OKLAHOMA CITY – David Benjamin Hooten, one of three Republican candidates for State Treasurer, resigned as Oklahoma County Clerk on June 17 rather than fight an attempt to oust him from office over allegations of sexual harassment.
The 59-year-old professional trumpet player from Duncan, who now lives in Nichols Hills, submitted his resignation letter at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Hooten said he will nevertheless continue his campaign for state treasurer; the statewide primary is set for June 28.
District Attorney David Prater said he had planned to ask Oklahoma County’s Board of Commissioners to begin the process of having Hooten immediately suspended and eventually removed “on the grounds of oppression in office, corruption in office and willful maladministration.”
Prater made his decision after being presented a report on an Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by some female employees in Hooten’s office.
One of those employees, Deputy Clerk Sharon Compise, filed a civil rights action against Hooten in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court, alleging a violation of her 14th Amendment “right to be free of gender discrimination and sexual harassment by a government actor…” The county is named as a co-defendant in the action.
Compise claims Hooten “began attempting to cultivate a personal relationship” with her starting in 2017.
She also points to an alleged incident that occurred April 26, 2022, when she and two other employees were summoned to a private meeting with Hooten in reference to a mandatory “teambuilding” exercise. Compise said she and two other women were told they would not be allowed to drive themselves to the undisclosed location, “thus making them isolated and unable to leave or call for assistance.”
She claimed Hooten “stated that there would be drinking and gambling” at the exercise, and said he claimed he had been genetically altered so that he would not get drunk, inferring that the women would be “intoxicated or impaired and vulnerable…”
What makes Hooten’s behavior even more strange is the fact that in 2001 he pleaded guilty in Oklahoma County District Court to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, and received a two-year deferred sentence.
The “bizarre conversation” with Hooten was “severely intimidating” and placed her “in fear of sexual assault if she obeyed” his directive. Consequently, Compise refused to attend the supposed event “and instead reported this misconduct.”
One of the women recorded Hooten’s closed-door meeting, the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation and turned over their 15-page report to D.A. Prater.
The Sheriff’s Office report also included an alleged campaign ethics violation. The report indicated Garridy Hamilton is employed in the county clerk’s office. Hamilton was listed on State Ethics Commission records June 17 as “chairperson” of Hooten’s State Treasurer campaign.
Hooten was named
in 2 other lawsuits
The latest incident was not the first time Hooten has been accused by an employee of inappropriate behavior.
Former employee Leona Porter filed a lawsuit against the county four years ago in which she alleged age discrimination “including the creation of a hostile working environment…”
Porter became an Oklahoma County employee in 1988 and worked in the county clerk’s office, where she was Director, Clerk of the Boards.
Hooten defeated five-term incumbent Carolynn Caudill in 2016 and was sworn in as County Clerk in January 2017. Porter, an elderly Black woman, claimed Hooten began “a concerted effort” of harassment and discrimination against her.
For example, she alleged, he reduced her compensation and job duties, which lowered her income. He also required her to sit in a rocking chair at the front of a glass door and “greet passersby, direct individuals and ask if they needed anything in the clerk’s office.” She also claimed he “made nearly daily comments to others that Ms. Porter was ‘too old’ and ‘too sick’ to do her job” because she was 75 years of age and had high blood pressure.
Porter told the Human Resources Department that Hooten treated her like a “Black slave on display at a plantation” and like “Aunt Jemima sitting on the front porch of the Master’s house.” His conduct was offensive and embarrassing, she complained.
In late March 2017, approximately a week after Porter complained directly to Hooten, he fired her.
A year later she sued the county in Oklahoma County District Court, alleging age, race and disability discrimination. The case was subsequently removed to Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court, where a compromise settlement was reached in which Ms. Porter received $175,000. Hooten opposed the settlement.
Within a month after the 2016 election, Hooten fired 11 employees in the Oklahoma County Clerk’s office. Seven of them filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming they were discharged because they had been volunteers in Caudill’s campaign. At trial in 2019, a federal jury ruled for Hooten.
He was elected Oklahoma County Clerk in 2016 and was reelected in 2020.
Duncan native is a
professional musician
Hooten filed as a Democrat for a state House of Representatives seat in Oklahoma City in 2004 but a challenger got him kicked off the ballot. A decade later Hooten filed as a Republican for a state Senate seat in 2014, but placed fourth among six candidates.
On a personal level, Hooten received a Bachelor of Arts in music education from the North Texas State University and a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Oklahoma.
He is a Grammy- and Emmy-nominated trumpet player. In addition to recording, his schedule includes appearances worldwide as a guest trumpet soloist in recitals and with symphony orchestras. He said he has performed for several U.S. presidents, for the queen of England and for the pope.
Hooten was reared in Duncan, where his family ran a local restaurant that they later relocated to Oklahoma City. Eventually he took over the business but closed it after 15 years. “I had a family and was on the road a lot, performing concerts,” he told Southwest Ledger last year after announcing his bid for State Treasurer. He said he still markets a meat sauce worldwide.