The Rise and Fall of Coal County Sheriff Jason Smith

He ran for sheriff on a promise to restore law and order to Coal County. Less than a year into office, Jason Smith stood accused of being the county's most prominent lawbreaker — drunk on duty, violent toward his own wife, sexually harassing female deputies, and allegedly aided in a cover-up by the very man he put in charge as his second-in-command.

What unfolded in Coal County between May and December 2025 was not a rumor campaign or a political hit job, as Smith has insisted. It was, according to Oklahoma's Multi-County Grand Jury, a documented pattern of misconduct so severe that jurors recommended his removal from office before a single charge had even been filed in open court. The events that followed — a chaotic attempted suspension by county commissioners, a judge-ordered removal of Smith's badge, a no-contest plea, a special prosecutor who resigned mid-case, and a removal trial that a judge refused to let prosecutors quietly bury — paint a picture of institutional dysfunction that goes well beyond one bad sheriff.

The story of Jason Smith is the story of what can happen when voters elect someone to enforce the law, and that person decides the law does not apply to him.

A New Sheriff in Town

Smith, 48, won the Coal County sheriff's race on November 5, 2024, defeating incumbent Democrat Bryan Jump in a county that had grown accustomed to Jump's style of leadership. Jump had served as Coal County sheriff since 2013. Smith ran as a Republican, pledging change, and he won.

He took office in January 2025 with Undersheriff Jesse Yother, 64, as his top deputy. What followed, according to grand jury documents, was not a transition — it was a deterioration.

Court records and the grand jury's formal accusation for removal indicate that within the first five months of Smith's tenure, employees of the Coal County Sheriff's Office were already experiencing what the grand jury would later characterize as "oppression in office" and "habitual drunkenness." The grand jury's petition, filed November 20, 2025, specifically documented incidents beginning in May 2025 — barely four months after Smith's inauguration.

The Incidents: What the Grand Jury Found

The multi-county grand jury's accusation for removal is a methodically assembled document. It does not speculate. It cites dates, names categories of misconduct, and invokes specific language from Oklahoma statutes.

On May 19, 2025, according to the petition, Smith made "repeated sexual and inappropriate comments" to a sheriff's office employee. The grand jury's filing states that "some of these comments and acts included Jason Smith grabbing [her] by the neck and pulling her hair during work hours." The petition characterizes those actions as sexual in nature, creating a hostile work environment.

That same day, Smith allegedly made "repeated inappropriate and unprofessional comments" to one of his deputies. The petition states that "some of these comments and acts included Jason Smith touching [the deputy] on her breast(s) and adjusting her sheriff's deputy vest." The filing notes those actions were sexual in nature as well and created a hostile environment for the deputy.

The final allegation of "oppression in office" in the removal petition involves Smith "slapping a female employee on her bottom," though the document did not specify a date for that accusation.

Beyond the sexual misconduct, the grand jury documented a pattern of on-duty intoxication. "On July 16, 2025, Jason Smith was drunk while on duty," the petition alleges. "On May 19, 2025, Jason Smith was intoxicated and smelled of alcohol while on duty at the Coal County Jail. At other relevant times during the administration of Jason Smith he would report to the office with the odor of alcohol and additional indicators of drunkenness." The petition adds that "the sheriff's wife has expressed concerns about Jason Smith's drinking."

July 26: The Night Everything Broke Open

The incident that ultimately broke the case into public view came on the evening of July 26, 2025. According to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol incident report obtained and published by NonDoc, OHP Lt. Tommy Richardson responded to a domestic disturbance call in Coalgate involving Smith, his wife, a sheriff's deputy, and the deputy's husband.

When Lt. Richardson arrived, he found Choctaw Lighthorse officers and another OHP trooper already on scene. Richardson reported that Smith was standing near a fence outside the home, speaking loudly, and that the trooper assumed he was intoxicated.

The deputy told Richardson that Smith had called her to the residence under the pretense of discussing work issues. She said that when Smith's wife arrived, an argument broke out between Smith and his wife about the deputy's presence.

