McALESTER – On June 18, 2024, Chris Morris was reelected to a third four-year term as Sheriff of Pittsburg County.
He’ll never serve a day of it. In fact, he never completed the last seven months of his second term. Christopher Wayne Morris, 50, of McAlester, was suspended from office June 6, 2024 – 12 days before he was reelected with 56.68% of the vote in a twoman race.
The Pittsburg County Board of Commissioners filed an ouster petition against Morris on May 20, 2024, accusing the sheriff of two felony crimes: embezzlement of state property and bribery by a public official.
He was charged with unlawfully causing the Pittsburg County Clerk to use a state contract to buy a 2023 Polaris UTV (utility task vehicle) for the Sheriff’s Department from a McAlester business, “knowing the vehicle to have been” previously owned by Morris “and knowing the vehicle to be a used vehicle that previously had been damaged.”
Morris traded the Polaris for a different UTV.
The county commissioners also accused Morris of signing falsified odometer disclosure documents. For example, the one involved in the title transfer of the Polaris from the McAlester company to Pittsburg County on Jan. 30, 2024, “indicated a false odometer reading of 280 miles.” The UTV “was observed to have 695 miles on Feb. 1, 2024,” a court record reflects.
Wagoner County District Attorney Jack Thorp was assigned to the case after Chuck Sullivan, district attorney for Haskell and Pittsburg counties, recused himself.
Thorp alleged that Morris “negotiated a trade-in value of $31,099 for the Polaris … based on his representation” to the dealer “that the vehicle had added accessories, including but not limited to a suspension lift kit that increased its value.” However, Thorp continued, Morris “had previously removed these accessories from the vehicle when he negotiated both the trade-in value of the Polaris and the purchase price to be paid by the Sheriff’s Department.
In addition, Morris allegedly “received a direct and/or indirect interest in this transaction by obtaining a new 2024 Can Am UTV” from the same dealer “when trading in the Polaris UTV for an inflated value and arranging for the Sheriff’s Department to purchase the vehicle.”
The bribery charge alleged that sometime between Aug. 28 and Nov. 13, 2023, Morris “unlawfully received a bribe” from a McAlester truck dealer. The alleged bribe was “a financial discount on a lift kit for his personal Polaris UTV in exchange for up-charging two repair invoices” for the replacement of vehicle bed covers on Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Department vehicles that sustained hail damage.
The repairs “were paid for by County taxpayer funds.” Invoices showed the county was charged $1,450 for each bed cover “when the normal cost is $1,250,” according to an affidavit filed in the court case by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agent.
The Pittsburg County Commissioners also claimed that Morris “received free repairs on his personally owned Toyota 4 Runner” from another McAlester business “in return for his promise to bring them more future business in repairing” Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Department vehicles.
On July 12, 2024, Morris accepted a district court order in which his interim suspension would remain in effect “until the last day” of his current term of office “or January 2, 2025, whichever is later.”
He also agreed to resign from his public office on “the last day of his current term of office or Jan. 2, 2025, whichever is later…” In addition, he agreed “not to be sworn in or otherwise take office as Pittsburg County Sheriff for the four-year term” to which he was re-elected…” That order “shall not be construed as an admission of any wrongdoing” by Morris, “but is understood to be a compromise agreement to settle these matters in full,” the document states.
The county commissioners convened a special meeting Dec. 26 to accept Morris’s resignation. In his letter Morris wrote that he was “retiring,” said he plans to “pursue and focus on personal goals and business for awhile,” and vowed he will “run for office again soon.”
Emerging from a closeddoor executive session Jan. 2, the commissioners voted to appoint Frankie McClendon as acting sheriff until a special election can be held. Subsequently McClendon was sworn into office as Sheriff, and Loyd London was sworn in as Undersheriff, by Pittsburg County Special District Judge Mindy Beare.
D.A. Thorp dismissed the two felony charges against Morris on Jan. 8 and refiled the case as a single misdemeanor count of embezzlement. Later that day Morris pleaded “no contest” in an Alford plea.
An Alford plea is a guilty plea in which the defendant maintains his/her innocence. The defendant accepts the sentence while acknowledging that the prosecution has enough evidence to likely win a conviction.
Morris received a twoyear deferred jail sentence, a $500 fine, was ordered to pay a $250 victim compensation assessment, and was required to pay $600 restitution that day.