Walters filed more than $4,000 in claims for out-of-state travel expenses during his first year in office, according to reimbursement forms obtained by The Frontier. He expensed the trips despite an order from the Governor’s office banning public spending for most out-of-state travel.

• Walters claimed $489 in travel reimbursements to cover the cost of mileage, per diem and a hotel room in the Dallas area in April 2023 and attend the premiere of the anti-abortion horror film Nefarious. The film was shot in Oklahoma City and is about a serial killer who is set for execution but is possessed by a demon.

• He spent $1,102 for airfare, lodging and other expenses for a trip to National Harbor, Maryland, later that same month to speak at a conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. 

• Walters also billed the state between $1,025 and $1,220 for a speaking appearance at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit in Philadelphia in June, according to travel forms that included estimated airfare costs. Moms for Liberty covered the cost of his hotel room. 

• He claimed another $552 for airfare, mileage and per diem for an appearance as the keynote speaker at the Freedom Foundation’s Teachers for Freedom Summit in Denver in July. The event featured sessions such as “Teachers Unions: An International Problem” and “Is woke curriculum taking over your subject?”  

• Walters traveled to Washington D.C. for two days in August. The estimated total cost of Walters’ travel including airfare and lodging was between $989 and $1,067, documents show. The trip was for “policy meetings,” according to a state travel form and airfare estimates. An itinerary shows Walters had two meetings with representatives from conservative think tanks but most of the trip was spent making media appearances, including talk shows affiliated with the far-right media outlet The Epoch Times, which has ties to the Falun Gong religious movement and a podcast hosted by the president of the Heritage Foundation. 

Walters’ first stop during his August trip to Washington was for coffee with a representative from Fox News in charge of booking guests for the program America’s Newsroom to discuss “national media opportunities,” according to a travel itinerary. Jenna Thomas, Walters’ chief of staff at the State Department of Education, accompanied him on the trip, billing the state for an additional $1,059 in travel expenses. 

State travel request forms require a manager’s signature, but as the head of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, Walters signed off on his own trip expenses. The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services paid the travel claims. A spokesperson for the agency said Walters submitted all the required documentation for the trips.

Dan Isett, a spokesperson for Walters at the State Department of Education, did not answer The Frontier’s requests for more information about the purpose of the trips and why Walters was able to approve his own travel requests.

“Oklahomans are not surprised or fooled by another attack and fake controversy from the liberal media. Superintendent Walters will never stop leading Oklahoma and the nation to reform our schools, get back to basics, and improve student academic outcomes,” Isett said in an email. “There is a story to be told and travel throughout Oklahoma and around the country is a normal part of the duties of any statewide office holder. Superintendent Walters continues to meticulously protect Oklahoma taxpayers from the wasteful spending we’ve seen under previous administrations.”

Walters has rapidly become a rising star in conservative politics. Since taking office as State Superintendent in January 2023, he’s booked appearances on Fox News to talk about the “woke ideology” in public schools and testified before Congress in support of Republican lawmakers’ efforts to investigate educational programs funded by the Chinese government. He is also a frequent guest on right-wing podcasts and talk shows. 

The Frontier obtained records documenting Walters’ travel expenses from Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, who requested the information from the State Department of Education last year. Boren said she is concerned Walters has put personal promotion above his duties to oversee public education in the state. 

“It’s more fun to stir the pot and get pats on the head and lovey-doveys from the radical right than it is to actually ensure that we recruit and retain teachers,” Boren said. 

Walters’ administration has touted a recruitment program it says has brought 117 out-of-state teachers into Oklahoma classrooms. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt issued a moratorium on all non-essential, state-funded, out-of-state travel in 2019 that remains in effect. Stitt has banned most out-of-state trips for state officers and employees unless the travel is “critical to the performance of core agency functions,” to obtain professional accreditation not available in Oklahoma or for matters involving the federal government.

As a separately elected official, Walters did not seek permission from the Governor’s office for his travel, said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt. 

“Governor Stitt thinks all elected officials and government employees should be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Cave told The Frontier.

During Walters’ two-day trip to the Dallas area last year, he attended the red-carpet premiere of the film Nefarious and appeared on conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s podcast. Beck also made a cameo appearance in the movie. 

Walters’ room at the Drury Inn & Suites in Frisco, Texas, was booked under the group name Nefarious Movie LLC, according to a travel reimbursement form. The form shows Walters claimed mileage for the drive from the Beck-affiliated American Journey Experience museum next door to the studio where Beck records his podcast to a movie theater in Plano on the same date that the Nefarious film premiere was held there. Ted Cruz, the U.S. Senator from Texas, also attended the premiere. 

Walters praised ​​Nefarious and spoke about attending the premiere in Texas during an interview in May 2023 with conservative talk show host Steve Deace, who co-wrote the film. 

“Folks are getting to see on the big screen what we are up against, what evil looks like in today’s time, what Satan is doing in the world today, ” Walters said. “It is an absolutely incredible film.”

In interviews, Deace credited Walters with helping to end a film crew strike on the set of the film. Walters “went to war for us,” Deace said.  

Walters wrote on a travel expense form that his trip to Texas was to meet with “educational stakeholders,” but he didn’t include any details about who he met with or what was discussed.  

