Sheriff vows to fight criticism
Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor lashed out Thursday at a county commissioner who has accused him of mismanaging the jail.
"The fight started today," Taylor said after speaking out at a county budget board meeting.
The sheriff is upset with Commissioner
Kevin Calvey, a former state representative elected in November to serve District 3.
Without using Calvey's name, Taylor complained at the meeting that his office is wrongly being blamed for all of the problems uncovered during a March 8 judge-sanctioned check of every inmate at the jail.
“I've been in law enforcement 48 years. I have a stellar reputation in this community,” the sheriff said. “I have no intentions of sitting quietly and allowing my name be slandered and discredited. Nor will I sit quiet and let my employees take the brunt of this and become a punching bag for certain people. And that's all I have to say.”
Calvey did not respond during the meeting.
Later Thursday, Calvey told The Oklahoman, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant when you've got a problem in government or anywhere else. And when you shine a light on things, some people don't like it.”
Oklahoma County's presiding judge authorized the jail check after inmate Charles E. Lemons went nearly eight months without being arraigned. New arrivals typically are seen by a special judge — by video — in one to three days.
Lemons, 49, was jailed in July after being accused of probation violations. He was arraigned March 1 after telling a jail psychiatrist he had no court date. He was released March 6. “There are ongoing problems with the management of the jail,” Calvey said after learning of Lemons' situation. “I think we need, obviously, to have more oversight of the sheriff's office.”
Public Defender Bob Ravitz took a team of 10 of his assistants to the jail March 8 to question more than 1,600 inmates. His March 15 report documented 11 examples of inmate problems. They included other inmates who had never seen a judge, inmates who had no pending court date and a 20-year-old woman who was locked up by mistake on a dismissed juvenile shoplifting charge.
The sheriff told other budget board members his office was responsible for only one of those issues. Calvey told The Oklahoman he is not blaming the sheriff for all the examples in the report but he said again the jail is being mismanaged. “Clearly,” he added. Calvey said he recently toured the Tulsa County jail.
“It's like the difference between a civilized country and a third world country, them to us, in terms of how they treat the inmates,” he said.
The sheriff called the commissioner's statement ridiculous. The sheriff pointed out the Tulsa County jail gets funding from a county sales tax while the Oklahoma County jail does not. “If I had proper funding, there's all kinds of things I could do that are positive.”
The tension between Taylor and Calvey escalated in February when the commissioner sought to do his own check of inmates. He showed up at the jail on a Saturday morning with District Judge Cindy Truong and 16 others, including Valley Brook police officers. The sheriff stopped the check because of security concerns.
The sheriff became upset again with Calvey after a radio interview this month. In the interview, Calvey said there have been times “guards beat people ... and leave them to die on the floor naked.”
The sheriff said that statement is not true and irresponsible. Calvey said his statement is supported by settled lawsuits over jail mistreatment.
“It's a matter of public record,” Calvey said.