Gaetz <jthomqx@gmail.com> wrote in news:t06ma9$290cb$7@news.freedyn.de:

>

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) � A sheriff in southeast Oklahoma who was among several
county officials caught on tape discussing killing journalists and
lynching Black people won't face criminal charges or be removed from
office, the state's top prosecutor said Friday.

In a letter to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Gentner
Drummond said his office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation
had completed their investigation and found no legal grounds to dismiss
McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy.

�There are countless examples of incidents from across the country where
public officials make inflammatory comments that spark severe
condemnation,� Drummond wrote. "Oftentimes the offending official resigns
in disgrace. Sometimes the outrage fades and the matter is forgotten.

He added: �Regardless, there is no provision of law in Oklahoma to throw
elected officials out of office merely for saying something offensive.�

Drummond said McCurtain County voters will make the final decision on
whether Clardy remains in office and suggested Stitt appeal to voters
there and perhaps identify someone to run against Clardy.

Clardy and several other county officials sparked outrage after a local
newspaper's audio recording captured them complaining about two of the
paper's journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug. Stitt
quickly called for the resignation of Clardy, sheriff's Capt. Alicia
Manning, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings and Jail Administrator
Larry Hendrix. Jennings was the only one to resign.

A message left Friday with the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office seeking
comment wasn't immediately returned.

Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News,
said the recording was made March 6 when he left a voice-activated
recorder inside the room after a county commissioner�s meeting because he
suspected the group was continuing to conduct county business after the
meeting had ended in violation of the state�s Open Meeting Act. Chris
Willingham, a reporter at the paper, is Bruce Willingham�s son.

Bruce Willingham said he believes the local officials were upset about
�stories we�ve run that cast the sheriff�s office in an unfavorable
light,� including the death of Bobby Barrick, a Broken Bow, Oklahoma, man
who died at a hospital in March 2022 after McCurtain County deputies shot
him with a stun gun.

With a population of about 31,000 and bordering both Arkansas and Texas,
the county has a long history of lawlessness dating back to days before
statehood, but in recent years it has become a tourism hotbed, drawing
thousands of visitors from the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

https://news.yahoo.com/no-charges-oklahoma-sheriff-talked-205709837.html