GOP lawmaker guilty of domestic abuse after trying to 'gouge' wife's eye out: reports

Oklahoma state Rep. Ty Burns, a Republican, pleaded guilty to domestic abuse and two misdemeanor assault charges on Thursday over incidents in which he attacked his wife and daughter.

The local site, NonDoc, reported late Thursday that the incidents occurred at Thanksgiving in 2024 and again in April.

Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation agents relayed that Burns wife told them "that last Thanksgiving holiday (2024), [she] made plans to do something with friends and Ty got mad at her,” the agent wrote.

“[She] told Ty he was too controlling, and that she was going. Ty followed [his wife] into the bathroom. Ty was pointing at [her] and then forcefully tried to gouge her eye out with his finger. Ty broke a blood vessel in [her] eye. As a result of her eye injury, [she] could not go to work the whole next week. [The family friend] confirmed having seen [her friend] with injury to her eye," the agent said in the report.

In a separate incident, Burns got into an argument with his wife and one of her friends in April, where he attempted "to run a vehicle that [the friend] was driving off the road and striking said vehicle with his hands while screaming and making threats of violence."

“The OSBI received the Pawnee County Sheriff’s report along with recorded interviews, a statement, audio/video of interviews, and video depicting a time Ty Burns was chasing [the friend and Burns’ child] in his pickup truck as [the woman] was driving a van,” the OSBI agent wrote.

“I viewed the video and saw the following: The video was of a dark evening, a view of the two back windows of the van [the woman] and [the minor] were in, and through the back window the yellow lights on the top of Ty’s truck can be seen," the agent reported. "The video also depicted the front of the van as it was travelling on a dirt road and the inside of the van. [The minor] can be heard saying, ‘He is literally following us in the truck, he is chasing us, he is literally about to kill us.’ [The woman] stated, ‘I don’t care he can kill me.’ [The minor] stated, ‘Oh my god this is scary.’ [The woman] stated, ‘I’m not scared.'”

Burns then struck the van with his truck, drove past them, and stopped in the road to block her way before his daughter agreed to get into his vehicle, the OSBI agent continued. Text messages from the daughter, quoted in the affidavit, called out Burns for acting “f------ crazy.”

“(Burns) literally ran us off the road and hit us with his big a-- truck,” one text stated. “Like [we] nearly almost died."

Burns wasn't given any jail time, only a one-year "suspended sentence" with a mandatory batterer's intervention program. He also said he's getting treatment for a PTSD disorder. He hopes to learn "how to deal with past experiences in a more healthy manner."

He's the first politician in Oklahoma to be arrested in two years, after Republican Rep. Dean Davis was nabbed for a DUI in 2023.

Read the full report here.