McCurtain County Commissioner Mark Jennings quit on Wednesday after a local newspaper in the Oklahoma town released an audio recording of him allegedly discussing murdering one of its reporters and lynching Black people. The Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association also suspended McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, as well as sheriff’s investigator Alicia Manning and jail official Larry Hendrix. For its part, the sheriff’s office claimed the audio may have been altered and illegally obtained. In the recording, Jennings allegedly told Clardy that if he had his way, he’d “take [Black people] down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope.” He adds, “But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.” The recording was first reported by the McCurtain Gazette-News after its publisher Bruce Willingham left a voice-activated device in the room after a March 6 county meeting. The officials were also allegedly taped discussing hiring hit men to kill Willingham’s son, Gazette-News reporter Chris Willingham, who had filed a defamation lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and board of commissioners. Chris Willingham claims that after he wrote a series of articles detailing problems inside the sheriff’s office, Manning told a third party that he exchanged marijuana for child porn.