The removal petition and the criminal indictment both allege that during the confrontation, Smith shoved his wife. He then turned to the deputy's husband and struck him in the face. "Jason Smith approached and hit [the deputy's husband] in the face, while on duty," the removal petition states.

It was after that night that Undersheriff Jesse Yother's alleged role in the story begins. According to prosecutors, Yother did not let the incident run its course through normal legal channels. Instead, he is accused of calling the female deputy and pressuring her to change her witness account. He is also accused of physically preventing a Coalgate police officer from properly securing the scene and conducting an investigation.

Those alleged actions formed the basis of Yother's indictment: one felony count of intimidating a witness and one misdemeanor count of obstructing an officer.

The Grand Jury Acts

Oklahoma's multi-county grand jury convened to review the matter and returned its findings on November 20 and 21, 2025. The grand jury moved on two parallel tracks simultaneously — a rare and significant escalation.

On November 20, jurors filed a formal accusation for removal against Smith, citing oppression in office and habitual drunkenness under Oklahoma law. The following day, November 21, they voted to return criminal indictments against both Smith and Yother.

Smith was indicted on one count of domestic abuse and one count of assault and battery. Yother was indicted on the felony witness intimidation count and the misdemeanor obstruction count.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond unsealed the indictments publicly on November 25, 2025. His statement was direct.

"There can be no tolerance for a sheriff sworn to preserve the peace but whose actions clearly undermine the law and endanger public safety," Drummond said.

The AG's office assigned District 18 District Attorney Chuck Sullivan to prosecute the case. Because local Coal County judges filed recusals, Bryan County District Judge Mark Campbell was assigned to preside.

Smith Responds: "Politically Motivated"

Smith did not remain silent. In statements sent to Texoma-area media outlets in the days following the removal petition's unsealing, he denied the allegations in categorical terms and framed the entire proceeding as a political attack orchestrated by loyalists of his predecessor.

"These allegations are false," Smith said. "The allegations made are personally and politically motivated based on one-sided testimony from employees of the previous administration."

He continued: "I've been indicted by a multi-county grand jury on hearsay testimony and I have never been allowed to give my side of the story, even though I've asked to do so several times."

Smith, who also performs as a country singer under the stage name "Cadillac," described the grand jury process as fundamentally unfair to the accused — a characterization that legal observers note misunderstands the evidentiary threshold required for a multi-county grand jury to move forward on a removal action involving an elected official.

The Legal Snafu: Commissioners Overstep, a Judge Steps In

What followed the indictments was a week of procedural confusion that exposed how unprepared Coal County's governing infrastructure was for a crisis of this magnitude.

On December 1, 2025, the Coal County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to suspend Smith and Yother with pay. Commissioner Jon Fortner, who voted for suspension, defended the decision publicly. "Here we got somebody that's been charged with that, and they can still show up and arrest you for the same charge," Fortner told KXII News.

The lone dissenting vote came from District 2 Commissioner Nicholas Lee.

The problem: the commissioners lacked the legal authority to suspend an elected official. District Attorney Sullivan notified the board that Oklahoma law reserves that power for district judges. The commissioners' vote was invalidated. The interim sheriff they had appointed — a man named Pebworth — was also considered invalidly appointed as a result.

County Clerk Beverly Eddings summed up the debacle with unusual candor. "That's a question that we want to know for ourselves," she told NonDoc regarding the confused status of county government. "We don't know. There's a lot of unknowns. We were given bad advice."

Nine days later, on December 11, 2025, Judge Mark Campbell issued the order the commissioners could not. He found sufficient cause for Smith's immediate suspension without even waiting for the state to formally request it.

"Accordingly, the defendant, Jason Smith, is hereby immediately suspended from the Office of Sheriff of Coal County," Campbell's order reads. "Further, the defendant, Jason Smith, shall immediately surrender his badge and any weapons issued by the Coal County Sheriff's Office to the Coal County Commissioners. Further, the defendant, Jason Smith, is hereby barred from entering the premises of the Coal County Sheriff's Office until further order of this court."

Smith appealed. On December 17, Judge Campbell denied the motion to reconsider the suspension, keeping it in place pending the removal trial, which was scheduled for April 27, 2026.

