubt upon the allegations facing his client.
“He told the police at the scene that he wasn’t talking to children. There was no wheelchair found. Jimcy’s able-bodied. That was just some foolishness from some children,” O’Carroll said. “I don’t feel they’ve stated a cause of action on count one or count two, and count three is a misdemeanor. But we’ll see. It’s going to be up to the judge, and the case will be tried in the courtroom.”
O’Carroll said the bond set for McGirt on Tuesday “doesn’t make any difference because there’s a hold from” the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. During the brief hearing, O’Carroll said he asked the Seminole Nation prosecutor to “pass along” the case to federal prosecutors, but he said his proposal “was not well-received.”
“The eastern district has a detainer. Jimcy’s on probation for a detainer there,” O’Carroll elaborated after the hearing. “I attempted to get the [tribe] to agree to pass this to trail that. They wouldn’t agree. This is going to trial.”
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma prosecuting attorney Tim Brown did not speak during Tuesday’s hearing, and he did not return a call seeking comment about the case afterward.
“Tim Brown said that he wanted to try this case here, so we’ll try it here,” O’Carroll said. “Looking forward to it. Looking forward to our day in court.”
During the hearing, O’Carroll briefly addressed his client via the videocast.
“Jimcy, I’m going to file some motions on your behalf based on my reading of the criminal complaint, so standby, and I’ll mail them to you,” O’Carroll said.
Read the charging documents and affidavit against Jimcy McGirt
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