Isett did not provide the names of the stakeholders Walters met with when The Frontier asked for more detailed information.

“Yes, he was able to meet with many essential stakeholders and spread Oklahoma’s story of how we are fighting wokeism in the classroom,” Isett responded in an email. “All of Ryan Walters’ travel has been essential to attract new teachers, fight against radical wokeism and the over-sexualization and grooming of our kids. There is nothing more important than Oklahoma’s mission to educate and protect our kids.” 

The post Oklahoma paid for Ryan Walters’ travel for speaking engagements, media appearances and a horror movie premiere appeared first on The Frontier.

An application filed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Thursday argues state law grants medical marijuana users immunity from arrest or prosecution. 

The legal challenge involves the case of Brittany Gunsolus, 27, who used marijuana edibles and topical creams during her pregnancy with a recommendation from her doctor, according to the filing. Gunsolus gave birth to a healthy baby in Lawton in October 2020 who tested positive for marijuana. Child welfare workers closed an investigation after finding Gunsolus’ home was safe and loving. But the Comanche County District Attorney still charged Gunsolus with felony child neglect in May 2021.

Attorneys for Gunsolus argue she can’t be prosecuted for using an illegal drug during her pregnancy because medical marijuana is the same as any other legal medication used at the direction of a doctor under Oklahoma law. 

At a court hearing in Comanche County in August, a prosecutor argued Gunsolus broke the law because her unborn child did not have its own, separate state license to use medical marijuana. 

Medical experts advise that women should not use marijuana while pregnant or breastfeeding, because of the potential to pass chemicals to their babies that can affect brain development.

The Frontier reached out to Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka’s office for comment on Thursday and is awaiting a response.     

The nonprofit Pregnancy Justice, which advocates for the civil rights of pregnant people, is providing legal support for Gunsolus’ court case. 

The Frontier first reported in 2022 that Oklahoma has seen a flurry of criminal cases involving women who used marijuana during their pregnancies since the state voted to legalize medical use in 2018. The Frontier has found dozens of women charged with child neglect for using marijuana during pregnancy — 17 women were prosecuted even though they had state medical marijauna licenses.

Child neglect carries a maximum sentence of life in prison in Oklahoma, but women have received probation in all of the cases The Frontier has found.

The post An Oklahoma mom’s court challenge seeks to end charges for pregnant women who use medical marijuana appeared first on The Frontier.

Over the past year, our staff has found inaccurate information about contraceptives spread by a local anti-abortion group.

We fact-checked Gov. Kevin Stitt on his push for tax cuts and found misleading statements about the state’s finances.

We found misleading statements from state lawmakers about a bill to restrict access to treatment for transgender youth.

And we’ve repeatedly called out State Superintendent Ryan Walters for false statements he’s made about the role he played in a flawed pandemic relief program. Under Walters’ watch, families used federal relief money for school supplies to buy video games, home appliances and other non-educational expenses. 

We always try to seek out the most credible sources to check the veracity of statements made by public officials. Our sources have included government data, historical records and interviews with experts.     

If The Frontier rates something as misleading or false, we have a rule that we contact the person or group that made the statement and give them a chance to respond and provide evidence backing up their claim. It’s part of being fair and doing good journalism. 

We hope our fact checks will help keep Oklahoma voters informed. As we gear up for elections in 2024, we know this work will be more important than ever. 

Your donations are vital for The Frontier to continue to hold the powerful accountable.
Now through Dec. 31, donations to The Frontier will be matched by a collaborative fundraising movement called NewsMatch that supports independent, public-service journalism. We can earn up to $50,000 in matched donations.

The post We check the facts to inform voters and hold the powerful accountable appeared first on The Frontier.

Terral Ellis, 26, died after spending 12 days at the Ottawa County Jail in October 2015. He was being held there after turning himself in on an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on a DUI charge. 

Ellis told jail staff that he thought he was dying and that his legs were going numb and turning black. But jail staff accused him of faking his illness, laughed and threatened to shackle him to the floor. An autopsy later found Ellis died of sepsis and pneumonia. 

Daniel Smolen, an attorney for the Ellis family, said he believes the verdict reflects the jury’s reaction to Ellis’ pain and suffering and jailers’ “total disregard, at every level, for providing him any kind of basic medical care.”

“This was really a case where this kid got tortured to death,” Smolen said. 

Jailers’ comments and Ellis’ cries for help became public after jail surveillance video with audio was unearthed after his family filed a lawsuit.

“I am sick and fucking tired of dealing with your ass,” a jail nurse told Ellis before slamming the cell door and walking away, “There ain’t nothing wrong with you.”

After Ellis’ death, jail staff took steps to make his death look like a suicide, according to court testimony. The nurse told paramedics that he may have taken his own life. Ellis was found with a bedsheet loosely tied around his neck but there were no marks on his neck, the autopsy found. 

At the trial, jail staff admitted in their testimony that they knew Ellis was in pain but did nothing even as he screamed for help. The jail had a written policy to doubt inmates who sought medical attention that said “never let your guard down, never turn your back on them, don’t ever let them gain your trust.” 

Two detention officers and a nurse who were named as defendants in the case weren’t disciplined at the time of Ellis’ death and have never faced criminal charges. They have all since left their jobs at the jail.