Yother Falls First

While Smith's legal fight dragged into 2026, his undersheriff resolved his case more quickly. On February 9, 2026, Jesse Yother appeared in court and entered a no-contest plea to the misdemeanor count of obstructing an officer. The felony witness intimidation charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

The resolution came with a condition: Yother would have to resign from the Coal County Sheriff's Office permanently.

According to reporting by NonDoc, Yother initially hesitated when Judge Campbell asked him to confirm he was agreeing to resign. Campbell was unequivocal — he told Yother he would not accept the plea agreement if Yother did not commit to resigning. After consulting with his attorney, Yother agreed and was sentenced to six months of non-supervised deferred probation and ordered to pay court costs.

The felony charge — intimidating a witness — was dismissed under the terms of the deal.

The Plea Deal That Nearly Buried the Removal Case

On March 30, 2026, Smith appeared in Coal County District Court and entered a no-contest plea to a single misdemeanor count of assault and battery. The second misdemeanor charge — the domestic abuse count — was dismissed under the agreement. Smith received a 90-day deferred sentence and unsupervised probation. Supervision fees were waived.

It appeared, briefly, that the case might end there — with Smith having avoided conviction on record while the more serious removal proceeding was quietly wound down.

That is not what happened.

On April 2, 2026, special prosecutor Sullivan sent Judge Campbell a negotiated agreement for his approval. The proposed deal specified that the state would dismiss the removal proceedings entirely, provided Smith agreed not to seek reinstatement to his position until his deferred sentence was completed.

Judge Campbell refused.

In a strongly worded order issued April 7, the judge ruled that a prosecutor cannot unilaterally disregard the findings of the multi-county grand jury by agreeing to dismiss a removal action the grand jury had specifically recommended.

"The grand jurors reached a conclusion after they listened to multiple witnesses, and they made the determination that Mr. Smith should be removed from office as the sheriff of Coal County," Campbell wrote. "The prosecutor assigned to the case to handle that trial cannot unilaterally decide to disregard the findings of the multi-county grand jury and acquiesce to a dismissal of the removal action."

The judge directed that if the prosecutor's office was unable or unwilling to proceed in accordance with the grand jury's directives, it could request the Attorney General's Office reassign the matter. The removal trial, Campbell ordered, would proceed as scheduled — April 27, 2026, at the Coal County Courthouse in Coalgate.

Shortly after that ruling, District Attorney Sullivan resigned from the case entirely, taking a position with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. The case reverted to Sullivan's former District 18 office.

The Broader Pattern: Oklahoma's Sheriff Problem

The Smith case does not exist in isolation. Oklahoma has developed a recognizable pattern of sheriffs in smaller rural counties facing serious misconduct allegations — cases that tend to move slowly through the courts, if they move at all, and that often resolve in plea deals that preserve the appearance of accountability while minimizing actual consequence.

NonDoc noted in its coverage of the Smith case a parallel involving former Pittsburg County Sheriff Chris Morris, who also happens to be an aspiring country music artist. Morris agreed to resign and entered an Alford Plea for embezzlement charges, resulting in misdemeanor convictions.

The McCurtain County audio scandal of 2023 — in which county officials were recorded discussing lynching Black residents and murdering journalists — is perhaps the most extreme example. Despite a statewide OSBI investigation and calls for impeachment from the governor, the accountability process moved at a glacial pace.

What each of these cases shares is a common structural vulnerability: rural Oklahoma counties with small legal infrastructures, limited press scrutiny, and elected law enforcement officials who operate with enormous autonomy. When things go wrong, the mechanisms for correction are slow, procedurally tangled, and dependent on the political will of officials who may themselves be enmeshed in local power networks.

Judge Campbell's refusal to let the Smith removal case die quietly via a plea agreement was an unusual exercise of judicial muscle that many observers credited with keeping the case on track. Without Campbell's intervention, it is plausible that the matter would have ended with Smith serving out a quiet deferred sentence — and possibly returning to the sheriff's office once the probationary period concluded.

