Popular Oklahoma tourist destination McCurtain County is embroiled in controversy. NBC 5’s Katy Blakey reports the Oklahoma governor and local residents are calling for the sheriff and others to resign after racist and threatening audio recordings were published by the local newspaper.
What to Know
- Audio released by the local paper appears to show that several local officials, including the sheriff, stuck around after a public meeting and among other things discussed a desire to kill journalists and the hanging of Black people.
- Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) and the state representative for the area have called on Sheriff Kevin Clardy to resign.
- On Tuesday, Clardy's office appeared to push back, releasing a statement saying it is investigating the recording to possibly bring charges against the person who recorded it and alleging that it had been altered.
A county commissioner in far southeast Oklahoma who was apparently caught on tape discussing killing reporters and lynching Black people has resigned from office, Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office confirmed Wednesday.
Stitt spokesperson Carly Atchison said the office received a handwritten resignation letter from McCurtain County District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings. In it, Jennings said he is resigning immediately and said he planned to release a formal statement “in the near future regarding the recent events in our county.”
The threatening comments by Jennings and officials with the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office were obtained and reported by McCurtain Gazette-News. They have sparked outrage and protests in the city of Idabel.
The newspaper released portions of the recording in which McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Sheriff's Department Capt. Alicia Manning and Jennings appear to discuss Bruce and Chris Willingham, a reporter for the newspaper who is Bruce Willingham's son. Jennings told Clardy and Manning “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” and the sheriff responded, “I’ve got an excavator.”
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Jennings also reportedly said he’s known “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding, “They’re very quiet guys.”
In the recording, Jennings also appears to complain about not being able to hang Black people, saying: “They got more rights than we got.”
In a post on the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office's Facebook page on Tuesday, county officials did not address what had been said in the recordings, only that they had been altered, had been illegally obtained and that felony charges would be filed against those who made the recording.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation confirmed Wednesday it has launched an investigation into the matter at the request of the governor.
On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Sheriff's Association, a voluntary membership organization and not a regulatory agency, held an emergency meeting of its board. It voted unanimously to suspend Clardy, Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix, who was present during the conversation, from the association.
