Agreement on mental health competency rejected, AG fired as attorney

OKLAHOMA CITY — A panel chaired by Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a landmark mental health settlement, rejecting the opinion of the Oklahoma attorney general’s office and a federal judge.

The Contingency Review Board met Tuesday, although Attorney General Gentner Drummond called the meeting “premature.” An hour before the meeting began, the commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced that she had fired Drummond as an attorney because he did not prioritize her or her agency.

The settlement was announced in June and received preliminary approval from a federal judge in September. The goal is to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the Department of Mental Health failed to provide timely, court-ordered treatment to restore competency and violated the rights of defendants, most of whom are indigent, declared incompetent to stand trial, and in held in county jails.

Drummond represented the suit’s defendants, Allie Friesen, the commissioner of mental health, and Debbie Moran, interim executive director of the Oklahoma Forensic Center.

Stitt and Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, voted to reject the decree, while Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, abstained.

Treat expressed hesitation to take action on the consent decree due to Drummond’s inability to attend the meeting. Treat also hesitated to vote because he, along with others at the meeting, including Friesen and her attorney, had not yet read the final version of the settlement agreement.

But both Friesen and Stitt were stubbornly opposed to adopting the consent decree.

Friesen said she would “resign before signing such an agreement.”

“The governor’s office would never have approved a consent decree that the state agency or mental health commissioner determined was not good for the citizens of Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “I would never agree to a permanent contract that, conservatively viewed over five years, costs taxpayers $100 million with no end in sight.”

Drummond had issued a statement Monday saying Stitt’s calling of the meeting was premature and that further steps needed to be taken before the consent decree was considered by the board or the Legislature. He said Stitt’s opposition to it was “confusing.”

Drummond said 244 people remain “languishing in prisons” awaiting necessary mental health care. He said 35 had been waiting for more than a year, while seven had been waiting for more than two years.

Drummond said Tuesday that his client is “the state of Oklahoma, not the government agency that put us in this untenable situation.” He said the commissioner “didn’t hire him” and therefore couldn’t fire him.

He also issued a statement Tuesday night calling the board’s vote “confusing, although not surprising.”

“I understand that the governor and speaker are fearful of the political solution to this predicament that ODMHSAS has placed Oklahoma in,” Drummond said. “But shirking responsibility is not an option when it will cost taxpayers countless millions of dollars. We will consider our options for the future.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Friesen repeatedly said the consent decree as written would prevent the Department of Mental Health from providing competency recovery treatment in prisons.

Paul DeMuro, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the meeting was “sophomoric political theater” that “would be funny if it weren’t so serious.”

“This meeting itself was a sham and a circus and will have no bearing on the conduct of this litigation,” he said. “Nothing done by the Contingency Review Board will affect the ultimate outcome of the litigation.”

He said Stitt had previously warned the judge that the board might reject the decree, and the judge said he would allow objections to be filed with the court, which would be decided at the final hearing. A final hearing is scheduled for January 5.

DeMuro also questioned how board members could vote on a document they apparently hadn’t read.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “This is disgraceful leadership.”

DeMuro said it’s easy to see that Stitt and Friesen are “intentionally spreading false narratives about this consent decree.”

Nothing in the decree prevents the restoration of competencies in prison, in fact three provisions legally require the restoration of competencies and allow it to be provided in prison, he said.

The consent decree simply requires that state mental health officials stop telling people they have a statewide program because they don’t, DeMuro said. He said this was a “lie” spread by the previous administration, which had claimed no one was waiting for skills recovery services in the state and had “magically” taken 300 people off the waiting list.

“We wanted to be clear that we’re not saying you can’t treat people in prison,” DeMuro said. “We’re just saying that you can’t lie to the public, the courts, the defense attorneys and the victims’ families that you have a national program, because that’s not the case.”

Fines will be imposed for non-compliance, but these will only come into force seven months after the decree is adopted.

“A well-run department could avoid the fines,” he said.

Oklahoma Voice editor Janelle Stecklein contributed to this report.