Oklahoma County leaders launched a new partnership to stop drugs from entering the Oklahoma County Detention Center.

The priority prompted new action from the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office. A new collaboration between the DA’s office and OCDC is about stopping the crime cycle. 

Before this agreement — detention center investigators only had authority inside the jail. This new partnership allows them to pursue suspects outside the jail’s walls. Illegal drugs often disrupt a community’s rhythm.  

“Fentanyl is a drug that we’re all very concerned about,” said Vicki Behenna, Oklahoma County District Attorney. “We don’t want it on our streets, and it has no place in the Oklahoma County Detention Center either. It drains the resources of law enforcement. It drains the resources of the criminal justice system.” 

Oklahoma County Detention Center investigators had authority inside the jail. Investigators had to rely on other agencies to pursue the suspects. 

“They kinda had to stop at the walls,” Behenna said. “As a result of that, we decided to this cross-commissioning agreement.” 

Behenna’s office opened a door to save investigators’ time to follow leads. Behenna said they do not need additional staff.   

“My investigators have statewide jurisdiction,” Behenna said. 

The Prison Policy Initiative shows that 41% of people arrested suffer from substance use disorder. 

“What we see in the criminal justice system is a number of individuals who cycle through the system,” Behenna said. 

Behenna said this partnership allows OCDC investigators to interview suspects themselves. They can follow an investigation directly to discover the source of any drugs. Behenna said quicker investigations protect people. 

“To ensure, even if someone is held pretrial, that they’re safe in that environment,” Behenna said. 

Oklahoma County plans to build a new jail and mental health facility. 

“If we treat the underlying problem – substance abuse – and stabilize that individual, then they’re not gonna reenter the system,” Behenna said. 

Behenna said these tools can restore a healthy community pulse.  

“I think all of that is really, really good for the community,” Behnna said. 

Steve Lutz hasn’t yet put the finishing touches on his first Cowboy roster, but Oklahoma State did update its roster page this week, revealing some information about its newcomers.

The roster includes 14 players — 10 scholarship and four walk-ons. It’s almost an entirely new group from Mike Boynton’s final squad with Bryce Thompson, Jamyron Keller and Connor Dow being the only holdovers. Here is a look at the updated roster with some thoughts to follow:

For starters, no numbers listed yet.

The heights and weights are mostly consistent with where each player was listed at last season, but it isn’t all exact.

Davonte Davis, Arturo Dean, Brandon Newman, Abou Ousmane and Bryce Thompson are all an inch shorter than what they were listed at last season. Khalil Brantley and Jamyron Keller are listed two inches shorter than where they were. Marchelus Avery and Robert Jennings each added an inch. Weights are all within five pounds of where they were except for Ousmane, who is listed 11 pounds heavier than he was at Xavier last season. Connor Dow is the only player to have the same height and weight on this initial roster as he had last season. It’s the dog days of summer, none of this matters all that much.

The Cowboys no doubt need some size, Lutz said as much earlier this month, but Jennings coming in at 6-8, 225 provides a little more comfort in that area. There is also some nice size among OSU’s walk-ons.

Speaking of, let’s go to the walk-ons, who have been unannounced to this point.

One of the names ought to sound familiar in Jaxton Bobik — the son of former Cowboy Daniel Bobik. The younger Bobik was around the program last season but didn’t get in any games.

Next is Tyler Caron, who played at NAIA St. Mary’s last season. At St. Mary’s, Caron averaged 12.3 points and 4.3 rebounds a game while shooting an excellent 44% from 3 on 143 attempts. That’ll play.

Kirk Cole returns to his home state after spending two seasons at Troy. A Southwest Covenant alum, Cole played in seven games during the 2022-23 season with the Trojans.

Another Oklahoma native, C.J. Smith averaged 8.3 points a game last season for Coffeyville Community College (Kansas). He shot 31% from 3 and also averaged 4.6 rebounds a game. He played at Putnam City North High School.

The Cowboys still have three scholarships to give, so this roster will get another update or two as the summer rolls on.

After a primary election causes a shakeup at the Oklahoma State Capitol, News 9 spoke with political analyst Scott Mitchell for his take on how the elections turned out.

Republican Oklahoma Sen. Greg McCortney, who was tapped to become the next Senate Pro Tem, was beaten by newcomer Jonathan Wingard in the race for Senate District 13.

“It was a shocker,” Mitchell said. “It basically said ‘will there be a ideological change?’ and when Greg McCortney last last night, it started all kinds of dominoes falling.”

Mitchell said this ideological change suggests Oklahoma may be shifting even further ton the political right.

As for what happened with the surprise upsets Tuesday night, Mitchell said it may have to do with Oklahoma Senate inaction over tax cuts.

“Remember those hearings?” Mitchell said. “The Senate didn’t want to take up tax cuts.”

Mitchell said the discussion on tax cuts doesn’t just affect Sen. McCortney however.

“There’s other things, there’s vaccines and guns and all kinds of stuff, but this is a shift to the right,” Mitchell said. “Sen. Jessica Garvin lost, there are a couple of folks in runoffs, there’s just a whole big shift to the right, which means that the agenda [they] pushed into the Senate, and [then] the Senate wouldn’t act, that’s what the voters thought of it.”

Making the jump from local to state politics, Nikki Nice, the Oklahoma City councilwoman for Ward 7, defeated former Oklahoma Sen. Connie Johnson for Senate District 48.

“That’ll be a big jump for her,” Mitchell said. “She has a stellar reputation with the council, and she’s going to be taken over that Senate seat. There’s 40 Republicans however, in the state senate, that’s probably not going to change much.”

Mitchell said Nice will work in that caucus with Sen. Jody Kurt, who is the new minority leader in the Senate.