IDABEL — The McCurtain County Board of Commissioners stuck with the status quo Monday, taking no action on the possible removal of embattled county Sheriff Kevin Clardy.
On Thursday, May 4, the commission’s agenda listed Item D as “discussion and possible action pursuant under the authority granted by Oklahoma Statutes…the conducting of an investigation or request an outside agency to conduct an investigation into McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy; initiate proceedings to remove McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy and temporarily suspend(ed) McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy during the pendency of removing proceedings.”
A revised agenda, released on Friday, May 5, removed the item.
On Monday, the commission took no action on Clardy’s status and Clardy remained in his post, along with his investigator, Alicia Manning.
During the meeting several residents expressed their concerns about the recording to the commission. Glenda Austin, a resident of the area, said fallout from the incident has caused her to be concerned about her grandchildren’s safety.
“That’s the only reason I’m here. I’m just tired of it. We should be able to do something. This isn’t fair. It’s like it’s all spinning toward us,” she said. “I know there is hate but for it to appear openly makes me worried about my grandkids. This stuff is getting unreal because stuff is beginning to happen in the community. We’re not safe. That’s the bottom line. We’re not safe.”
The agenda revisions came on the same day that Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he was expanding the investigation of Clardy and the three other McCurtain County officials who were recorded making threats and racist comments.
Drummond made the announcement in a letter to Governor Kevin Stitt.
In the letter, Drummond said he asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to expand the investigation requested by Stitt in late April. At that time the governor asked Drummond and the OSBI to investigate McCurtain County Commissioner Mark Jennings, Sheriff Clardy, Sheriff’s Office Investigator Alicia Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix.
On May 3, Hendrix was placed on administrative leave by the county’s jail trust. Clardy serves as chairman of the trust. Trust officials said they took the action while they await the results of an investigation by Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation was sparked by a recording of the four talking after a commission meeting. That recording, made by McCurtain County Gazette publisher Bruce Willingham, had the officials using racist language and complaining that they could no longer lynch Blacks, disparaging the victim of a fatal house fire and discussing the killing and burying two Gazette reporters.
After the recording surfaced, Gov. Kevin Stitt called on the four McCurtain County officials to resign. Since then, the controversy has become known across the globe with media outlets as far away as Israel and England publishing stories about the recording.