'I'm so sorry': Health department attorney confessed to faking threats about marijuana rules
'I'm so sorry': Health department attorney confessed to faking threats about marijuana rules, OSBI says
By Samantha Vicent Tulsa World 21 hrs ago
The general counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, who abruptly left her post Friday, faces criminal charges of falsely reporting a crime and creating a fictitious email to send herself threats over the agencys work on the states new medical marijuana program.
Julie Ezell submitted her resignation Friday afternoon from the health department, hours after the filing of two lawsuits challenging emergency rules approved by the state Board of Health on July 10 regarding State Question 788.
Im so sorry, Ezell said at 5:22 p.m. Friday to interim Health Commissioner Tom Bates in an email obtained Tuesday morning by the Tulsa World. Ezell, according to a probable cause affidavit, allegedly confessed to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent about two hours before tendering her resignation that she sent false threats to her health department email address.
Court records filed Tuesday afternoon allege Ezell used a fictitious account created on ProtonMail, an end-to-end encrypted email service, on July 8 to send emails to herself. She is also accused of making a fraudulent report the next day about receiving harassing electronic communications over SQ 788 and providing false evidence to the OSBI throughout its inquiry into the matter.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/health-department-s-top-attorney-sent-threats-to-herself-regarding/article_cc17986d-98fd-5b44-ac50-c647ed371f15.html