Members of the Oklahoma Legislature listen as Gov. Kevin Stitt gives his State of the State Address in the House chamber of the state Capitol on Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)
Editor’s note: Parts of this column contain graphic depictions of domestic violence.
It’s become clear two systems of justice exist in Oklahoma : one that caters to the good ol’ boys, and another for everyone else.
The good ol’ boy network features Republican officials shielding each other from the types of scrutiny that would get an everyday person skewered in the court of public opinion, fired from their job or thrown in jail.
Let’s take the case of state Rep. Ty Burns, R-Pawnee. For months, people at the highest levels of government kept silent about the fact that he was accused of not one, but two, separate and horrific attacks on his own family.
In April, Burns used his pickup to chase a vehicle carrying two of his family members, according to court documents. He ran them into a ditch, injuring both occupants. In a second incident, Burns tried to gouge out his wife’s eye the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office learned while investigating the roadway assaults. His wife’s injuries forced her to miss a week of work, according to court records.
To their credit, the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office appears to have swiftly investigated both attacks, collecting recorded interviews and a video depicting Burns’ terrifying chase. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation was called in, as was a child welfare specialist from the Department of Human Services.
But then, things were hushed up. The OSBI didn’t file the findings of their investigation with the court until Aug. 27. Burns was never arrested or charged with a crime for over four months.
Pawnee County District Attorney Mike Fisher himself recused from the matter, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Attorney General Gentner Drummond suddenly decided to step in. At some point, Burns hired his Republican colleague, state Rep. Chris Kannady, an attorney who is listed on his state House bio as “counselor to the Speaker,” to represent him. Kannady is also a donor to Drummond’s gubernatorial campaign. Burns hasn’t donated to Drummond, but either directly or via his campaign, he has donated to over two dozen seated House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, according to ethics filings.
Meanwhile, Burns got to go about his life in state government as if nothing happened — for months.
He continued voting on legislation, including House Bill 1273, which is now law. It shortens the time some people convicted in domestic abuse cases have to spend time in classes to curb their behavior from 52 weeks to 26.
In his veto message, attempting to block the passage of the law, Gov. Kevin Stitt wrote it “will make it easier for abusers to sidestep meaningful consequences and avoid jail time with less effort. This isn’t meaningful reform — it’s a concession to abusers, and it puts victims at greater risk.”
By that late May vote, Burns knew he was under criminal investigation. But rather than recusing himself because of a clear conflict of interest, he was one of the 89 House lawmakers who voted to overturn Stitt’s veto.
They were successful, and no one said a word about Burns’ case as they weakened consequences for abusers.
In August, Drummond’s office finally got around to prosecuting the matter, disclosing in a press release after-the-fact that Burns had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of domestic abuse and assault. In a highly unusual move, Burns was allowed to plead guilty the same day he was charged, sparing him months of deserved public scrutiny during continued court appearances.
Burns received a one-year suspended sentence, and then was allowed to use House media resources — funded by you and me — to put out a statement justifying the plea, in which he noted he’s begun a 52-week batterers intervention program — you know, that same program he championed shortening for other abusers beginning Nov. 1.
Fellow Republicans Drummond and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, meanwhile, gave Burns the equivalent of a metaphorical pat on the back following his plea, both condemning his violence, but praising him for taking responsibility.
Neither man demanded that he resign. And while state law doesn’t actually require a lawmaker to resign unless they’re convicted of a felony, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.
Elected officials should be held to a higher standard because if recent history is any judge, we know they’re not willing to hold each other to one.
Former House Rep. Dean Davis, R-Broken Arrow, whose campaign Burns donated to, was censured and briefly removed from all committees by the state House following a 2023 arrest for public intoxication in Oklahoma City. Body cam footage showed Dean, who later pleaded no contest to the charge, arguing with officers and saying he was immune from prosecution because he was a lawmaker.
But he was allowed to be immediately reinstated to those committees when he publicly apologized. Voters later booted him themselves.
And Drummond tossed out a case against former House Majority Whip Terry O’Donnell, R-Catoosa, that involved allegations that he ran a bill allowing his wife to be appointed as a state tag agent. Drummond said at the time that the reason he dismissed the case wasn’t because he thought O’Donnell was blameless, but because he believed he was unfairly “targeted.”
Republican lawmakers though had no problem targeting former state Rep. Mauree Turner, the nation’s first nonbinary legislator, after a protester went to the Democrat’s office following an altercation with the state’s Highway Patrol. Turner, who is also Black and Muslim, was never charged with a crime, but that didn’t stop Republican legislators from censuring and stripping Turner of all committees for an imaginary House made up charge of “harboring a fugitive.” Republicans said Turner would be reinstated after apologizing. Turner never did, and later said the vote was a symbolic reminder to marginalized Oklahomans that they don’t belong.
In Burns’ case, it wasn’t until Stitt and state Republican Party Chair Charity Linch demanded he resign that the 46-year-old actually did so. But that resignation won’t be effective until next month.
Burns said he still wants to complete an interim study at the Capitol on post traumatic stress disorders and doesn’t plan to step down until that’s done. And apparently his good ol’ buddies are going to allow him that final gesture of respect.
He doesn’t deserve that.
Lawmakers should not reward people who try to gouge out their spouse’s eyes or run people off the road.
GOP chair Linch wrote in a statement that “the ‘good old boy’ system concealing nefarious behavior should no longer be tolerated in Oklahoma.”
Maybe the good ol’ boys can live up to that apparent Republican ideal next time one of their buddies breaks the law.
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