Medford Police Detain Resident at Local Event

Residents across the United States have recently become more and more active in governmental affairs. With that uptick in citizen participation, there have also been a number of arrests made at public meetings with locals dealing with everything from COVID-19 shutdowns, “woke” ideology being taught in classrooms and most recently the rise of hyper scale data centers.

The city of Medford can now take its place alongside others as longtime Medford resident Justin Blubaugh, 50, was escorted out of Monday night’s Meet the City Manager event hosted by Medford City Manager Linda Garcia at the Medford Civic Center in handcuffs.

Blubaugh said in a telephone conversation with the Medford Patriot-Star Monday night that he entered the civic center and listened as the sign-in process was explained to someone in front of him at the entrance to the event. He then proceeded to walk past the sign-in desk even though he was asked to sign in and found a seat to wait for the event to start. The 49-year Medford resident said eventually he was approached by Medford Police Chief Jim Shepherd and was asked if he had signed in for the meeting. Blubaugh said he told the police chief that he did not sign in, and then Shepherd told him he needed to sign in. Blubaugh made the police chief aware of his intentions not to sign the sheet, and that’s when he was told he needed to leave.

Blubaugh told the police chief it was a “public meeting” and he was not going to leave. He was then asked to stand up and was told he was going to be escorted out of the building.

“Then he put the handcuffs on me,” Blubaugh said.

Blubaugh said he was escorted to the front entrance of the civic center where the two had a conversation, which was caught on camera and obtained by the Medford Patriot-Star, as people continued to enter the building.

Shepherd can be heard on the video telling Blubaugh that the city wanted attendees to sign in, and he again confirmed that Blubaugh had no intentions of signing the paper. 

“I’m basing this on what happened tonight. I’m not basing it on anything else,” the police chief said. “I saw you walk past the person who told you you had to sign in.

“But my problem is they made the request and you are refusing their requests, so what gives you the right to stay in that meeting?”

Blubaugh said it is a “public building.”

“I pay taxes to maintain this building, pay your salary, pay Linda’s salary, to keep the lights on in here, to pay the water bill,” the Medford resident said. “You can’t deny me service to a public building.”

Blubaugh acknowledged that he could be denied if he was “committing a crime.”

“I have not committed a crime,” the resident said. 

Shepherd then told Blubaugh, “at this point, I’m going to cut you loose.” However, the stipulation was that Blubaugh was not to speak during the meeting or he was going to be escorted out of the building because at that point it would be “disrupting a public meeting under state law, which is a crime,” according to the police chief.

“State law doesn’t trump the Constitution Jim,” Blubaugh said. “Plain and simple. I have the freedom of speech right to say whatever I want to say in there.

“I can call you a m——- f——-. I can call Linda a m——- f——-. I can call anybody in there a m——- f——- if I feel like it.”

Shepherd agreed with Blubaugh’s assessment, but he said if he disrupted the meeting by speaking without signing in he would be ousted. 

An unidentified person asked if Shepherd would arrest anyone on that basis.

“If I’m asked to – sure,” the police chief said.

Shepherd quoted an Oklahoma state statue which says, “It is unlawful for any person, alone or in concert with others and without authorization, to willfully disturb, interfere or disrupt state business or the business of any political subdivision, which includes publicly posted meetings, or any agency operations or any employee, agent, official or representative of the state or political subdivision.”

The statue then defines what disturb, interfere or disrupt means saying, “any conduct that is violent, threatening, abusive, obscene, or that jeopardizes the safety of self or others.”

Blubaugh asked specifically what was going to happen if “I do say something.”

“Then we’ll be right back where we are, but you will go to jail,” Shepherd said.

The police chief took the handcuffs off of Blubaugh, and the resident returned to the meeting without further incident.

Blubaugh said the events that unfolded reminded him of “Nazi behavior.”

“It didn’t use to be this way,” the local resident said. “I don’t respect any of the authorities – quote authorities – in this town, because this has just kind of been an evolving process.

“And here we are now.”

The longtime resident said he can see why people don’t want to move to Medford or why it is a struggle to get businesses in town.

“Because it’s tyrannical behavior, in my opinion,” Blubaugh said. “And, it didn’t used to be that way.”

City’s Response

Garcia said the sign-in process is a normal procedure for city meetings.

“I would like everyone to continue to sign in,” the city manager said by phone on Tuesday morning. “That’s for safety. That’s for record keeping.

“But if someone doesn’t want to sign in, then they don’t have to come in.”

Garcia said she has not looked into whether or not the city of Medford can legally require residents to sign a piece of of paper to attend a meeting. She said she’s only been in Oklahoma for a “few years” and she doesn’t have “an in-depth knowledge of all the state statues.”

“So, right off the top of my head, I don’t know if there’s a state statue, and I don’t know if we have a written policy (regarding the sign-in process),” Garcia said. “I’ve just rolled with that right.”

Garcia said she wants residents to be aware of what the rules are, but it is up to them to follow the rules. The city manager said that now the issue has been raised by Blubaugh’s insistence on not signing in as requested by the city an attorney will have to be brought into the situation.

“Once something is in question, you need to make sure that you’re on solid ground,” Garcia said. 

The city manager said she didn’t want to see the city overstep, but at the same time she did not feel that asking residents to sign in to attend a meeting was a governmental overstep.

“I’m not going to change it unless it automatically, you know, smacks of something wrong,” she said. 

Garcia said the matter will be looked into, because the “state quo isn’t always the right way to continue.”

Council’s Response

Councilwoman Shari England said the city has protocols in place to “ensure order, fairness and accountability for everyone involved.”

“Respect for the process is not optional,” she said via a message.

England also said the size of a community does not matter when it comes to these issues.

Councilwomen Debbie Kretchmar and Mandy Sinor both declined to address Blubaugh’s detainment.

“I did not witness it,” Kretchmar said via a message. “Hearsay causes a lot of problems and hard feelings.”

The Patriot-Star reached out to Mayor Gary Bowen and Vice-Mayor Steve Zeman, but both council members did not return the request for comment prior to publication.

Tyranny Has to Stop

Blubaugh said it is time for change in Medford, and that change starts with the residents.

“People need to get more involved,” he said. “Anytime any of this starts or when they notice it, they need to bring it to the attention of everybody immediately, and start going to the city council meetings. Hold them (council members) accountable for their actions.”

The Medford resident said tongue-in-cheek he would like to see residents show up with pitchforks in hand.

“This tyrannical behavior has got to stop,” Blubaugh said. “Don’t trample the Constitution.”

He said unless local residents “get up in arms” about what has been going on with the city council over the last several months nothing will change.

“Demand new city council members, because I think that’s the only way this is going to change,” he said.

Blubaugh said he feels like there is a grassroots movement that is starting to gather some steam in Medford. He said there have been some meetings where some of these ideas have been discussed. He also said he feels like there is growing interest in people wanting to be part of the solution as it relates to running for office.

Ultimately for Blubaugh, he wants people to know their rights and stand up for them, because every time someone makes the decision to cower or look the other way those freedoms continue to slowly slip away. 

“We’re going to wake up (one day) and we’re going to have zero rights left,” he said.