Attempts to remove judge from Epic embezzlement case fail again

Despite a defense attorney's requests to remove her, an Oklahoma County district judge remains on the criminal case against the co-founders of Epic Charter School. The county's chief judge declined to force a recusal in a hearing Friday at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY — An attempt to have a judge thrown off the major embezzlement case against the Epic Charter School co-founders has been rejected again.

Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Ogden decided after a hearing Friday afternoon that he would not disqualify district Judge Susan Stallings from overseeing the case.

Defense attorney Joe White, who represents Epic co-founder Ben Harris, said he likely will appeal the decision to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

“We’re disappointed,” White said after the hearing. “I stand by everything I said.”

White contended Stallings should have recused because she worked for the district attorney who investigated the case. He accused Stallings of being partial to the prosecutors, particularly her former colleague Jimmy Harmon.

White also complained Harmon revealed confidential details of the co-founders’ settlement negotiations in public court documents, which White alleged could cause the judge to have further bias against his client.

Stallings refused to step down from the case. White appealed her decision to Ogden, the county’s chief judge at the time.

Ogden agreed with the prosecutors, who argued Stallings’ work history is not disqualifying.

“From what has been made a part of the record, there isn’t anything that would objectively show Judge Stallings is unable to be impartial,” Ogden said in court Friday.

Harmon is now the criminal division chief for Attorney General Gentner Drummond and is leading the team prosecuting the Epic case. Before that, Harmon was the first assistant to former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater.

Harmon and Prater investigated the Epic co-founders in tandem with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the attorney general.

Prater charged Harris and Epic co-founder David Chaney with racketeering and a litany of alleged financial crimes. Prosecutors contend Harris and Chaney engineered a complex scheme to enrich themselves with public education funds through Epic, a state-funded virtual charter school.

Harris and Chaney deny any wrongdoing or illegal business practices.

White said Stallings should have disclosed sooner that she worked for Prater as the head of his Domestic Violence Unit while the Epic investigation was ongoing.

Stallings has said she was unaware of the investigation into Epic until four years after she left the DA’s office. She left in 2018 to become a district judge.

If she remains on the case, she could preside over a hearing in which Prater could be called as a witness. That hearing would decide whether Chaney’s defense attorney, Gary Wood, should be disqualified from the Epic case.

Prater is expected to testify that Wood tried to negotiate a settlement agreement on behalf of the co-founders and their chief financial officer, Josh Brock, that would involve them paying restitution instead of facing criminal charges, according to court documents.

Brock is now the star witness for the prosecution . His attorneys filed the request to disqualify Wood from the case . They contend Wood used to represent Brock and cannot cross-examine a former client.

Wood denies that Brock ever hired him.

Attempts to disqualify major players in the case have derailed court proceedings that already were slow-moving. Harris and Chaney’s preliminary hearing has been on hold for five months, meaning there is still no decision on whether the case against them can proceed to trial.

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