Jail trust sued over pandemic aid
Two activists and a business owner are asking a judge to rule that the Oklahoma County Jail Trust has been operating illegally.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, alleges the trust was created unlawfully, and it also slams the way Commissioner Kevin Calvey handled t he county's roughly $47 million in federal coronavirus relief funds, known as CARES Act funding.
An email between Calvey and trust Chairwoman Tricia Everest detailing a potential way to spend the funding is included in the suit, which plaintiffs say “shows that he intends to effectively launder the money.”
Defendants are Calvey, Ever est, Commissioner Brian Ma ugh an, the jail trust, the Board of County Commissioner sand jail administrator Greg Williams.
The lawsuit also states the trust has operated illegal ly since Sheriff P. D. Taylor stopped going to trust meetings last year, even though Taylor has continuously sent a designee in his place.
Plaintiffs want Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Stallings to rule that the trust, which received the
majority of the county' s CARES Act dollars, has to give all of the funding back and that damages must be paid to community members who lost businesses and homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This lawsuit is a next step for protesters who have been demonstrating at county meetings for months to pressure the jail trust to return the funding.
While the lawsuit was being filed, the trust did vote to send back roughly $25 million of the CARES Act dollars it received because trustees did not believe the funds could be spent before the federal government's Dec. 30 deadline. The trust is still keeping $15 million for COVID- related costs.
Still , plaintiffs said t hey would sue to hold trustees accountable for what they have called" disgusting" behavior.
Two of the plaintiffs, Adriana Laws and Mark Faulk, have been prominent figures at county protests.
"I hope you are ready to face the reckoning you are about to face," Faulk told trustees during a Monday meeting.
The other plaintiff, Steven Butler, was the owner of the Green Room Soul Food Steakhouse, which the lawsuit says had to shut down because the county gave most of its CARES Act funds to the jail rather than making the money available for small businesses around the county