Oklahoma City -- On Tuesday, August 13, at its first meeting since Commissioner Todd Hiett was replaced as chairman after allegations of public intoxication, drunk driving and sexual misconduct, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) heard from victims and advocates.
At the meeting, several spoke about the need to independently, thoroughly and publicly investigate when powerful people are accused of abusing their subordinates.
Jess Eddy, one of former OU President David Boren’s alleged victims at the University of Oklahoma, told commissioners how the abuse he suffered caused him to flunk out, develop a drinking problem and depression, and still affects him today at 34 years-old.
Eddy said reports from 2018 and 2019 containing the results of the University’s law-firm-led investigation into Boren’s alleged sexual misconduct are still being withheld from the public by the university more than five years later, leaving him in a "he-said-he-said" situation with respect to the public.
Eddy worked as a teaching assistant for Boren at OU and said investigations used to coverup the abuse of subordinates by people in power are illegitimate. (Boren resigned in 2019.)
OCC Commissioner Hiett has been accused of groping a man at a regional commission conference in Minnesota in June and has refused to resign. [The Oklahoman 7/29/2024 -- https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/07/29/oklahoma-corporation-commission-todd-hiett-accused-groping-conference-minnesota/74583362007/ ]
Eddy called for Hiett to resign and for an open and transparent investigation.
The victim of Hiett’s alleged sexual assault in June reportedly works for a regulated company that comes before Hiett at the Corporation Commission.
(The Oklahoman 7-30-24 -- https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/07/30/oklahoma-corporation-commission-todd-hiett-refuses-resign-alleged-sexual-assault/74606271007/
In separate allegations from June 2023 that were published last week, Hiett is also accused by a female OCC employee of sexual harassment during a reception at an Oklahoma City bar and of driving home drunk after the event, despite attempts by multiple people – including OCC employees and the employee of another regulated company – to prevent him from getting behind the wheel.
[The Oklahoman 8/7/2024 -- https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/07/29/oklahoma-corporation-commission-todd-hiett-accused-groping-conference-minnesota/74583362007/ ]
Commissioners also heard from Christine Riley, whose friend, Sheryl Bichsel, died after former Oklahoma State Representative Dan Kirby crashed the motorcycle they were riding on while driving under the influence of multiple intoxicants. Kirby was recently convicted of vehicular manslaughter in Bichsel’s death and sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Riley said that Kirby, who is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation, had “gotten off” from earlier DUI and sexual harassment complaints in Indian Country because of his privileged status as an elected official.
“If he had been reprimanded when he was getting in trouble back when he was a state representative, would my friend still be here?” Riley asked. “I can’t play that guessing game, and nothing is going to bring my friend back.”
“Not all politicians are bad,” Riley concluded, “but they all become drunk with power, and they all think they’re above the law. And you know what, sometimes they are. And it’s not right.”
Rev. Dr. Lori Allen Walke, senior minister at Mayflower Congregational UCC, who is also a licensed attorney, and a board member of consumer advocacy group VOICE (Voices Organized in Civic Engagement) took Hiett to task for an earlier statement he made that “It would be a detriment for me to step aside from my responsibility to balance the interests of ratepayers to those of the utilities.”
“If you don’t resign,” Walke told Hiett, “it will be a detriment to the good name of this state and overshadow everything at this agency. … It will also be a detriment to assault survivors who are all too familiar with the line, ‘Just give me another chance.’”
Walke said she spoke from family experience with alcohol abuse.
Oklahoma Attorney Cameron Spradling also addressed the OCC commissioners, saying the OCC is exhibiting a pattern of behavior he has seen in other investigations.
Spradling has represented numerous sexual abuse victims and survivors in lawsuits against institutions that failed to properly protect victims or investigate their abusers.
The pattern, he said, is one of coverup, including prior notice of misconduct, an internal investigation, failure to make the results fully known to the public, and decisions not to report the behavior to outside law enforcement.
Spradling said that organizations engage in coverup because they are afraid an independent outside investigation that is free to go where the evidence leads them will lead to the discovery of other wrongdoing like improper contracts and other sneaky underhanded dealings.
“Coverups are really about money,” he said.
Spradling emphasized to the OCC that effective investigations of abuse allegations, especially sexual abuse allegations, involving abuse by powerful people against their subordinates must be completely independent from the institutions over which the alleged abuser exercises authority.
He called powerful people who repeatedly abuse their subordinates “vampires” and said the results of those investigations must be made public.
Referencing abuse investigations connected to the football programs at Penn State University and Baylor University as well as U.S.A. Gymnastics, Spradling said truly independent investigations must also include what those in responsibility at the institution knew and did or did not do about it.
Otherwise, the conditions and circumstances at the institution that enabled the abuse cannot be properly addressed to prevent similar abuse in the future, he said.
