McCurtain County District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings has resigned after allegedly being caught on a recording discussing the murder of journalists and lynching Black Oklahomans with members of the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office, Mister Truth reports.
News reported that after a March 6 county meeting, officials discussed killing a reporter that works for the paper, and making racist comments toward Black people. The conversation is allegedly captured on an audio recording, and was released online publicly over the weekend.
According to the newspaper, Jennings, Sheriff Kevin Clardy, investigator Alicia Manning, and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix were part of an impromptu discussion after the March 6 meeting of the county Board of Commissioners.
Reporter Chris Willingham, who wrote the explosive article, has said the discussion was recorded by a device left in the room by his father, Bruce Willingham, who is also the newspaper’s publisher.
Willingham has an ongoing defamation lawsuit against the sheriff’s office, Manning and the Board of County Commissioners.
No additional information about Jennings’ resignation was available. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt had called for Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Jennings and the other two individuals to resign after the Gazette-News published its account.
The sheriff’s office on Tuesday said it was investigating whether the newspaper’s recording was made illegally and if it was being reported inaccurately. Officials did not provide an explanation for the content of the recording.