'Still needs to resign': McCurtain County Sheriff voted out following controversial recordings

MCCURTAIN COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) –  Residents in McCurtain County voted out Sheriff Kevin Clardy in a Tuesday primary just a little over a year after a scandal he's been tied to.

Last year, McCurtain County Gazette reporters published a story and audio recordings of county officials having disturbing conversations after a McCurtain County Board of Commissioners meeting.

The conversations included comments about hiring hit men to murder reporters of the paper, hanging black Oklahomans and inappropriate comments about previous investigations. Clardy allegedly participated in a conversation about burying the journalists in holes and was present for the other conversations as well.

You can read transcripts and listen to audio recordings of those conversations here.

Following the recordings, Governor Kevin Stitt called for the resignation of every official involved in the conversation, including Clardy.

Others allegedly involved include former District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings, Jail Investigator Alicia Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix.

Jennings was the only county employee to resign from his position. Hendrix was removed from his role, but given another position in the county. Clardy refused to resign from his position.

"There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma," said Stitt in April last year.

At the time, Stitt called on the OSBI and Attorney General Gentner Drummond to investigate the matter.

Drummond sent a letter to Stitt June 30 saying that his offices investigation did not uncover any evidence of conduct that would warrant Clardy being removed from office.

"There are countless examples of incidents from across the country where public officials make inflammatory comments that spark severe condemnation," part of Drummond's letter said. "There remains but one authority to remove a duly elected county official who has broken now law: the People of Oklahoma."

Since that announcement a grassroots effort to have Clardy and the rest of the officials who didn't resign to either step down or be voted out.

Tensions have also led to peaceful protests the past year in the county in favor of Clardy stepping down.

News 4 spoke with Lonnie Watson Wednesday who said he's been a critical part of the effort to have Clardy removed.

"It's good to know that people were actually listening," said Watson.

Unofficial results from a June 18 primary election in McCurtain County showed voters didn't favor Clardy's bid for re-election.

Results so far show Clardy only managed to secure a little over 18% of the vote compared to challengers Bruce Shirey with 49% of the vote and Jason Ricketts with 32% of the vote.

"I hate the fact that, you know, that we had to go through this with the audio coming out and everything," said Watson.

Shirey and Ricketts will likely go to a run-off, but Clardy won't be in the running for the job. He'll still keep the job until January regardless, when his term expires.

"He still needs to resign his position," said Watson. "Our thoughts have not changed on that."

News 4 reached out to Drummond's office Wednesday for comment and received the following statement:

“I issued a letter nearly 12 months ago stating that the only legal path to remove Sheriff Clardy was through the ballot box. Yesterday, the voters of McCurtain County stated clearly that they reject the leadership of a man whose statements were clearly hateful and racist. I commend the voters for choosing a different path and I look forward to working with the new sheriff to protect public safety.”

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond

News 4 asked Watson how he felt about Drummond's response.

"Even though I appreciate his political statement, because that's all it is, is a political statement, I'm not going to lie...he's still accountable himself; and his statement means zero to me."

News 4 reached out to Stitt's office for comment but was told by a spokesperson they would not comment on election/political inquiries from the official office.

News 4 also reached out to Clardy's office for comment, but was told he was out of the office for the Juneteenth holiday.

As for the strides forward, during the time that has passed since the scandal has been made public, Watson said he's noticed county improvements overall.

"You can see it if you go to a county commissioners meeting or if you go to a jail trust meeting or even a city council meeting," said Watson. "There's so much talk about being transparent and it's all over social media."

Watson said he also believes community trust in journalism has improved as a result of the incident, and that previously hard conversations have become easier to have thanks to the work of local journalists.

"I think they've done a good job in keeping the public informed of what's going on, even if it's what the public don't really want to hear," said Watson.