Ottawa County Sheriff David Dean, who took office in 2021 and didn’t work for the agency at the time, told The Frontier after the trial that the staff members weren’t disciplined because no one knew the surveillance video had audio until two years after Ellis’ death. 

“I’m sorry for the family’s loss,” Dean said.

Ottawa County has since hired a private contractor, Turn Key Health Clinics LLC,  to provide medical care at the jail, he said. 

Integris Miami EMS was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit for allegedly failing to transport Ellis to a hospital, but settled for an undisclosed amount before the case went to trial. 

In a statement released after the trial, Ellis’ family called for reform:

“The Ellis family is pleased with, and humbled by the jury’s verdict. The family waited years for their day in court. Terral Ellis was essentially tortured to death while housed in the Ottawa County Jail. With a modicum of humane treatment, his suffering and death were eminently preventable. The family is hopeful that the trial and $33 million verdict will spark long overdue reforms of the broken healthcare delivery systems in our county jails. Funds recovered by the Estate will be used to care for Terral’s son, who was just four years old when Terral tragically died.”

The post Jury awards $33 million to the family of a man who died in an Oklahoma jail as staff mocked him  appeared first on The Frontier.

Conley said in a press release: 

“Recently, comments I made about the Tulsa Race Massacre were published in a story regarding the impact of House Bill 1775 on education curriculum in Oklahoma. I want to take the opportunity today to clarify those comments. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a well-established and tragic part of Oklahoma history. My comments were in no way meant to downplay the horror of this event nor to say that it did not have anything to do with race. It is a well-established historical fact that the Tulsa Race Massacre was motivated by race. I was attempting to convey that I can never know another individual’s true intent because I cannot think their thoughts, nor was I alive during the time this event happened. I would like to apologize for any hurt caused by my statements; that was never my intent. We must all work together as a state to examine the root causes of these traumatic events in our history and find solutions that help us move forward. I believe that the history of our state and nation should be taught fully, the good and the bad, so we can confront the difficult challenges of our past, and work together toward a unified future.”

Conley is one of the authors of HB 1775, legislation that has sometimes been called a ban on “critical race theory” in Oklahoma public schools. The 2021 law banned teaching certain concepts about race and gender. 

The Frontier reported Thursday that some teachers say the law has affected how they teach certain topics including the Tulsa Race Massacre. The teachers said they fear punishments including losing their teaching certification or an accreditation downgrade for their school districts. 

Conley told The Frontier  in an interview for the story that she thinks the Tulsa Race Massacre was motivated by race but hesitated to say the perpetrators were racist. 

“It’s just a terrible tragedy in our state, and whether or not it was actually racism that caused the thoughts of the people that started it — we can try to speculate but to know for sure, I don’t think that we can,” Conley said.

In July, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters also faced backlash for his remarks about what students should learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre during a Cleveland County Republican Party meeting in Norman where he said “let’s not tie it to the skin color.” Walters also later clarified his remarks and said the 1921 massacre was “racist.”

The post Rep. Sherrie Conley apologizes for her remarks on the Tulsa Race Massacre appeared first on The Frontier.

At the Tulsa County jail, some of the sickest are held in a segregated unit, locked down for 23 hours a day because of the risk of violence and other security issues. 

The prisoners have been found incompetent to stand trial because mental illness has left them unable to understand the legal process or help an attorney with their defense. Such cases have typically been treated at the Oklahoma Forensic Center, a 216-bed facility in Vinita, where patients receive medications, talk therapy and education on how the court system works. The state’s new jail-based competency program provides medication, but some other therapeutic services are only available at the hospital in Vinita, according to court testimony in the case of one Tulsa County defendant. 

When the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services launched the program to treat criminal defendants with severe mental illness in county jails in December 2022, more than 200 people were on a waitlist for a bed at the Oklahoma Forensic Center — some waited a year or more. Weeks earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had launched an investigation into Oklahoma’s mental health system.

There were also rumblings of a federal lawsuit that would be filed a few months later, accusing the state of violating the constitutional rights of mentally ill Oklahomans who languish in county jails waiting for a hospital bed. The lawsuit is still pending. 

After starting the new jail program, the Department of Mental Health has claimed it no longer has a waitlist for treatment at the state hospital in Vinita because it now offers services in county jails, said Lora Howard, interim chief public defender for Tulsa County. 

“They started this jail restoration thing solely so they could say ‘we don’t have a waitlist’ because they were getting a lot of heat for having people that were a number 120-something and number 130-something on a waitlist for a bed,” Howard said.  “They don’t have adequate beds to do the treatment that’s needed. But the way around that isn’t to just not do the treatment.” 

The Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office still has dozens of clients waiting for a hospital bed because they haven’t been able to regain competence in jail and need more intensive help. The office estimates it has typically had between 30 and 45 clients waiting in jail to go to Vinita since the program started. 

“Sheriff Regalado and the professionals who provide medical care to inmates at his jail believe that these people should be in the state hospital, not in a county jail. They have not been convicted of any crime. They are simply awaiting trial,” the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement on Regalado’s behalf. “A hospital offers them greater freedom of movement, a staff of medical professionals committed to providing treatment rather than mere detention, and more access to programs such as group and individual psychotherapy.” 

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler told The Frontier that the sheriff had previously declined to enter into a written agreement with the Department of Mental Health to do competency treatment at the jail. 

