District judge accused of misconduct resigning
BARTLESVILLE — A veteran judge is resigning from office after being accused of becoming so abusive in office that he sent dozens of people to jail for such minor things as eating sunflower seeds in his courtroom.
District Judge Curtis DeLapp, 51, said Monday he was stepping down “with a heavy heart but clear conscience.”
DeLapp had faced an ouster trial in October before the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary.
He was accused of gross neglect of duty, oppression in office, campaign
violations, falsifying a court document and other wrongdoing.
To settle the case against him, he agreed to resign, drop his reelection effort and never serve again as a judge in Oklahoma.
He will keep all of his judicial retirement benefits.
The resignation becomes effective immediately once the Court on the Judiciary approves the settlement. He agreed Monday to voluntarily suspend himself from office until then.
He risked losing his retirement benefits if he had gone to trial and lost.
“I am choosing to prioritize my family at this time,” DeLapp said in a news release announcing his retirement. “I leave proud of the difficult work we have accomplished and the programs we have developed for our community and legal system.”
As a district judge, DeLapp heard cases in Washington and Nowata counties. He became a district judge in 2007.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s chief justice had asked for DeLapp’s removal from office.
“Great and irreparable harm and injury will occur if Respondent is allowed to continue in the capacity of a District Judge,” Chief Justice Douglas L. Combs wrote in a petition Aug. 1.
Most of the petition for removal dealt with accusations DeLapp regularly sent people to jail for direct contempt of court in violation of their rights.
The chief justice wrote that DeLapp “has issued in excess of 200 direct contempt citations ordering incarceration” just since 2016.
Most judges rarely find anyone in direct contempt of court.
Combs wrote that DeLapp did so in a way that “ignored each individual’s due process rights.”
“The pattern of conduct demonstrates respondent’s lack of temperament to serve as a judge, and undermines public confidence in the independence, integrity, impartiality and competence of the judiciary,” Combs wrote.
In one incident, the judge jailed a woman in 2015 for leaving sunflower seeds on a courtroom bench and floor, according to the petition. Bail was set at $50,000.
She was released four days later after stating she had learned her lesson and would not eat in the courtroom again. She had to come back 21 more times for review.
In another incident described in the removal petition, the judge contacted a prosecutor after his 18-year-old son was stopped by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in 2017.
The judge inquired about alternatives to his son receiving a ticket such as a diversion program, according to the petition.
He also argued with the assistant district attorney about the fine.
He once yelled at a boy who had asked him for directions in a hallway, saying the boy “could sit his (expletive) in jail” if he did not know where the courtroom was, according to the petition.
“The respondent exhibited a pattern of behavior of using his status as a judge to assert power over individuals in instances oftentimes not pertaining to ... his duties on the bench,” the chief justice alleged.