Sheriff Recorded Making Inflammatory Comments Won’t Face Charges
Oklahoma’s attorney general said on Friday that a sheriff who was caught on a recording as other county officials discussed killing journalists and Black people would not face criminal charges but suggested that the governor endorse another candidate in the next election.
The attorney general, Gentner Drummond, said in a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt that he had not found evidence that the sheriff of McCurtain County, Kevin Clardy, had committed a criminal act or found any legal grounds to remove him from office.
“There are countless examples of incidents from across the country where public officials make inflammatory comments that spark severe condemnation,” Mr. Drummond wrote. “Regardless, there is no provision of law in Oklahoma to throw elected officials out of office merely for saying something offensive.”
Mr. Stitt, a Republican, had called in April for the resignations of Sheriff Clardy and three other county officials who were part of the recorded conversation: a sheriff’s office investigator, Alicia Manning; the county jail administrator, Larry Hendrix; and a county commissioner, Mark Jennings.
Source: The New York Times
