WALTERS – Cotton County Commissioner Micah Lee Woods faces trial in district court here April 1 on a multi-county grand jury’s ouster recommendation issued in 2023.
Via District Attorney Kyle Cabelka, the state has accused Woods of oppression and corruption while in office, willful maladministration, and failure to produce and account for all public property in his hands.
The grand jurors declared that since Woods is a public officer “not subject to impeachment,” he should be “removed from public office” because he “did knowingly, and willfully, commit certain misconduct in office…” The charges against Woods, 63, of Walters, include:
• On May 1 and Oct. 31, 2023, Woods “made repeated inappropriate and unprofessional comments” to Cotton County Clerk Joseph Schappert. The comments allegedly included threatening Schappert “with losing his job…”
• Between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 31, 2023, Woods subjected Lori Hedges, the Cotton County emergency management director and a reserve deputy sheriff, “to harassment, stalking, and made inappropriate and inaccurate statements about her,” creating a hostile work environment for the woman.
• On Feb. 16, 2021, Woods presented a supposedly “anonymous” letter at the weekly county commissioners’ meeting that demanded Hedges be fired. The letter alleged that Hedges was not doing her job as the emergency management director “and was committing various felony crimes.” Woods “stated that the letter was ‘his fault because he told the party to write the letter,’” the grand jurors wrote.
• On March 2, 2021, another “anonymous” letter mailed to the Cotton County Commissioners’ office demanded the termination of Hedges. This time Woods “would not state who wrote the letter.”
Between Jan. 17 and March 3, 2023, Woods drove past Hedges’ home after hours “and would follow Hedges to and from” the county courthouse.
• Woods told fellow County Commissioner Milton Honeycutt on Jan. 9, 2023, that Hedges “needed to watch her back.”
• On Jan. 10, 2023, Woods,
Turn to OUSTER, p3 in a conversation with Cotton County Undersheriff Gary Whittington, called Hedges “that ------- bitch.”
• Between Dec. 1, 2022, and Jan. 11, 2023, Woods told Honeycutt that “he was going to hire someone to assault Hedges and Cotton County Sheriff Tim King.”
As a reserve deputy sheriff, Hedges arrested Woods after he was charged with felony embezzlement on Jan. 9.
The multi-county grand jury accused Woods of corruption in office and willful maladministration, alleging that in June 2022 he used county employees and county materials “to build campaign signs for his personal use” in his 2022 reelection campaign.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Joe Kimmons wrote in a sworn affidavit that he interviewed all Cotton County District 1 employees and several of them “admitted they helped Woods build campaign signs on county time during the workday around June 2022” at the District 1 headquarters. D.A. files applications for removal of Woods Cabelka filed an application for Woods’ removal from office to be heard in Cotton County District Court on Dec. 5, 2023, by Associate District Judge Michael C. Flanagan. Cabelka cited two sections of Title 22 of State Statutes when he claimed the State of Oklahoma has the authority to bring this action for removal of a county officer.
Carl J. Buckholts of Duncan, Woods’ attorney, challenged Cabelka’s application, denied all allegations against Woods, and asked Flanagan to step away from Woods’ civil and criminal cases.
Buckholts asked Flanagan to disqualify himself as the judge in Woods’ case “for the reason that [Flanagan] knows everyone and is too familiar with the parties and the facts of this case.”
In an “Order of Disqualification” filed Nov. 9 in Cotton County District Court, Flanagan wrote that the request for recusal “is not based on any specific claims of bias, prejudice, or partiality under the common law,” nor on any provisions listed in the Oklahoma Statutes.
Even so, Flanagan decided for his “own reasons” that it would be “in the best interests of justice” to disqualify himself as the judge in Woods’ criminal case. Similarly, Flanagan recused himself from Woods’ ouster case, too, on Dec. 6, 2023.
“The law states that even though a judge may personally believe himself to be unprejudiced, unbiased, and impartial, he should nevertheless certify his disqualification where there are circumstances of such a nature to cause any doubt as to his partiality, bias, or prejudice,” Flanagan explained.
Cabelka filed a motion for a change of venue on Feb. 16, citing “extensive press coverage” after Woods was charged with felony embezzlement and was named in an ouster petition. Cabelka also noted “the amount of votes” Woods received in previous elections “as well as his connection to the community” in contending that he did not believe “a fair jury pool of impartial jurors from Cotton County is possible.”
If Tayloe ruled on that motion, it is not reflected in the court records posted on the Oklahoma State Courts Network.
Meanwhile, Cabelka filed an amended petition/ application for Woods’ removal as a Cotton County Commissioner on March 13. It included this sentence: “The State of Oklahoma reserves the right to amend this Petition/ Application to assert additional grounds for the removal of Defendant Woods, as this investigation is continuing and ongoing.”
District Judge Emmit Tayloe will preside over Woods’ civil ouster trial as well as his criminal felony trial for embezzlement.