Many of the tips received over the past several months have described local residents’ fear of law enforcement and the judicial system in District One, a wide swath of land that includes Harper County and the panhandle and is home to 31,000 people.
In a slight twist, the tip from the former Guymon police officer cited potential dissent within the police force, particularly regarding the since-discontinued ticketing scheme.
The source recounted personal conversations with drug task force members who reported writing as many as 10 such citations per day. Numerous Guymon police officers had expressed concern that drug task force members making a salary of $50,000 per year could nevertheless afford to buy cars for their children and live in homes well beyond their means, the source said.
“Members of the Guymon Police Department, including myself, are suspicious of where seized cash is going,” the source said.
The source went on to describe two cases in detail that may be representative not only of abuses in the panhandle, but of the ad hoc justice that characterizes much of rural Oklahoma.
A Consistent Note of Fear and Frustration
Oklahoma Watch knows the identity of the anonymous source and independently verified that the person once worked as a Guymon patrol officer.
There are good reasons to scrutinize the use of anonymous sources in journalism.
Matt Carlson, a professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, warned in On the Condition of Anonymity: Unnamed Sources and the Battle for Journalism that unnamed sources ask readers to accept unseen news practices and may mask unacceptable biases on the part of journalists.
“The opacity of unnamed sources prevents audiences from gaining additional information from which to make judgments about unattributed information,” Carlson wrote.
Media executive Norman Pearlstein, veteran of the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, largely agreed in Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources but stipulated that the tarnished reputation of unnamed sources in recent years had been a function of leaks at the highest reaches of government.
“Anonymous sources have become embedded in journalism; they are a critical part of coverage in small towns and large cities,” Pearlstein said.
The numerous tips received by Oklahoma Watch — named and unnamed — varied in tone and topic, but sounded a consistent note of frustration and fear.
Notably, the former police officer's tip, which detailed two cases of police abuse that resulted in civil damages against the Guymon Police Department, included details drawn from careful sourcing and materials that were not in any way anonymous.
Intentionally and Purposefully Spit in Mr. Rodriguez’s Face
Both stories involved the same two lawyers, Guymon defense attorney Christopher Liebman and Edmond civil rights attorney Eric Cotton. Liebman handled the criminal defenses and Cotton sought civil damages when it became clear, in his opinion, that his clients’ rights had been violated.
Guymon PD celebrated Ron Friffing's CLEET certification with this photo posted to Facebook in 2019. Griffing is on the left. (Guymon PD Facebook)Liebman has been a consistent presence in panhandle stories investigated by Oklahoma Watch. Both Liebman and Cotton denied any involvement in the tip.
“Guymon PD is corrupt in and of itself,” the source said, before offering specific details on two incidents involving Guymon officers Ronald Griffing and Seth Barby. Barby has also figured prominently in stories investigated by Oklahoma Watch.
On July 8, 2021, Griffing was dispatched to a domestic altercation and proceeded to arrest Sonny Rodriguez, 31, who was intoxicated. An altercation ensued in which Griffing and another officer delivered knee and elbow strikes to Rodriguez before pinning him to the ground.
That’s when Griffing violated Rodriguez’s rights, according to the notice of claim that Cotton filed eleven months later.
“Then Officer Griffing intentionally and purposefully spit in Mr. Rodriguez’s face, while he was being held down on the ground,” Cotton wrote.
The source included the damning proof of a link to a YouTube video that showed Griffing letting loose a thick gob of spittle onto the face of the fully apprehended Rodriguez.
Cotton requested compensation in the amount of $125,000; Rodriguez, who could not be reached for comment, accepted a settlement of $25,000.
Shocking Minors
On September 20, 2022, Barby was called to a school incident, the source said.
On arrival, Barby and other patrolmen were informed by school officers that their assistance was no longer needed; two students were being escorted to the office, the source said.
Barby persisted, going on the offensive when Alex Rubio, then a minor, did not immediately obey an instruction from a teacher. Barby grabbed Rubio, and when Rubio resisted, Barby shocked him with a stun gun, the source said.
Oklahoma law prohibits the shocking of minors with Tasers.
Seven months later, Cotton won compensation of $55,000 for Rubio and his mother, Erica Peace, who could not be reached for comment.
The Guymon Police Department refused to respond to questions about whether officers Griffing or Barby had been disciplined for their actions in the cases of Sonny Rodriguez and Alex Rubio.
“Guymon PD does not properly discipline its officers when actual harm is caused,” the tip said.
The Law is Stacked Against the Plaintiff
Cotton lamented that very few attorneys practiced civil rights law in Oklahoma; those who did tended to represent police accused of violating citizens’ rights.
“Civil rights cases are notoriously difficult,” Cotton said. “The law is stacked against the plaintiff, pretty much at every step of the path. Most of the firms that do civil rights in Oklahoma at any volume are defense firms.”
A lack of volume of cases as a function of population meant it was very unlikely that a civil rights plaintiffs’ attorney would set up shop in rural Oklahoma, Cotton said.
Cotton had been successful with Rodriguez and Rubio, but the proceedings were quietly settled by the insurance company that covered the Guymon Police Department. Cotton had no contact with officers Griffing or Barby.
Plaintiffs specifically seeking disciplinary action against officers is a non-starter, Cotton said.
“The only way that we can really compensate you in our system of justice is financial, some sort of monetary settlement,” Cotton said.
The difficulty of seeking true justice in remote parts of Oklahoma may explain why a former police officer would seek employment elsewhere and why, as a last resort, they would turn to submitting an anonymous tip to a news organization.
The Society of Professional Journalists hammered that point hard in a position paper on the ethics of tips.
“Anonymous sources are sometimes the only key to unlocking that big story, throwing back the curtain on corruption, fulfilling the journalistic missions of watchdog on the government and informant to the citizens,” the paper said.
Editor’s Note: After Oklahoma Watch published an exposé about a multi-million-dollar DA-run ticketing scheme in Texas County, we were flooded with tips from the panhandle. This story is the third in a series derived from those tips. The second story can be found here. Oklahoma Watch has a strict policy regarding the use of anonymous sources; the person described in this story met the criteria in that policy.
This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
