By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Law enforcement investigators have confirmed an accidental display of the 1985 Jackie Chan movie “The Protector” was the source of nude images seen on state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office TV.
Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III discussed the investigation with reporters Wednesday afternoon after county District Attorney Vicki Behenna announced her office would not pursue criminal charges against Walters over the incident.
“It is truly, purely an accident,” Johnson said.
He said his investigators showed clips from “The Protector” to the two Oklahoma State Board of Education members who reported seeing naked women on the TV in Walters’ office during the board’s July 24 meeting. The board was in the middle of a private portion of its meeting, called executive session, at the Oklahoma State Department of Education building.
The board members, Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage, confirmed to the Sheriff’s Office that the movie was consistent with what they saw on the TV, Johnson said. “The Protector” includes multiple scenes involving nude women.
Carson said criminal charges didn’t cross her mind when she first filed a complaint about the explicit images, but “silence was never an option for me.”
“The DAs decision today doesn’t change anything,” Carson wrote in a message to Oklahoma Voice. “It doesn’t change the facts of what happened. It doesn’t change the fact that Oklahoma is still 50th in Education. It doesn’t change the fact that there isn’t a plan to move us from that position. It doesn’t change the fact that we as a board have a job to do.”
Deatherage did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
The District Attorney’s Office determined the evidence in the case is insufficient for criminal charges, Behenna announced Wednesday morning, more than a month after the Sheriff’s Office turned over the investigative findings for prosecutors to review.
Although investigators confirmed Carson and Deatherage’s report of seeing naked women on Walters’ TV, the state superintendent on Wednesday again accused the board members of falsehood.
“This concludes the biggest witch hunt in Oklahoma history,” Walters said in a statement. “Lies were spread about me and my character. Not only did the liberal lying media and my accusers sacrifice the truth, they worked to create a narrative to tear my agenda down and mission to reform Oklahoma schools and put parents back in charge. Liberal lies lost again.”
During a visit to Walters’ office on July 28, the sheriff’s investigators turned on the TV and found it was already set to Samsung’s Movie Hub Action channel.
Samsung later shared the channel’s broadcast schedule with the Sheriff’s Office, and investigators confirmed “The Protector” would have been showing on Movie Hub Action at the time of the state Board of Education meeting, Johnson said.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, was the first to reveal an accidental showing of “The Protector” as the likely source of the controversy. Hilbert also obtained the channel’s broadcast information from Samsung, and he shared his findings in a public report on Aug. 5 while law enforcement was still investigating.
Johnson said Hilbert’s report “came out prematurely.”
“He just wanted to bring it to a close, as well,” Johnson said. “Not the appropriate way to go, but his heart was in the right place.
“You saw a guy just trying to solve a problem. We’ve talked through it.”
Walters also came out too soon with public statements about the investigation, Johnson said. A day after Walters interviewed with investigators, he held a press conference and claimed he had been fully cleared of wrongdoing.
“To suggest we would run a 24-hour investigation, that is not the case,” Johnson said.
