OKLAHOMA CITY – If the rulings of two courts stand, property owners in Boynton will be paying a special ad valorem tax assessment for three consecutive years to retire a $125,000 judgment against the Muskogee County town of approximately 175 residents.
Dennis Ray Allen alleged he was beaten in Boynton’s Town Hall and sued the town of Boynton; Willie Gary Hopkins, Boynton’s former water system operator; and Candace Renita Lang, Boynton’s former town clerk.
Allen claimed that then-Mayor Clara Kay Lang, 72, called him on March 14, 2016, and “lured him to Town Hall” after regular business hours on the pretext of giving him public records he had requested. Clara Lang is married to Leonard Lang, Candace’s father, court records reflect.
In fact, Allen said he “suspected someone was embezzling Town assets” and he requested municipal records pursuant to the state’s Open Records Act “to expose” Candace Lang’s and Willie Hopkins’s “theft of Town funds.”
Allen, 61, said while he was in the building, he was physically assaulted by Willie Hopkins, 63, and Candace Lang, 43. Hopkins hit Allen in the face, knocking him unconscious, and he awoke on the floor. The punch injured one of his eye sockets, and he temporarily lost vision in that eye, Allen said.
Allen filed his lawsuit Aug. 30, 2018.
Associate District Judge Norman Thygesen ruled in January 2020 that Allen’s claims were “actionable” against the Town of Boynton for negligent hiring, negligent supervisions, negligent maintenance of premises and violations of the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
“Further still,” Allen’s claims were actionable against Lang and Hopkins for “among other things, assault, battery, and civil conspiracy,” Thygesen wrote.
A trial was held later to determine the amount of damages for injuries Allen sustained; a Muskogee County jury awarded Allen $125,000 from the Town of Boynton and $250,000 jointly from Candace Lang and Willie Hopkins on Oct. 29, 2020.
The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment Nov. 14, 2022.
The process would start with the Muskogee County Board of County Commissioners, who would approve the judgment, which would be referred to the county treasurer. If the town of Boynton did not have sufficient reserves to pay off the court judgment immediately, the county assessor would be asked to calculate a property tax millage rate sufficient to retire the debt over a three-year period.
The special millage levy would be imposed on all real estate in Boynton – not countywide.
The Southwest Ledger reviewed the Muskogee county commissioners’ agendas and meeting minutes from mid-November through December; nothing about the Boynton judgment was mentioned.
The Muskogee County website has an agenda posted for a Boynton town meeting on Dec. 5, 2022. Item #6 included a discussion of “Town vs Allen,” but no minutes of that meeting have been posted.
In a related matter, Willie Gary Hopkins, who later married Candace Renita Lang, previously declared bankruptcy. Records in Oklahoma’s Eastern Bankruptcy Court show that Hopkins filed a Chapter 7 petition in 1987 to discharge his unsecured debts. The application was granted in 1988, court records reflect.