Oklahoma is kind of like the Big Brother of state governments – expect the unexpected.
Earlier today, news reports came out that Julie Ezell – the general counsel for the Oklahoma Health Department – had resigned on Friday.
Just last week, Julie was one of the few sane people in the room during the Board of Health’s brutal takedown of SQ 788. Despite her repeated warnings that the Board’s proposals overreached their authority, and would likely not survive a challenge in the courts, they disregarded her counsel and passed their bullshit unsmokable provisions anyway.
When the news of Julie’s resignation first broke, the general assumption was that it was a noble act – that she was a rare individual who valued principles and ethics over a bi-monthly paycheck, and would rather resign than defend a group of unelected asshole bureaucrats hellbent on overturning the will of the people.
But not in Oklahoma.
As it turns out, Julie Ezell – the general counsel for the embattled Oklahoma Health Department- resigned on Friday after she was charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor for emailing anonymous threats to herself.
Via NewsOK.com:
Former Health Department attorney Julie Ezell was accused Tuesday in a criminal charge of sending threats to herself, falsely reporting a crime and preparing false evidence.
Ezell, 37, confessed on Friday to creating a false email account and sending the threats to her government email, an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agent reported in an affidavit.
The email account purported to be from a sender concerned about Health Department rules regarding medical marijuana.
She was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor in Oklahoma County District Court.
Really? The attorney for the Health Department faked threats from potheads? I used to mock people who said “They’ll never let pot be legal in Oklahoma” but now I’m starting to believe them.
Then again, maybe Julie was just trying to make the Board of Health feel guilty for being total asshats and leaving her out to dry? Or maybe she’s just one of those weirdos who likes to send herself flowers. That’s a possibility, right?
Here’s more:
The first email, on July 8, stated “they could show up in force to stop it if the government thought they could take rights away and erase the laws,” the OSBI agent reported.
The email also stated, “We will stop YOU and you’re greed. Any way it takes to end your evil and protect what is ours. We will watch you.”
On Friday, Ezell emailed Tom Bates, interim commissioner of the Health Department, and told him she would resign immediately as the agency’s general counsel.
“I am so sorry,” she added.
Wow. Julie should really consider enrolling in a creative writing workshop. In just a few sentences of dialogue, she created a very complex figure. The emailer was a pothead, but he’s also militant, which we know by his use of CAPS for effect. I’m just curious how you turn him into a more relatable character with a defined story arc.
Sadly, we may never know the answer because Julie didn’t clear the history on her phone:
OSBI investigators met with Ezell on Thursday and asked permission to search her phone. They found she had accessed Protonmail, which hosted the email that sent the threats, at about the time the emails were sent.
— Meg Wingerter (@MegWingerter) July 17, 2018
Yeah, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that she worked for place like the Oklahoma Health Department.
Anyway, I guess we’ll follow this story and see how it turns. With the way things are going, I think our best bet to get SQ 788 fairly implemented is to pit Mary Fallin and the Board of Health against Chip Paul, Bud Scott and Joe Exotic in a game of Otev.
How could you be convicted of sending death threats to yourself? This is all going to go away very quietly, and sadly I’m afraid it won’t be going to court, and she will keep her law license. If this goes to trial, I’m going to have to take off work to watch this one. A lawyer creating fake evidence, who would have thunk?
There has just got to be much more to this whole thing other than a pilot of the new reality series “The Real Life of Oklahoma Public Employees”
It’s certainly a waste of police time. She committed fraud of a sort.
Clearly Miss Lady Lawyer doesn’t puff, marijuana that is. Anyone who knows anything about potheads know they couldn’t possibly send a threatening email. Not because they’re pacificist but because halfway through they’d stop and hunt up a box of Little Debbies, some Flaming Hot Cheetos and a Coke. By the time they finished they’d have forgotten the whole thing and wonder why their computer was on.
lol
Wish we could lose the stoner stereotypes, people…
Wish some people could gain some sense of humor…
Carl, sadly it doesn’t take that long.
See what happens when you work with Preston Doerflinger for a few months?
Actually Preston Doerflinger hired her in November. You remember Preston, he resigned on Valentines Day after some police reports of Domestic Abuse surfaced. This is the same agency that laid off hundreds of employees because they didn’t have money for payroll. It was later discovered they did have the money, their books were just so screwed up they didn’t know.
This woman, their legal general counsel, earlier tells the Board not to put some rules in place on the medical marijuana as it might be challenged in court. She was right, it is being challenged, and now we discover she made death threats on herself and has been arrested.
Just another story that is Mary Fallin’s administration, and how yet another state agency is a clown organization. So lets put this agency in charge of the rules for medical marijuana. They couldn’t even manage their own books with their senior staff that has the longevity of a night shift crew at a fast food restaurant on N.W. 23rd Street.
What could possibly go wrong?
Good lord, don’t people know how easy it is to follow an electronic trail? In the old days, it was so much easier to drive a couple hours to drop a letter at a faraway post office.
You would think a lawyer would know how easy it is to trace an IP address. But most don’t. I say this with experience from dealing with hundred of lawyers, many of who I had to explain how to copy a simple email header.
An old hobby that I got away from. Fun while it lasted:
https://www.scamwarners.com//forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1578
I suspect she was under the influence of a marijuana stick. She’s probably gay now too. Just one marijuana will do that to you.
Maybe she knows where the missing money went too. Lets check her bank acct to just for shits & giggles.
Just go have a few drinks lady lawyer with the rest of Ok. Officials. Discuss the use of computer history deletion.
CRAZYLARRY – how stupid! Why didn’t she buy a disposable GoPhone or something?
Perhaps she has just seen Animal House one too many times?
“I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!”
~Otter
Sad thing is, she was just trying to make the board abide by the vote of the people. Her thought process was that it would take a revolutionary revolt to stop their rules from being approved and this was her idea of a revolt. The only question left to answer is, how tall is she? News9 had a video of her leaving court and she was at least a foot taller than anybody surrounding her. Gotta go 6’5″ at least
And now there is this bit of fuckery from our dedicated public officials:
“Official says procedure could keep recreational marijuana off November ballot”
http://www.koco.com/article/official-says-procedure-could-keep-recreational-marijuana-off-november-ballot/22263323
Looks like the deal is “we’ll give you the medical marijuana, but in order to get that we get a two year hold on the recreational marijuana question.”
Perhaps whoever worked this deal can help Sam Presti figure out how to get something of value for the Thunder as he waives Carmelo Anthony, other than saving the luxury tax on Anthony’s salary.
Sheesh, she really flipped out. Someone putting the screws to her? Whatever it was she wanted a quick exit – just way overthought it.
And here it is, Health Dept’s exit plan:
http://www.koco.com/article/attorney-general-advises-health-board-to-amend-controversial-medical-marijuana-rules/22343112
They really need to let this thing through and give these schools that extra pot money because if the a state ATTORNEY can’t figure out which “you’re/your” to use, we have some problems.If Julie is reading this, it should be “your greed” as it is possessive. The contraction version should be used in replace for “you are”, such as “YOU’RE going to jail due to YOUR stupidity.”
Them pesky Russian bots are still trying to figure out our grammar…
Nicely said…may be too technical for full comprehension!
The misspellings were likely intentional, in my opinion.
Listen, it worked for Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles.
Great obscure reference! Cleavon Little was an Oklahoman, born in Chickasha in 1939, although I don’t recall seeing any historical markers there highlighting that fact.