Wrongful death, civil rights lawsuit filed against the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office

IDABEL, Okla. (KXII) - This is bodycam footage captured last year from a McCurtain County deputy’s body cam.

It was recorded during the arrest of 45-year-old Bobby Barrick.

He died five days later.

Attorneys for Barbara Barrick, Bobby’s wife, say there are missing pieces as to what happened during the arrest.

“The information that we do have is information that was received to an open records lawsuit that was filed by the McCurtain Gazette,” Attorney Mitchell Garrett said.

Despite formal requests for information, The Gazette Newspaper was only able to receive information after filing suit against the county.

“We received a number of reports that were filed by the sheriff’s deputies, and we received some very limited body cam video about the occurrence. There were cameras at the corner store at the time, but somehow, they all seemed to have malfunctioned,” Garrett said.

The incident happened at a closed business Barrick allegedly broke into and then scuffled with workers inside.

“We believe that the force used against Mr. Barrick was excessive in nature. We believe that the deputies and game warden that were there did not aid Mr. Barrick in the manner that should have been aided,” Garrett explained.

This incident was part of an explosive audio recording made by The Gazette that also captured county officials discussing killing and burying local reporters and made reference to bringing back lynchings of black people.

Since that audio was released, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has called for the resignations of four county officials.

so far only commissioner mark jennings has resigned.... of those four...only sheriff kevin clardy is named in the lawsuit...which seeks more than two million do llars in damages. “we really wish we knew what happened to bobby, but we don’t know all the answers from the last three minutes of his life.”

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