Sheriff’s candidates differ in experience, plans for jail

The four Republicans and two Democrats in the Oklahoma County sheriff’s race differ widely in law enforcement experience and their plans for the overcrowded and deteriorating county jail.

They do agree that change is needed at the troubled sheriff’s office. And each has said he is the one to bring back integrity to the position. Three have run for sheriff before.

A winner-take-all special primary election is set for Tuesday.

On the GOP ballot are P.D. Taylor, Darrell Sorrels, Brett Macy and Mike Christian. On the Democratic ballot are Mike Hanson and Virgil Green.

The victors from each party will face an independent candidate, Ed Grimes, in a special general election Sept. 12.

The special elections are being held because the sheriff for the past 20 years, John Whetsel, retired March 1 after coming under investigation over accusations of financial mismanagement. Two recent state audits confirmed problems exist inside the office, including weapons that have gone missing.

The winner in September will finish the rest of Whetsel’s term — a little more than three years and three months.

Here is a breakdown of the law enforcement experience of the six candidates up for election Tuesday, plus their positions on the jail and a notable fact or two.

P.D. Taylor

Taylor became acting sheriff upon Whetsel’s retirement. He was Whetsel’s undersheriff for almost 14 years.

At age 70, he has the most time in law enforcement of all the candidates. Taylor joined the sheriff’s office 20 years ago after working for the Oklahoma City Police Department for 26 years. He lives in Oklahoma City.

Taylor calls himself a proven leader who already has made f positive changes since taking over as acting sheriff. “He isn’t a politician — he is a law enforcement officer,” one campaign mailer states.

Taylor has proposed the county make improvements to the existing jail on a piecemeal basis, such as building a medical ward next to the building so more room can be made for inmates.

Taylor ran for sheriff as a Republican before, losing in a runoff in 1996. He then gave his support to Whetsel, a Democrat, who was elected for the first time that year. Taylor then went to work for Whetsel. Asked last week if he was hired as a reward for endorsing Whetsel, he said, “Absolutely not.”

Taylor has tried to distance himself from his former boss during the campaign while some of his opponents said he, too, is to blame for the current crisis. Taylor has said repeatedly he was not involved in the decisions that led to the accusations of financial mismanagement.

Darrell Sorrels

Sorrels, 63, of Midwest City, worked as a deputy for two Oklahoma County sheriffs, starting in 1992 and retiring in 2007. He now works as a security officer at the Oklahoma City federal courthouse.

Sorrels lost to Whetsel in 2012. “We exposed a lot of things in 2012 that came out in the audit but nobody took us seriously,” he said last week.

Sorrels wants to use a bond issue to fund construction of a new singlestory jail complex on a 50to 100-acre location, then sell the existing jail to pay off the bonds early.

Sorrels has made some unusual statements during the campaign. In a speech last week, he said he deduced from questions asked of sheriff’s candidates by the chamber of commerce that the chamber wants “a puppet that

they can control.”

Brett Macy

Macy, 53, of Newalla, is an investigative and financial crimes consultant and a member of the Pardon and Parole Board. He was an Oklahoma City police officer from 1989 to 2014, finishing as a lieutenant supervising daily police patrol operations. He was an Oklahoma County sheriff’s deputy from 1984 to 1989.

Macy is calling for using pretrial programs to their fullest potential to release nonviolent, low-risk indigent defendants waiting to go to court. He said reducing the jail population by 500 inmates would be easy to do and would relieve the burden on the overworked detention officers and the overstressed facility.

He is the son of Bob Macy, the longtime district attorney who was popular with voters for being tough on crime. Bob Macy died in 2011.

“I was raised by a man, who most of you know of, who was a very, very strong leader,” Brett Macy said at a recent speech. “I got to spend the majority of my life around him and learning from him every day.”

Mike Christian

Christian, 47, of Oklahoma City, was an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper for 8.5 years, starting in 1995. He took a medical retirement because of on-the-job injuries. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2008 and served eight years.

He ran for sheriff in 2016, rather than seek re-election to the House. He narrowly lost to Whetsel in November.

Christian has come up with a lease-purchase plan to build a new jail without raising taxes. He has promised to redirect resources inside the sheriff’s office to address problems at the existing jail until the economy improves. “Let’s sell some of those tanks, sell the boats, sell some of those cars and ... take care of the jail,” he said in one speech.

Christian has been in a number of controversies. The most publicized was in 2010 when he and two other legislators came under criminal investigation. He was not charged and has said he was exonerated.

He testified at trial in 2013 against a friend, former state Rep. Randy Terrill, who was convicted of offering a bribe to a state senator to not run for reelection. Prosecutors said Terrill offered the bribe to help Christian, who wanted to run for the senator’s seat. Christian dropped his 2010 Senate campaign and ran for re-election to the House instead after coming under investigation.

Mike Hanson

Hanson, 54, of Choctaw, has worked for the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office since 1986, starting as a reserve deputy. He became a full-time deputy in 1998. Hanson is currently a sergeant assigned to courthouse security. He was a patrol lieutenant but was demoted Jan. 1, 2014. He blamed the demotion on office politics.

He has said a new county jail would be great but, if that isn’t possible, the existing jail can be improved. “We can make this one work. It’s just going to take a lot of money to fix the problems,” he said.

Hanson has not been able to campaign much because of a series of recent personal setbacks. His sister died, his mother had to be moved into a nursing home and his home flooded after a water line busted.

Virgil Green

Green, 53, has been chief of the Helena-West Helena Police Department in Arkansas for almost two years but still has a home in Oklahoma City. He said he commutes back to Oklahoma City most weekends to be with his wife and children.

He became police chief of Spencer in 2011, but was suspended in 2014 and fired in 2015, records show. He has blamed disagreements with the city manager for those employment issues. He also was police chief in Boley for 12 years.

He has pledged to work, if elected, with Oklahoma County commissioners to establish a citizens steering committee to look at ways to fund a new county jail.

“We don’t need a career politician to be our next sheriff,” he said in his campaign announcement in February.

Green is currently at odds with city officials at his new job in Arkansas and the Helena-West Helena mayor complained to a TV station in March that crime issues are not improving.