Former SA&I Gary Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY — Criminal charges were filed against four former officials of the tiny Muskogee County town of Boynton in the past eight and a half years.
The Muskogee County District Attorney’s office filed felony embezzlement and forgery charges against former Town Clerk Brittany Dawn Page in 2014. She pleaded guilty in 2016, received a deferred 20-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution to the town plus $3,065 in court costs.
Page paid approximately half of the court costs by September 2016, and she made 19 payments on her debts between March 8, 2017, and June 30, 2020, court records indicate. In the 30 months since then, her case has been “resent to collections” 28 times, records reflect.
Troubling issues were uncovered in an audit of Boynton’s records covering the 25-month period of June 1, 2014, through July 31, 2016, by then-State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones. At that time Boynton was a town of approximately 250 residents.
The SA&I’s audit of the official books and records of Boynton was requested by former District Attorney (now special district judge) Orvil Loge. At Loge’s request, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reviewed the state audit and confirmed its findings.
That resulted in multiple criminal charges filed by Loge on May 31, 2019.
Felony charges of embezzlement and forgery were filed against former Boynton Town Clerk Candace Renita Lang, 43; an embezzlement charge was filed against her stepmother, then-Mayor Clara Kay Lang, 72; and an embezzlement charge was filed against former town water system operator Willie Gary Hopkins, 63.
A jury trial in Muskogee County District Court for all three defendants is scheduled for Feb. 13, 2023, with District Judge Bret Smith presiding. It’s doubtful that Candace Lang and Willie Hopkins will testify against each other during the trial, as they got married in 2021.
• Candace Lang is accused of misappropriating $76,656.98 of town funds, writing 145 checks to herself in excess of her approved payroll compensation.
Bank records reflected that 199 checks totaling $123,717.94 were issued to Candace Lang during the 23½-month period she served as town clerk (August 1, 2014, through July 19, 2016). Of that sum, the only payments authorized by the Board of Trustees were her salary of $800 bimonthly, “54 checks which totaled $37,600 for the period of her employment,” Jones wrote in his audit report.
Almost all of the other 145 checks that were issued to Lang contained notes on the check memo lines, “each describing the alleged purpose of the compensation including, but not limited to, payroll, partial pay, bills, bill reimbursements, supplies, stamps, mileage, etc.,” Jones said. “We found no evidence that any of these payments had been authorized” by the Board of Trustees.
Candace Lang “asserted she was cashing the extra checks made payable to her and paying town expenditures with cash or money orders,” Jones reported. Yet at the outset of the investigation she could not provide receipts, invoices, or purchase orders to support her claims that cash and money order payments “had been made by her for legitimate town expenses.”
• Willie Hopkins received $37,537.68 in “questionable compensation, above his approved payroll compensation amount of $36,000,” Jones reported. Hopkins was a full-time employee of the Town of Boynton, “hired as a water man” but certified as a water operator for only eight of the 23 months he was employed. He was officially hired by the Board of Trustees on Aug. 25, 2014, and resigned his position on July 11, 2016.
Bank records reflect that 85 checks totaling $73,537.68 were issued to Hopkins during the less than two years he was employed with the town.
Of that sum, “the only board-authorized payments were his salary of $800 bimonthly, totaling $36,000,” Jones reported. The remaining checks totaled $37,537.68 and were issued payable to “Willie Hopkins.”
“According to Hopkins he provided services to the Town, and these additional checks, although made payable to ‘Willie Hopkins,’ were for work done through his business, Home Maintenance Plus, not as an employee,” Jones wrote. “However, there were no receipts, invoices, purchase orders, or other records provided to support the payments for the alleged work done through Home Maintenance Plus,” Jones said, adding, “We also found no evidence that any of these payments had been officially authorized” by the Board of Trustees.
Because no timesheets or time records were maintained for Hopkins, “it could not be definitively determined if the work Hopkins claimed he was paid for through his ‘personal business’ were actually duties performed during town work hours as part of his town duties,” Jones reported.
“However, the completion of more than $37,000 of work outside of normal business hours appears questionable,” Jones asserted.
Independent auditor alleged collusion
An independent auditor who examined Boynton’s records in 2016 alleged that Hopkins and Candace Lang “colluded to misappropriate assets of the Town.”
• Former Boynton Mayor Clara Kay Lang received a total of $1,078.82 in “questionable compensation.”
The Town Board hired her as the “acting” town clerk on April 14, 2014, for a three-month period, and simultaneously hired her stepdaughter, Candace Lang, as a part-time office assistant.
At the end of the three-month period Candace Lang was to assume the position of town clerk and Kay Lang would become the part-time assistant, working two days a week for a five-hour period.
During the period that Kay Lang served as the town clerk, eight payroll checks of $800 each were issued to her, for a total of $6,400.
One of those checks was written on April 14, 2014 – the day she was officially appointed to the town clerk position. “Lang would not have been due a paycheck on the date of her hiring,” Jones noted. Therefore, that check was an improper payment.
Under the original hiring agreement noted in the April 14, 2014, town board minutes, Kay Lang was to become Candace Lang’s part-time assistant after serving her three-month term as town clerk. However, on July 22, 2014, Kay Lang was elected to the Town Board and submitted a letter of resignation for the assistant position which stated, “My name is Kay Lang and I was hired to work 2 days per week at 10.00 per hour starting August 1, 2014. Due to my board member acceptance, I will have to decline this position.”
Despite her election to the Board of Trustees, and her corresponding resignation as clerk, a $200 payment was made to Kay Lang on Aug. 15 for two weeks of work as a part-time office assistant. Lang’s election and resignation would have eliminated her position as an assistant, thereby precluding the $200 in compensation she received, Jones noted.
“The $200 payment to Lang was an improper payment.” Furthermore, Jones pointed out, “the $200 payment made to Kay Lang, on check 2124, was a payment to herself, signed by her, with no second signature or approval.”
Also on July 22, 2014 – the day Kay Lang was elected to the Boynton Board of Trustees – she received a payment of $78.82. No evidence was provided to support the purpose or approval of that payment, Jones said. “With no supporting documentation available, the $78.82 payment was deemed an improper payment.”