“The sheriff — like I — has long believed that nobody who’s been adjudicated incompetent needs to be in a jail facility, and they need to be in a therapeutic setting,” Kunzweiler said. 

The Department of Mental Health already operated a pilot competency program in about 60 county facilities across the state in May when the Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill that would have made jail treatment mandatory.  But Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed the legislation, saying many jails weren’t equipped to treat people found incompetent to stand trial. 

In response to The Frontier’s questions, Bonnie Campo, a spokesperson for the Department of Mental Health, said that some defendants have been successfully treated and regained competency in jail. Antipsychotic medication is the most common form of treatment to restore a person’s competency, she said. 

“Stabilizing the person’s mental illness generally needs to occur before other services can be effective,” Campo said. Providing medication immediately is  “better than no treatment or inadequate treatment,” she said. 

“This can help stabilize the person’s mental illness, which in many cases is the sole reason for the person being incompetent,” she said. 

The Department of Mental Health has asked Tulsa County officials to allow jail competency treatment to continue. 

“Allowing them to continue this treatment reduces their mental health symptoms as well as their level of dangerous to self or others and is a much better alternative than having them wait for a bed at the Oklahoma Forensic Center,” Campo said. “More importantly, immediately ceasing treatment for those that they are currently serving could result in potentially significant harm. “ 

The state has a contract with the provider Family & Children’s Services to run the program in Tulsa County.    

A spokesperson for Family & Children’s Services said in an email that the provider is working with the jail administration to “ensure that inmates who have been receiving competency restoration services are provided the necessary psychiatric medications to maintain continuity of patient care” after the program was abruptly halted.  

Under Family & Children’s contract with the state, the provider is required to see people in the jail program at least twice a month in person and ensure they are prescribed appropriate medication. The prisoners are required to be monitored for suicidal and homicidal thoughts and to ensure they are taking their medication. Once stabilized, the prisoners are required to receive “education and skills training” to help them understand the legal system.

Dr. Jason Beaman, ​​interim chair of the school of Forensic Sciences and former chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, said twice-monthly, in-person visits are inadequate. And telehealth visits can be “very poor” and problematic in a jail setting, he said. 

“These are the sickest mentally ill people and if they weren’t in jail, they’d be in a hospital and we would see them every day,” Beaman said.  “What about the individuals that cannot — won’t come out of their jail cells — or they’re too dangerous, and the deputies won’t take them out of their jail cell, then they get zero treatment.” 

Some people are also receiving competency restoration treatment out of jail. 

M.J. Denman, a private Tulsa defense attorney, said he has a client, who he declined to name, who is getting competency restoration treatment on an outpatient basis in Tulsa County through Family & Children’s Services. The client receives medication while out on bond at home but gets no talk therapy or other services, he said. The client gives his word that he’s taking his medication, but nobody checks, he said. 

“T​​his is a band-aid and not even a band-aid that covers the whole wound,” Denman said. 

Some people waiting in jail for a hospital bed deteriorate further and are held in isolation in a segregated unit for the safety of themselves and others, Howard said. The Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office has resorted to filing motions for hearings to hold the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in contempt of court for failing to treat clients who have waited months or longer for admission to the forensic hospital. 

After a motion is filed, the Department of Mental Health gives the client priority for a bed at Vinita and they are transferred out of the jail before a hearing can take place, Howard said.  

Facing multiple charges, including sexual battery and obstructing an officer, DeAndre Prince waited more than 17 months in the Tulsa County jail for a hospital bed after he was found incompetent to stand trial in January 2022. Federal courts have previously ruled in a case involving the state of Washington that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to treatment within a week after being found incompetent to stand trial.

In jail, Prince racked up additional charges, including assault and battery upon a detention officer and placing bodily fluids on a government employee.

Prince was held in a segregated unit, in lockdown for much of his time in jail because of violent, disruptive behavior, according to a transcript of a court hearing. 

Prince’s public defender filed a motion in May for a hearing to hold the Department of Mental Health in contempt for failing to comply with a court order to treat him at the forensic hospital. In response, the agency argued in court documents that it operated on a “very tight budget,” and that Prince was already receiving treatment at the jail. 

A 2022 report by the state Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency found that while Oklahoma appropriations for mental health have increased by 9% since 2013, funding had actually decreased by 11% percent during that period when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, the state has seen a 652% increase in people waiting for treatment at the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita over the last five years, from 23 people in January 2017 to 173 people in April 2022.  

In Prince’s case, a partial contempt of court hearing did take place on May 30. A public defender said the hearing was the first time Prince had been out of his segregated jail unit in months.  

A forensic hospital leader testified at the hearing that treatment available in the jail-based program is limited and that Prince had received medication but not other therapeutic services that are typically part of the competency restoration process. 

The hospital leader also testified that defendants are prioritized for a bed at Vinita after defense attorneys file a motion for a hearing to hold the Department of Mental Health in contempt for failing to treat the person at the state hospital. 

The Department of Mental Health transported Prince to Vinita for treatment six days after the hearing, before additional court testimony could take place. 

The post Oklahoma is trying to treat people with severe mental illness in jail, but many still languish in cells waiting for hospital beds appeared first on The Frontier.