He called those who enable the abuse with their silence and inaction “the keepers of the vampire” and said the “vampire” (abuser) cannot survive without them.
Earlier in the meeting, the OCC commissioners received a “status report” about an investigation that had been arranged by OCC administrators, or what the meeting agenda called “the hiring of an independent investigator to handle the non-criminal complaints regarding allegations of misconduct.”
(For background, see also: https://www.citynewsokc.com/business/oklahoma-corporation-commissioner-bob-anthony-launches-inquiry-hiett-removed-as-chairman/article_e9fd6fec-553e-11ef-a3f5-af229d17be17.html )
During the status report, the agency’s General Counsel Pat Franz told commissioners that Melvin Hall of the Riggs Abney law firm had been hired but did not give any details about the scope of the investigation or what would be done with the results.
In a statement in a prior commission meeting, OCC Director of Administration Brandy Wreath referred to it as a “personnel” investigation which seemed to imply the results would be kept confidential.
Commissioner Kim David’s comments about the investigation on Tuesday also indicated “complete confidentiality.”
Commissioner Bob Anthony asked Franz if she had any concerns about the fact that the Riggs Abney firm and Hall himself had represented all the commissioners, including Anthony personally, and Director Wreath in personnel lawsuits before. She responded that she did not have any concerns about that pre-existing relationship.
Other attorneys at the Riggs Abney firm include former Oklahoma Attorneys General Drew Edmondson and Mike Turpen and State Senator Kay Floyd.
In a separate agenda item, Anthony questioned whether any investigation arranged by OCC employees whose jobs depend on the commissioners could actually be called “independent,” especially when the employees had apparently defined the scope. Anthony said he had been provided a piece of paper as he walked into the Tuesday meeting that purported to describe some of the scope of the investigation using the term “non-criminal complaints” to describe what would be investigated.
He called that “ridiculous” and “a joke,” and said investigators were being “blindfolded” and having “their hands tied.” He said all allegations of misconduct and wrongdoing should be investigated, whether or not a formal complaint was filed.
Anthony also said the role of the Attorney General’s Office had been misrepresented, both in prior meetings and earlier in Tuesday’s meeting. Commissioner Kim David and OCC administrators had earlier indicated the A.G.’s office was ready to investigate any criminal complaint.
But Deputy Attorney General Chase Snodgrass read aloud the referenced August 7 email from the Attorney General’s office which did not use the word “investigate.”
Instead it said, “the Office of Attorney General stands ready to accept any complaint of criminal wrongdoing, and will take appropriate action.”
Anthony proposed a dozen different criteria and requirements for any investigation of commissioner misconduct in order ensure such an investigation is thorough, truly independent, and transparent, and tried to call a vote on them.
He voted “aye,” but new OCC Chair David said she did not intend to hold a vote on Anthony’s motion.
Commissioner Anthony provided this additional statement to CityNews after the Aug, 14 meeting
Some people are trying to make this about politics. This is not about politics.
The lives of real people – some of them our fellow Oklahomans – will be impacted by the decisions we make about how to investigate the serious allegation that have been made.
Sincere thanks is due to the victims and their advocates who have spoken to today for their willingness to come and remind us of that.
I think the comments from [Tuesday]’s presenters were powerful, and the takeaways were clear.
Crimes and misconduct are still crimes and misconduct, even if the victims are too scared or intimidated to report them.
If those crimes and misconduct are not investigated, especially when abuse of power is involved, such inaction only enables the abuser, leading to more and worse crimes and misconduct.
It has also been made clear that when the alleged perpetrator is a person with significant power and authority, like an elected official who cannot be disciplined or fired, only a professionally-led, independent investigation whose results are made public can overcome that power differential between the abuser and the victim and allow for true accountability.
Shamefully, it appears the OCC is continuing down the path of organized obstruction and coverup instead.
To let the commissioners or employees of this agency be involved with choosing the investigators is like letting one team hire the referee.
The league chooses the referees – in this case, that should be unconflicted leaders of the law enforcement community.
The OCC does not need this investigation to determine how much Commissioner Hiett drank, with whom, how many people he groped, to whom he exposed himself, or where he passed out.
The OCC needs this investigation to ascertain the impact of commissioner misconduct on the credibility and legitimacy of this agency, its employees, the conduct of its business and the integrity of its operations – operations that have a multi-billion-dollar impact on this state every single year.
To the extent that every incident of commissioner misconduct has its own consequences, then we need to know the details of each one.
That said, they are individual pieces of a larger puzzle that must be assembled to be solved.
If this agency attempts to limit this investigation to formal “complaints,” or to exclude the alleged criminal conduct, and does not approach the investigation wholistically, the Corporation Commission will continue to be a breeding ground for misconduct, abuse of power and public corruption that advantages the few and victimizes the many.
As we have learned too well in recent years, the consequences of that can be long-lasting and very expensive for everyday Oklahomans.
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