Voters unseat embattled sheriff in McCurtain County

“I know where two big, deep holes are if you ever need them,” a voice in the room said, referring to reporters from local newspapers. Another joked about a woman who died in a fire, comparing her burned body to a barbecue. “I'm hungry!” he said. “I'm talking about taking them down to that old mud creek and hanging them with a damn rope,” another said of hanging black people.

This conversation between McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy and other county officials, secretly recorded in March 2023 and published by the McCurtain Gazette-News in April, placed the southeastern Oklahoma county under the national spotlight.

Clardy did not resign and ran for office. The incumbent Republican lost by a wide margin in Tuesday's primaries.

Two Republicans ran against Clardy, Bruce Shirey and Jason Ricketts. According to unofficial primary election results released by the Oklahoma State Board of Elections, Shirey received 49.43 percent of the vote, Ricketts 32.31 percent and Clardy 18.26 percent. Shirey and Ricketts will face off in an August runoff to determine who will face Democratic candidate Steve McKee, a former McCurtain County reserve officer and officer with the Police Department's Special Emergency Response Team. 'Idabel and business owner, on the November ballot.

“We weren't going to let this be swept under the rug,” said Lonnie Watson, a Valliant-born resident who helped start the McCurtain County Movement, an advocacy group formed against the sheriff.

Frustrations with the sheriff were compounded for some during a bipartisan debate held June 13. When confronted with the audio and his role in the remarks, Clardy was unapologetic. Instead, he claimed that, according to federal investigators, it had been altered.

“It was his chance to make amends so to speak and of course he tiptoed forward,” Watson said.

Some said the recording wrongly overshadowed Clardy's accomplishments as sheriff. Resident and business owner April Roberts regularly interacts with Clardy's deputies at her store and said she has seen and heard about many of her accomplishments. She voted for Clardy and cited his expansion of the force and his commitment to fighting drug crimes as examples of his successes. For her, Clardy needed to improve transparency through communication with the public.

Oklahoma Watch contacted Clardy for comment by phone and email after the debate, but he did not respond.

Following the release of the recording, Clardy ignored calls to resign, including those from Gov. Kevin Stitt.

“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear the horrible comments made by McCurtain County officials,” Stitt wrote in a statement dated April 16, 2023.

Stitt called for the resignations of Clardy, Commissioner Mark Jennings, jail administrator Larry Hendrix and Sheriff's Office investigator Alicia Manning.

Only Jennings, identified in a recording from The Oklahoman, said he would run for sheriff if he were allowed to lynch blacks, resigned. Members of the jail trust placed Hendrix on paid administrative leave, but according to the McCurtain County Clerk's Office, the sheriff's office hired him shortly afterward. Manning also continues to work at the sheriff's office.

Several people have sued the sheriff's office over the past year. After Alicia Manning alleged that Gazette reporter Chris Willingham traded marijuana for child pornography, he sued the sheriff's office, arguing that the claims were false and that he was punishing the reporter for the Gazette. incriminating articles about Clardy and his team. Three other people sued the office and, in a case initiated by McCurtain resident Barbara Barrick, Clardy personally, for excessive force by officers.

“The voters of McCurtain County will have the final say on who serves them as sheriff,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond wrote in a letter to the governor in June 2023. In it, Drummond said the Office of Oklahoma State Investigation had investigated, but ultimately concluded that Clardy had committed no crime or any act that would remove him from office.

Although Drummond suggested in the letter that Stitt would support a candidate in the sheriff's race, Stitt's campaign manager said the governor did not do so.

Candidates for the Republican nomination

Shirey is a former McCurtain County dispatcher, deputy and park ranger, and Ricketts is a former investigator, deputy and private security company owner.

Ricketts and Shirey clashed with Clardy over the recording.

“It was disgusting what they were saying, and what made it worse was that he (Clardy) couldn't own up to his role in that conversation and apologize,” Ricketts said.

Shirey said he ran away because talking about people like Clardy and others made him angry and made him wonder what else they were talking about behind people's backs.

McKee, the Democrat, said the pretense of this election changed the county's voting culture.

“This is probably one of the most important elections we've had in several years… our people here are aware that we need to start caring more about the people we put in power… people are actually going to start to s 'interest in a little harder on who they elect, who we let run our community.