Update: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 7, 2023, to include a response from Ryan Walters.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters was met with a crowd of protestors at a speaking engagement at the Norman Public Library on Thursday. In one tense exchange, an audience member confronted Walters about his definition of critical race theory and asked how students should learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre without feeling shame. After backlash on social media, Walters issued a statement on Friday denouncing the Tulsa Race Massacre and blaming the media for distorting his words.

“The media is twisting two separate answers. They misrepresented my statements about the Tulsa Race Massacre in an attempt to create a fake controversy. Let me be crystal clear that history should be accurately taught:  1. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a terrible mark on our history. The events on that day were racist, evil, and it is inexcusable. Individuals are responsible for their actions and should be held accountable.  2.  Kids should never be made to feel bad or told they are inferior based on the color of their skin,” Walters said.

Here is an audio recording and transcript of Walter’s conversation with an audience member.

Question from audience member: So the Tulsa Race Massacre was followed by 100 years of silence. The reason it was followed by 100 years of silence was the shame. It was a shameful event. When I learned about it — and not in public schools — I felt bad. I felt angry. I felt all these emotions. Two years ago, when I learned about the concentration camp that happened the day after, I was even more angry, I was even more ashamed that white Tulsans committed genocide against black Tulsans. What I don’t understand is how that does not fall under your definition of CRT.

Ryan Walters: Thank you for the question. Now, I want to be clear when we wrote — and we’ve got some of the legislators here — appreciate Representative (Sherrie) Conley that helped develop HB 1775, which is, in essence, the critical race theory bill, one of the things that we did, essentially at the beginning, as we wrote in the very beginning, all Oklahoma standards have to be taught. This is not an end-around to say, we’re not going to teach the Tulsa Race Massacre. That is absolutely, certainly not the intention, it was verbatim in the bill to say all of these standards have to be taught.

I believe our kids have to have all of our history. That’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Folks, I believe this is absolutely the greatest country in the history of the world. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. That doesn’t mean there weren’t mistakes. And that doesn’t mean that we didn’t live up to our principles. The only way our kids have the ability to learn from history and make this country continue to be the best country is to understand those times we fell short, a very clear, very direct understanding of those events.

I will always support that our kids should know that about the Tulsa Race Massacre. They absolutely should there are standards around it. I’m continuing to work to develop even more robust curriculum around these events, and I don’t want to hide any part of history. It all needs to be right there, very plain, very direct so that we can learn from it. So I think it’s very important.

Audience member: Follow up?

Ryan Walters: Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Audience member: How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of CRT?

Ryan Walters: Okay, thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t address that part. I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of your color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or in or are inherently racist. That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals. Oh, you can, absolutely, historically, you should. This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason. But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory, you’re saying that race defines a person. I reject that. So I would say you be judgmental of the issue, of the action, of the content of the character of the individual. Absolutely. But let’s not tie it to the skin color instead of the skin color determine it.

Audience member: How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of CRT? 

Ryan Walters: I answered it. That’s my answer. Again, I felt like…. (inaudible) 

Audience member: The Tulsa Race Massacre was a race massacre. How does it not fall under CRT?

Ryan Walters: I have answered your question. I appreciate you. Very respectfully, keep questions….

Audience member: What about race? How does that not fall (inaudible).

Walters then moved on to answering another audience member’s question.

The post Hear and read Ryan Walters’ full remarks about the Tulsa Race Massacre appeared first on The Frontier.

A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce said the agency was in ongoing talks with the company but declined to release additional information. 

Canoo said in November 2022 that it had a contract to buy a 630,000-square-foot factory near Interstate 40 in far-west Oklahoma City. But in April, the company announced that  AFV Partners, a different company controlled by Canoo CEO Tony Aquila, had purchased the factory instead. Canoo has a 10-year contract to lease the facility from AFV Partners. 

The lease arrangement has eased the financial strain on Canoo as it tries to conserve money while trying to bring its vehicles to market, Aquila said in a call with investors on May 15.

But under the terms of two current incentive contracts with the Department of Commerce, Canoo must purchase a factory to qualify for millions of dollars from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund, a pot of state-appropriated cash intended to help lure new jobs to Oklahoma. Canoo’s Quick Action incentive deal is the largest of its kind in state history, but collecting the money is contingent on the company meeting hiring goals and other performance measures. 

Becky Samples, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, confirmed there is a deadline looming in August.

“However, Commerce is continuing discussions with Canoo to find a mutually beneficial outcome for the company and the state,” she said in an email.

When Canoo announced in 2021 that it wanted to begin manufacturing electric vehicles in Oklahoma, Aquila boasted that the state had offered more than $300 million in incentives to seal the deal. But the company has not collected any of that money after shifting plans to launch production several times. The Oklahoma Department of Commerce already canceled another incentive deal with Canoo worth up to $10 million after the company missed a deadline in January to start construction on a factory in Pryor. In March, Canoo laid off about a dozen workers at another planned manufacturing site in northwest Arkansas.

The company also hasn’t finalized a development agreement with Oklahoma City officials to reap up to $1 million in additional local job creation incentives, six months after the Oklahoma City Council approved negotiating such a deal, The Frontier has learned.

The terms of the Oklahoma City incentive contract are still being worked out, a spokeswoman for the city said. 

