IDABEL, Okla. (AP) – The widow of an Oklahoma man who died after a 2022 arrest filed a lawsuit Friday against a rural sheriff who a newspaper says was caught on tape talking about killing a reporter who reported on her husband’s death.
Last March, outside of rural McCurtain County, the death of Bobby Barrick drew attention. The 45-year-old died in hospital the day after deputies shocked the man with a stun gun.
But the wrongful death lawsuit that Barbara Barrick filed in federal court on Friday came as national attention was drawn to the county, more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, by the recording of local officials discussing the killing of journalists and the lynching of black people.
“It’s been a hard year not knowing what happened to my husband,” said Barbara Barrick during a news conference in front of the sheriff’s office. She praised the “persistent and courageous” efforts of local newspaper reporters to find out more about her husband’s arrest and death.
Over the weekend, the McCurtain Gazette-News published a recording revealing County Commissioner Mark Jennings, Sheriff Kevin Clardy and deputies appearing to discuss killing reporters with papers and hanging black men.
The official has not publicly disclosed the content of the tapes, prompting calls for his resignation, including from Gov. Kevin Stitt.
“Unfortunately, all of our attorneys have told us that we need to remain silent,” Undersheriff Mike Manning told the Associated Press Thursday, declining further comment. “I’d love for everyone to hear both sides of the story.”
Recorded comments from March 6 were taken after the newspaper’s publisher, Bruce Willingham, said he left a tape recorder inside the room after a county commissioners meeting because he suspected the group was continuing county business after the meeting ended, in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act. Prevail. They included a discussion about “two or three people crashing.”
Willingham said he believed officials were upset by “the stories we have revealed that cast the sheriff’s office in an unfavorable light”, including the coverage of Bobby Barrick’s death.
McCurtain County is located in the southeastern part of Oklahoma, in the forest of the Ouachita Mountains, bordering Arkansas and Texas. That part of the state is often called “Little Dixie,” because of the influence in the area from whites who migrated there after the Civil War, and attorney Barbara Barrett suggested Thursday that racial tensions may have played a role in her husband’s death. death.
Barrett is a Choctaw citizen and his wife claims that the sheriff’s staff has “expressed anger toward members of the Native American community in a racist manner.”
Barbara Barrick sued Clardy, three deputies and a state game warden, alleging that she violated her husband’s constitutional rights and used excessive force during the detention. The suit says deputies found her husband “pig-tied” on the ground outside the store, where he was beaten by a mob.
The deputies then handcuffed, beat and shocked Bobby Barrick, according to the suit, and turned off his body camera.
The Gazette-News, a small newspaper with a limited online presence, sued the sheriff’s office last month, seeking body camera footage and other records of the arrest. On Thursday, the newspaper released a full recording of the meeting in which officials threatened journalists.
On Wednesday, Jennings resigned, according to Governor Stitt’s office. Days earlier, the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association voted unanimously to suspend Clardy and his two deputies.
In a post on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page Tuesday, officials did not discuss the recorded conversation but said the recording was obtained illegally. Willingham said he spoke to his attorney twice to make sure he wasn’t doing anything illegal when he made the recording.
No official on the record responded to calls or emails from the AP seeking comment.
Bleiberg reported from Dallas.