An Oklahoma sheriff and two staff in the sheriff’s department have been suspended after they were secretly recorded allegedly talking about lynching Black people and killing journalists after a public meeting.
The Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association’s (OSA) vote to suspend McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, sheriff’s investigator Alicia Manning and jail administrator Larry Hendrix was unanimous, NBC reports, but the trio remain in their posts, despite Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s call for them to resign.
A post on the sheriff’s office Facebook page — the agency’s first public comment since the comments by Clardy and others were reported by the McCurtain Gazette-News — does not address the recorded discussion, but calls the situation “complex” and one “we regret having to address.”
In the post, the sheriff’s office claims the audio recordings were “illegally recorded” and had “yet to be duly authenticated or validated.”
“Our preliminary information indicates that the media released audio recording has, in fact, been altered,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
In the tapes, Manning and District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings appear to be recorded following a March 6 county commissioners meeting, discussing killing reporters Bruce and Chris Willingham, whose family has published the print-only local newspaper for 40 years.
According to the McCurtain Gazette-News, and reported by multiple international media outlets, Jennings tells Manning and Clardy, “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them.” The sheriff can be heard responding, “I’ve got an excavator.”
Jennings also reportedly says he’s known “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding, “They’re very quiet guys.”
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In the recording, Jennings also appears to complain about no longer being able to lynch Black people, saying: “They got more rights than we got.”
Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the Gazette-News, said the recording was made 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.
Willingham said he twice spoke with his lawyers to be sure he was doing nothing illegal.
Christin Jones, of the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend, which represents the newspaper, told NBC the recording had not been tampered with and that Willingham did not break the law in making it.
“It is an accurate recording and does not violate the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act,” Jones said in an email. “The full audio is planned to be released on Thursday.”
Gov. Stitt issued a statement Sunday demanding the “immediate resignation” of the four.
“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County,” Stitt said, according to Fox News. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office. I will not stand idly by while this takes place.”
Stitt added he had ordered the state bureau of investigation to determine “whether any illegal conduct has occurred.”
On Tuesday, OSA, a voluntary membership organization and not a regulatory agency, held an emergency meeting of its board. It voted unanimously to suspend the three members from the association.
The sheriff’s office statement said there have been “a large number of threats of violence including death threats” against unspecified county employees, officials, their families and friends since the conversation was first reported.
The statement said the sheriff’s office will issue news releases until its investigation concludes “and findings are forwarded to the appropriate authorities for felony charges to be filed on those involved.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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