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt has been a vocal supporter of Canoo’s plans. The company said it wants to create 550 new jobs in Oklahoma City. If Canoo is successful, it could create a projected $3.9-billion economic impact over the next decade, according to one estimate presented to the City Council in December.

Holt told The Frontier that he’s not concerned about Canoo’s progress on the factory because all of the incentives the city offers are “performance-based,” meaning the company doesn’t get paid unless it creates jobs and meets other goals. 

“Obviously, it’s a startup—it doesn’t have that same track record as some of the other recipients of our incentives,” Holt said. “But again, once you’ve made the choice to make your incentives performance-based, you don’t really have to worry about it.”

Canoo said in a statement that it is still shooting to launch large-scale production by the end of the year. 

“We are working closely with the Department of Commerce and other partners to best align Oklahoma’s many incentive programs to support manufacturing and create jobs across the state,” the company said.

Canoo has booked orders worth $2.8 billion for electric vehicles but is scrambling to begin production before it runs out of money.

“Bringing manufacturing is hard. We recognize it. We are embracing it and we know we do not have all the answers,” Aquila said during the May call with investors. 

The company had $6.7 million in cash left at the end of March.

The post  Oklahoma officials are in talks with Canoo as it faces a deadline to buy a factory or lose millions in state incentives  appeared first on The Frontier.

Given, 42, was known around Shawnee by the nickname “Happy” for his friendly and joking manner. But in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, 2019, Given seemed paranoid and told jail staff that someone was trying to kill him. 

Given thought he saw his father dying in the hallway outside his cell and repeatedly called out for him. But no one was there. He became so agitated at one point that he bit another arrestee. These new details come from detention officers’ written reports that The Frontier obtained after suing Pottawatomie County officials to release video and other public records from the incident. The Frontier also obtained an investigative report of the incident that reveals one detention officer told authorities that a Taser weapon was used on Given before he went limp while jailers pinned his handcuffed body to the floor.

Another jail worker told a state investigator that she had concerns about the techniques Pottawatomie County detention officers used on prisoners in handcuffs, and that the jail training director told her not to mention Given’s bruised and swollen face in her written report about the incident. 

The state medical examiner ruled Given’s death a homicide in May 2019 but no one has been criminally charged.

Wellon Poe, attorney for the public trust that operates the Pottawatomie County jail, denied that a detention officer used a Taser on Given at the jail, but declined to comment further because of an ongoing lawsuit that Given’s aunt has filed over his death. 

Watch surveillance video of Given’s interaction with jailers. Viewer discretion advised.

“…We will address any factual allegations in course of the ongoing litigation,” he said in an email.

A new prosecutor now says he’s reviewing whether criminal charges are warranted. Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Adam Panter as district attorney over Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties in October. He said he was unaware of the case until after The Frontier successfully sued for the release of the surveillance video. Panter released a copy of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s report on Given’s death to The Frontier because it had been considered a “closed case” and the previous district attorney didn’t file charges. 

Panter said he would meet with state officials and members of Given’s family before making a decision on whether to charge any of the detention officers involved.

A mental health crisis leads to jail and death 

Oklahoma has a shortage of inpatient mental health facilities to handle rising demand. People in crisis often end up in county jails ill-equipped to handle those with severe mental illness. 

Shawnee police took Given to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation on Jan. 8, 2019, after he rammed a shopping cart into the windows of a Tractor Supply Co. store, telling employees that someone was trying to kill him. Hospital workers said Given should be held in emergency detention at a mental health facility. But he landed in jail hours later after shoving a police officer at the hospital while waiting for a bed to open up.

At the jail, one detention officer, identified in public records as Corporal Edward L. Bonar II, a floor supervisor, tackled Given, slamming his head into the floor, jail surveillance video shows.  

Bonar wrote in a jail incident report that he took Given to the floor after he refused to comply with officers’ commands. He rolled Given onto his stomach because he feared being bitten. Another officer helped handcuff the prisoner. 

The video shows the officers leading a handcuffed Given out of the cell. One jailer attempted to trip Given, causing him to fall to the floor, according to another officer’s account. The move is also visible on video. 

As Given struggled, Bonar placed a knee between his shoulder blades to keep him still so he could be unhandcuffed, he wrote in the report. Detention officers pinned Given to the floor on his stomach for more than four minutes. As many as four officers held Given down.

Detention officers wanted to place Given into a safe restraint device, used to keep prisoners from harming themselves or others, but they had a hard time removing the handcuffs, according to jailers’ accounts of the incident. 

Another detention officer, identified in records as Alexander Barnett, pressed a Taser against Given’s back, and said he would use it if Given didn’t stop resisting. Detention officers gave conflicting statements on whether the weapon was used, and the view in the soundless jail surveillance video is partially obscured. But Bonar told a state investigator that Given was tased “several times,” according to the OSBI report. 

In a jail incident report, Barnett wrote that the Taser wasn’t loaded with a cartridge containing barbed projectile darts and that he only pressed the weapon into Given’s back without discharging it. Taser weapons can sometimes be used without a cartridge to deliver an electric shock when pressed to the skin in what is called “drive stun mode.” 

In an interview with an OSBI investigator, Barnett said that he never used the Taser on Given. The Frontier sent an open records request to the jail trust’s attorney for Taser usage logs from the jail but hasn’t received a response yet. 

