FOI Oklahoma urges state AG to expedite investigation of apparent McCurtain County violations

OKLAHOMA CITY — Freedom of Information Oklahoma is urging Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office to expedite investigating alleged open records and open meetings violations in McCurtain County.

“We applaud the new attorney general for focusing on transparency in his first 100 days in office and eliminating a backlog of open records requests that dated back several years,” said Rob Collins, president of FOI Oklahoma. “Our statewide organization now strongly urges the attorney general to move expeditiously on investigating apparent violations of the Oklahoma Open Records Act and Oklahoma Open Meeting Act in McCurtain County.”

On March 10, Kathryn E. Gardner, the Local Legal Initiative attorney for Oklahoma with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a lawsuit against the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office seeking body camera footage and other records on behalf of the McCurtain Gazette-News and Chris Willingham. The reporter requested information related to the March 2022 death of Bobby Barrick, a Choctaw Nation citizen. After deputies shot Barrick with a stun gun, he was unresponsive and later died at a hospital.

The newspaper released audio that apparently recorded four county officials March 6. The recording captured discussion of the killing of two journalists and lynching Black people.
Publisher Bruce Willingham said he left a recorder inside the room following a county commissioner’s meeting because he suspected officials of continuing to conduct business after the meeting ended in violation of the state’s Open Meeting Act, The Associated Press reported.

Contact:

Rob Collins

rob.collins@localmedia.org

405-205-9421