(The Center Square) - A McCurtain County Commissioner resigned Wednesday over racist remarks caught on tape by a local reporter.
Sen. George Burns, R-Pollard, said he personally told Commissioner Mark Jennings and Sheriff Kevin Clardy they needed to resign. The two were part of a conversation with investigator Alicia Manning captured by a reporter from the McCurtain Gazette-News. The reporter was also threatened.
Jennings is quoted as saying Black inmates used to be beaten and taken to a cell, according to a transcript published online. Clardy responded, "Yeah. Well, It's not like that no more."
Jennings replied, "I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can't do that anymore. They got more rights than we got."
Burns said Clardy, Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix, who was also there, now need to resign.
"I live in McCurtain County, and I want to state emphatically that these horrible comments do not represent the heart and spirit of our citizens," Burns said in a news release. "When the words of public servants are so vile that they're hurting the people they serve, they should no longer hold those positions."
In a statement published on the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, Clardy disputed the accuracy of the recording.
"Our preliminary information indicates that the media released audio recording has, in fact, been altered," the statement said. "The motivation for doing so remains unclear at this point. That matter is actively being investigated. In addition to being illegally obtained, the audio does not match the "transcription" of that audio, and is not precisely consistent with what has been put into print."
Gov. Kevin Stitt called for the officials to resign. The governor also asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to investigate the matter.
via Oklahoma's Center Square News