“I never give up,” Given reportedly shouted before going limp. 

He never regained consciousness and died ten days later in the hospital. 

The Frontier reached out multiple times to Bonar and Barnett. Both men declined to comment through the jail trust’s attorney. Bonar left his job at the detention center nine days after the incident with Given, according to the OSBI report. 

Both men voluntarily resigned from the Pottawatomie County detention center over time, the jail trust attorney said. 

State law allows jail staff to use physical force against prisoners to prevent escape or for protection of people or property, but “only to the degree necessary.”  In Oklahoma, detention officers are required to undergo training on this and other minimum standards for jails encoded in state law.  

‘Scared to death’

The U.S. Department of Justice has warned of the dangers of restraining people in prone positions since at least 1995. The agency advised that police should immediately get an arrestee off their stomach after they are handcuffed and should not apply weight to a restrained person’s back. 

Cardiologist Dr. Alon Steinberg, an expert in deaths from prone restraint, reviewed surveillance video and other records from Given’s death at The Frontier’s request. 

A person violently struggling with police requires their full breathing and circulation capacity, Steinberg said. When someone is held in a prone position, it will cause trouble with ventilation and compromise blood flow, which can cause death, he said. 

“He’s already agitated and fighting with these four officers,” Steinberg said. “You need more energy, thus you are breathing in more oxygen and out carbon dioxide in that situation just like when you’re jogging. You are breathing hard and your heart is beating strong and fast because you need that to survive.”

Weight applied to a person’s back, obesity and other pre-existing medical conditions can also contribute to such deaths, he said.

The state medical examiner’s office ruled that Given died from organ failure caused by an irregular heartbeat from struggling while officers restrained him. Toxicology testing found no alcohol or other drugs in Given’s system. 

Policing expert George Kirkham, professor emeritus at Florida State University, said people with severe mental illness who are hallucinating can sometimes die from a combination of physical exertion and fright when they are restrained in jail. 

“They’re just scared to death,” Kirkham said. “Your body goes into cardiovascular overdrive and your system just can’t handle it.”

Officers also should not use or hold a Taser on a mentally ill person who is restrained, he said. 

“If we were doing a training video on what not to do, that would be the training video,” Kirkham said after reviewing surveillance footage of jailers wrestling with Given.

Waiting for justice 

Four years later, family and friends are still waiting for someone to be held accountable for Given’s death. 

The previous district attorney Allan Grubb said in a 2021 TV interview that he would ask for a new probe into Given’s death, but state officials say that never happened. 

Given was a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe. Members of the local indigenous community protested the lack of prosecution in the case with singing and drumming outside the district attorney’s office in August 2021. Grubb met with Given’s friends and family and said he would ask for OSBI to reopen the case.

“I think he didn’t mean it,” said Given’s friend Michael Deer, who attended the meeting. “He was lying to us, and he was covering this up.” 

Brook Arbeitman, a spokeswoman for OSBI, said the agency has no record that Grubb asked for a new review of the case. Someone from the district attorney’s office under Grubb’s leadership told OSBI in October 2019  that it had declined to file charges against anyone in connection with Given’s death, she said. 

Grubb resigned last year after the state’s multicounty grand jury accused him of corruption and called for his removal from office, but didn’t indict him on any criminal charges.

Grubb told The Frontier that he wanted to charge Bonar and Barnett with first-degree manslaughter. According to Grubb, the OSBI agent who investigated Given’s death didn’t believe any crime had occurred and was unwilling to sign a court affidavit required to prosecute the case.

OSBI never makes recommendations on criminal charges, Arbeitman said. 

“It is the prosecuting attorney’s decision whether or not to file charges,” she said. 

Grubb also said he asked the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into Given’s death, but said he never got responses. Grubb couldn’t provide documentation of these requests and said he lost access to emails and other records when he resigned from the district attorney’s office. OSBI and the state attorney general’s office said they have no records of such requests from Grubb. Federal authorities said they couldn’t confirm or deny any requests they received to look into the case as a matter of policy. The Frontier also filed an open records request with the Pottawatomie County district attorney’s office for any documentation of the requests Grubb said he made. But Panter, the new district attorney, said he has been unable to find any records that show Grubb asked any agency for further review. 

Grubb also could have presented the case to a county grand jury, but he said the process would have been costly at a time when there was no money to spare. Grubb’s office faced a budget crisis in 2021, after he didn’t remit more than $679,000 to cover payroll for his staff and other fees to the District Attorneys Council, which oversees local prosecutors in the state. At the time, Grubb said he would ask the state auditor for a forensic audit of his own accounts, but failed to do so, according to a statement the District Attorneys Council released in 2021.  Grubb paid back a good chunk of the money before leaving office in September 2022, but the district attorney’s office is still on the hook for the remaining debt, said Kathryn Brewer, executive coordinator for the council. 

When Grubb took office days before Given’s death in early 2019, the district attorney’s office was in “excellent financial condition” with a budget surplus and multiple federal grants to fund additional positions, Panter said in an email.

“So I seriously doubt money was the issue at the time of the investigation,” he said. 

Grubb disputed the characterization that the district attorney’s office was in good financial shape when he took office.

