Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt‘s son was found intoxicated by local deputies on Halloween last month after they were alerted to a case full of firearms located in a parking lot of a nearby haunted house.
The guns came from the truck of 20-year-old John Andrew Stitt, who had been drinking that night and had been hunting earlier that day and said he had his vehicle burglarized at some point throughout the day. The Logan County District Attorney’s Office recommended a charge of minor in possession of alcohol, and reports of the incident only recently emerged on Nov. 19, days after the governor’s reelection.
The Logan County Sheriff’s Office received an onslaught of angry phone calls and messages from residents who claimed the department allowed the governor’s son an easy pass. Logan County deputies, however, said that the governor’s son actually received harsher treatment than most people found in similar situations under the law, according to a local news outlet that asked the department about the incident to find out whether he received any preferential treatment.
“I know you’re being accused of treating him better because he’s the governor’s son. But did you treat him worse?” KOCO 5 reporter Evan Onstot asked Sheriff Damon Devereaux.
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“Minor in possession was the only charge we had on this deal because he wasn’t carrying the weapons. He wasn’t using the weapons. He wasn’t driving. He wasn’t causing a disturbance. So, he couldn’t have been arrested for public intoxication,” Devereaux told the ABC News affiliate. “And when you watch the bodycam footage, when I watched it, he’s not drunk, you know, like we think of a drunk stumbling, can’t walk, has to hang on to stuff. He appears he may be under the influence, but I don’t think he’s drunk.”
A member of the governor’s executive security detail, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, was sent to pick up the guns. While the outlet noted there had “been a lot of questions” about the way John Andrew Stitt was treated, a Sooner State statute does allow the use of a security detail in the manner it was executed.
The bodycam footage depicts a deputy expressing frustration with the way the situation unfolded Halloween night, and Devereaux stands by his deputy’s handling of the matter.
“My deputy did a full – as you guys know – a full, detailed report on the incident,” Devereaux said. “We’ve got bodycam footage of the incident. An affidavit was filed on the incident. But yet we’re accused of covering it up because nobody knows anything about it.”
John Andrew Stitt contends in the bodycam footage that he was hunting deer earlier in the day, and at some point, the weapons case was stolen from his truck. There’s no proof about this claim, but Devereaux told the outlet he believes the case was unlocked.
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When asked about the firearms and whether it’s illegal to leave them unlocked in any public place, even by accident, the sheriff said, “It’s kind of reckless,” but “I don’t know that it’s illegal.”
The sheriff said Stitt’s son was offered a deferred prosecution by the district attorney, which he said is common procedure and might require John Andrew Stitt to perform community service and alcohol training, along with a potential fine.
