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The governor of Oklahoma told four McCarten County officials after the release of secret recordings of them making racist remarks about talking about lynching black people and killing journalists. , is asking to resign.
Over the weekend, the McCurtain Gazette-News released audio that it said was recorded after the March 6 commissioners’ meeting.
The newspaper said the audio of the meeting was obtained legally, but the McCarten County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it was illegally recorded and is under investigation. He said he believed the recording had been tampered with.
“I am appalled and disappointed to hear the horrible comments made by McCarten County officials,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Sunday. There is absolutely no place for such hateful rhetoric.
The governor called for the immediate resignations of McCarten County Sheriff Kevin Clady, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings, Sheriff’s Investigator Alicia Manning, and prison administrator Larry Hendricks. He also said he would ask the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation to investigate.
McCarten County is located in southeastern Oklahoma, approximately two hundred miles (200 miles) from Oklahoma City.
The recording was made hours after Gazette News reporter Chris Willingham filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office, Manning, and the county commission, claiming that they had defamed him and his citizens. The newspaper reported that it claimed to have violated its rights.
In the recording, Manning said she needed to go near the newspaper’s office and expressed concern about what would happen if she ran into Willingham, the Oklahoman cites additional reporting from the Gazette News. and reported.
According to the Oklahoma report, Jennings said, “Oh, are you saying you can’t control yourself?” Manning replied: I’m worried about what I can do to him. My dad would have whipped his a**, wiped him down and used it for toilet paper…if my dad hadn’t been run over by a car, he would have been there.
According to the Gazette-News, Jennings replied that his father was once offended by something the newspaper published and “goed over there and started killing him.”
“I know there are two big deep holes here if you want to,” Jennings said. Sheriff Clady allegedly said he had equipment.
“I have an excavator,” Clady was accused of saying during the argument.
Elsewhere in the recording, officials expressed disappointment that blacks were no longer being lynched, the newspaper said.
CNN was unable to verify the authenticity of the recording or confirm who said what. CNN has reached out to all four county officials for comment.
CNN affiliate KJRH reported that Willingham and his father, Bruce Willingham, were advised to temporarily leave town.
Kilpatrick Townsend, the law firm representing the Willingham family, told CNN, “For nearly a year, they threatened, mocked and harassed them simply by trying to cover the news for McCarten County. I have received it,” he said.
The McCarten County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday that there was an “ongoing investigation into multiple serious violations” of the Oklahoma Communications Security Act and that “it is illegal to surreptitiously record conversations in which you were not involved. It is.” Consent of at least one of the parties involved. It also said the recording had not yet been “formally authenticated or verified.”
“Our preliminary information indicates that the audio recordings released by the media were indeed altered. The motive for doing so remains unknown at this time. The matter is being actively investigated. ‘ said the statement.
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has received the audio recording and is investigating it, communications director Phil Bacharach said.
The FBI neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the investigation, and spokesperson Kayla McCreary said it was the agency’s policy not to comment.
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