Given’s aunt, Eva Kopaddy, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2020 against the jail trust and its leaders, as well as the Shawnee police officers who arrested Given. The lawsuit also accuses unnamed detention officers of using excessive force against Given at the jail. 

“Mrs. Kopaddy is heart-sick and appalled that no one has been prosecuted,’” said her attorney, Kevin R. Kemper. 

Shawnee police have asked for the claims against them to be dismissed, citing the broad immunity from liability that U.S. courts allow police officers.  

A Pottawatomie County jail supervisor named as a defendant in the lawsuit answered in a court filing that the detention officers’ actions “were reasonable and proper.”

The post A man’s death in jail was ruled a homicide. Family and friends are still waiting for someone to be charged appeared first on The Frontier.

And the company could forfeit the right to collect millions more in state money if it doesn’t finalize the purchase of an Oklahoma City plant later this year, according to documents obtained by The Frontier.

The company is still committed to building the Pryor manufacturing plant and plans to close on the sale of the Oklahoma city facility soon, Canoo CEO Tony Aquila said in an interview with The Frontier at an event at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor on Wednesday.

“We’re committed with the state to kind of take a long term view on this and obviously, there’s other programs in the state,” Aquila said. 

Canoo has not yet received any incentive payments from the state, which are contingent on the company meeting hiring goals and other performance measures. Any money would come from Oklahoma’s Quick Action Closing Fund, a pot of state-appropriated cash intended to help the governor to lure new jobs to the state. 

When the state economic development officials inked incentive deals with Canoo worth $15 million in Closing Fund money in February 2022, it was the largest award of its kind since the program was created in 2011. The Closing Fund money was part of a larger package of incentives the state has offered Canoo valued at $300 million, including free land, funding for workforce training and discounted utility rates. 

While other companies in the EV space like Tesla, Panasonic and Volkswagen have passed on lucrative incentive offers from Oklahoma, less-established Canoo was a willing taker. But the company has faced a cash crunch and shifted plans on how and where to start production.  

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce in January moved to terminate one of Canoo’s Closing Fund deals meant to sweeten the company’s plans to build the $482.6-million factory in Pryor and create up to 1,500 manufacturing jobs there.

Commerce officials decided the contract was invalid because Canoo didn’t start construction by Jan. 1, Brent Kisling, executive director of the agency, wrote in a letter to the company. 

“The State of Oklahoma remains committed to the success of Canoo, and should the company request Closing Fund for this project again; we will work to present this request to the Governor,” Kisling wrote. 

The Department of Commerce also amended the terms of Canoo’s other deals for Closing Fund payments after delays on the Pryor factory, shrinking the company’s total award from $15 million to $7.5 million. Canoo’s Closing Fund deal is still the largest in state history even with the cuts.

After pushing back construction on the Pryor plant, Canoo announced in November that it would first buy an existing factory site in Oklahoma City and instead launch large-scale production there. Oklahoma City officials approved a deal in December to give Canoo another $1 million in local job creation incentives. 

While the larger manufacturing plant in Pryor is on hold for now, Canoo is still moving forward with plans to open a plant to make EV battery modules at MidAmerica Industrial Park, said David Stewart, chief administrator for the park. 

After the change in plans, the Department of Commerce moved to amend the company’s Closing Fund deals to “reflect the new decisions made by Canoo,” Commerce spokeswoman Becky Samples said. 

The company has 180 days from Feb. 21 to close on the site of an Oklahoma City factory and meet other milestones to be eligible for any future payments, according to the new terms. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt has been one of Canoo’s biggest advocates in Oklahoma. Stitt has touted Canoo’s promises to create thousands of new jobs in the state as an example of the success of his business friendly policies. 

In a statement, Kate Vesper, a spokesperson for Stitt, said the governor still believes in Canoo’s plans for growth in the state. 

“The governor’s number one priority is to be a good steward of Oklahoma taxpayer dollars, accordingly, there are pre-set metrics companies must meet to continue to utilize the Quick Action Closing funds,” Vesper said. “While the adjustment in Canoo’s funds is a reflection of those metrics, we are encouraged and optimistic about their economic impact in Oklahoma.” 

Canoo has yet to turn a profit or begin meaningful production. The company’s stock price has plunged nearly 90% over the past year. In March, Canoo laid off about a dozen workers at another planned manufacturing site in northwest Arkansas.

In a call with investors last week, Aquila said the company has booked orders valued at $2.8 billion including one deal to make electric delivery vehicles for Walmart. But starting production has been a challenge. The company announced last week it had agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $1.5 million to settle claims that previous senior executives misled investors about potential earnings. Resolving the matter could help the company access new financing, Aquila said. 

“As we stand here today and reflect, we struggled and underestimated the complexity of some of our milestones, especially taking into account the legacy impacts and the macroeconomic backdrop,” Aquila said. 

Aquila said the company hopes to get cars off the assembly line in Oklahoma City by the end of 2023 and has already begun moving manufacturing equipment there. But one analyst predicts the company will only produce a “modest” number of vehicles this year. 

Last year, Oklahoma also awarded Canoo a no-bid, five-year government contract to sell electric vehicles to state agencies. 

The contract is still valid, but the company doesn’t have vehicles available yet for agencies to buy, a state purchasing spokesman said.

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