An Oklahoma Democrat state representative has been formally censured after allegedly attempting to harbor a fugitive who had been accused of assault and battery on a police officer.
Representative Mauree Turner, who uses ‘they/’them’ pronouns in her Twitter bio and is identified by media outlets as ‘non-binary’, has been accused of blocking police from making an arrest of a transgender rights activist accused of assault.
The incident came late last month as lawmakers were voting on legislation to protect children from “gender transition procedures” or similar physical abuse.
State Rep. Bob Culver was hit with a “liquid substance” later simply identified as water as he passed through a group of protesters.
Here’s the beginning of the incident, you can see water being thrown from a transgender rights activist. It looks like the water hits Rep. Bob Culver (who didn’t debate the bill). He did vote for it though. pic.twitter.com/wCI8yrYKGp
— Payton May (@paytonnmay) February 28, 2023
Activist Arrested, But Another Tried to Interfere
As the first activist was being arrested, another named Austin Ross interfered and yelled at the arresting officer that the water tosser was “not going to be placed under arrest.”
Ross then grabbed the trooper’s hands in an attempt to free the individual. Which, of course, is ill-advised.
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Court documents indicate the trooper had identified Ross as having attempted to “prevent the arrest” of the first individual.
Here is the video of the interaction I missed the water being sprayed on Culver but here’s everything after that. pic.twitter.com/TLi4f9wcoW
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) February 28, 2023
Ross then fled the scene and was given refuge in Turner’s office. Troopers indicated the state representative’s office door was locked when they tried to get in to arrest the man at the scene.
“When we go up to the representative’s office, we were not allowed in, even from opening the door,” said Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Foster.
Ross had an arrest warrant issued a few days later.
BREAKING: The House has voted to censure Rep. Mauree Turner on a vote of 81-19 for allegedly harboring a fugitive during last week’s protests against a series of anti-trans bill. Below is a statement from Speaker Charles McCall. #okleg pic.twitter.com/JSDlBVRcQZ
— Tyler Talley (@tylertalley22) March 7, 2023
Oklahoma Democrat Censured For Harboring Fugitive
On March 7th, Turner was censured by an 81-19 vote for allegedly helping to aid and abet Ross in his effort to elude police.
“The member,” according to a statement by the Oklahoma House, “harbored a fugitive wanted for questioning in conjunction with the alleged assault inside of their House office and rejected multiple requests by law enforcement to question the individual.”
House Speaker Charles McCall accused Turner of “knowingly, and willfully, imped(ing) a law enforcement investigation, harboring a fugitive and repeatedly lying to officers.”
“I will not allow members of the House of Representatives to use their House-assigned offices and official positions to impede law enforcement from carrying out investigations or making arrests in the State Capitol,” said McCall.
The member, Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, allegedly harbored a fugitive wanted for questioning in conjunction with the alleged assault inside of their office and rejected multiple requests by law enforcement to question the person.https://t.co/7iFGQnZdFt
— KOKH FOX 25 (@OKCFOX) March 8, 2023
With the censure, Turner will be stripped of her committee assignments unless she issues a formal apology for trying to harbor a fugitive and impeding a police investigation.
But the Democrat doesn’t seem to be interested in doing so.
“I think an apology for loving the people of Oklahoma is something that I cannot do,” said Turner. “It’s something that I actively refuse to do.”
. @MaureeTurnerOK, who was stripped from their committees unless they publicly apologize, said they don’t plan on apologizing.
“I think an apology for loving someone is something I cannot do. It’s something I actively refuse to do.” #OkLeg
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) March 7, 2023
Only somebody actively confused about how gender works could possibly turn harboring a fugitive into ‘I was simply loving the people of Oklahoma.’
The only question here is why police officers didn’t arrest Turner.
Had they gone to a civilian’s home to serve a warrant or after having witnessed a crime, and somebody prevented them from entering the home, that person would have been arrested as well.
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