Class action lawsuit settlement uncertain after AG criticizes ‘premature’ meeting

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond believes a meeting of the Contingency Review Board on Wednesday to discuss a settlement in the lawsuit was premature.

Drummond calls the meeting a sham and says the settlement over Oklahoma’s lack of mental health care for inmates would save the state millions of dollars.

According to a press release from Drummond’s office, Briggs vs. Slatton-Hodges A lawsuit filed in March 2023 alleges that the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services violated due process rights by failing to timely provide court-ordered competency restoration services to defendants who were still in treatment and were deemed incompetent to stand trial.

The AG says a consent decree brokered by the attorney general’s office and plaintiffs’ attorneys would mean “long-delayed justice for crime victims while ensuring due process.” His office filed a decision in June outlining a plan to improve ODMHSAS recovery services, but it must be approved by a judge before it can be considered by the board, the news release said. Drummond said he has informed Stitt, who chairs the board, that the decision is not yet final because a federal judge has not yet approved “several of the key terms.”

Despite Drummond’s request that the board wait for the judge’s approval, the board met Wednesday. Stitt said the meeting was to ensure the board was following Oklahoma law, before explaining that the attorney general and plaintiffs’ counsel have asked a federal judge to sign an executive order binding the mental health commissioner in the case.

“I want to be clear, today’s meeting will ultimately serve only as an information gathering exercise as the court continues to consider whether to approve the consent judgment that the attorney general for the plaintiff’s counsel has agreed to,” Stitt said in his opening remarks Wednesday.

Stitt called ODMHSAS Commissioner Allie Friesen to the table to discuss her correspondence with Drummond on the matter. Friesen said she could not agree with the decree as it was written and communicated that to Drummond.

Friesen said she did not approve of the decision because it would take away her ability to provide assistance to people who need it in a prison setting.

Stitt then asked whether the decision was not in the interest of the state.

“That is absolutely correct,” Friesen said. “If the state were to implement the executive order as it is written today, it would position the department for immediate violation of court orders to provide competency restoration services to those who need them, and it would put the state on a conveyor belt of endless fines and contempt of court fines, which would result in additional financial burdens. We are talking about $500 per day per fine, and that includes potential criminal prosecution not only of the department, but criminal prosecution even of me as commissioner.”

She said the decision could cost about $142 million, a significant portion of the department’s allocated resources.

House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, also on the board, asked Friesen if the plan was similar to Pinnacle, a plan implemented by DHS to reform Oklahoma’s child welfare system. Friesen said, “It’s very similar to the Pinnacle Plan.”

McCall and Stitt were the only two board members present and voted to take no action on the decision.

Before the meeting, Drummond said Stitt appears determined to force Oklahomans to pay millions of dollars and ignore years of failure by ODMHSAS.