What Comes Next

As of the time of publication, the removal trial scheduled for April 27, 2026, was set to proceed — though the status of that proceeding following the prosecutor transition was still being clarified by the Attorney General's office.

Under Oklahoma law, the removal trial is a civil proceeding before a jury. The jury's task would be to determine whether the allegations in the grand jury's accusation — oppression in office and habitual drunkenness — are supported by the evidence. If the jury finds for the state, Smith would be permanently removed from office. The outcome of the criminal case — his no-contest plea and deferred sentence — would not automatically determine the civil result.

Smith's attorney, James Pasquali, suggested following the March 30 plea that he expected news about the removal proceedings "later this week" — a statement that preceded the judge's rejection of the proposed dismissal agreement.

For Coal County residents — a population of roughly 5,500 people in one of Oklahoma's smaller and more rural counties — the question of who actually holds the sheriff's office has been in legal limbo for months. The county has operated under an interim sheriff since Smith's suspension, while the man elected to the job sits stripped of his badge, unable to enter his own building, awaiting a jury's judgment on whether he ever gets it back.

Editor's Note on Sourcing and Verification

Every fact, quote, and allegation in this article is drawn from primary source documents and verified published reporting. Quotes attributed to Jason Smith, Judge Mark Campbell, Attorney General Gentner Drummond, Commissioner Jon Fortner, and County Clerk Beverly Eddings are sourced from official press releases, published court orders, or on-record statements to credentialed news organizations. The grand jury's specific allegations — including the language about physical contact with employees — are drawn verbatim from the multi-county grand jury's formal accusation for removal, a public court filing. All individuals charged in this article are presumed innocent of any allegation not resolved by a court finding or a plea agreement.

EastOklahoma.com sought comment from the Coal County Sheriff's Office and from attorney James Pasquali prior to publication.

Sources

1. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, press release: "Multi-County Grand Jury Indicts Coal County Sheriff for Domestic Abuse, Assault." November 25, 2025. https://oklahoma.gov/oag/news/newsroom/2025/november/multi-county-grand-jury-indicts-coal-county-sheriff-for-domestic-abuse-assault.html
2. NonDoc (Derrick James): "Coal County Sheriff Jason Smith, Undersheriff Jesse Yother Indicted by Grand Jury." November 25, 2025. https://nondoc.com/2025/11/25/coal-county-sheriff-jason-smith-undersheriff-jesse-yother-indicted-by-grand-jury/
3. NonDoc (Derrick James): "Accused of Sexual Misconduct, Coal County Sheriff Jason Smith Faces Removal from Office." November 24, 2025. https://nondoc.com/2025/11/24/accused-of-sexual-misconduct-coal-county-sheriff-jason-smith-faces-removal-from-office/
4. KXII News: "Coal County Sheriff Responds After State of Oklahoma Files Accusation for His Removal." November 23, 2025. https://www.kxii.com/2025/11/23/coal-county-sheriff-responds-after-state-oklahoma-files-accusation-removal/
5. KXII News: "Order of Suspension Filed Against Coal County Sheriff." December 11, 2025. https://www.kxii.com/2025/12/12/order-suspension-filed-against-coal-county-sheriff/
6. NonDoc (Derrick James): "'Given Bad Advice': Coal County Sheriff's Suspension Invalid After Legal Snafu." December 9, 2025. https://nondoc.com/2025/12/09/given-bad-advice-coal-county-sheriffs-suspension-invalid-after-legal-snafu/
7. NonDoc (Derrick James): "After Week of Legal Confusion, Judge Suspends Coal County Sheriff." December 12, 2025. https://nondoc.com/2025/12/12/after-week-of-legal-confusion-judge-suspends-coal-county-sheriff/
8. KTEN News: "Judge Rejects Motion to Reconsider Coal County Sheriff's Suspension." December 18, 2025. https://www.kten.com/news/crime/judge-rejects-motion-to-reconsider-coal-county-sheriffs-suspension/article_07439859-5302-45c6-aa33-6f363da66570.html
9. KXII News: "Former Coal County Undersheriff Pleads No Contest to Charge of Obstructing an Officer." February 18, 2026. https://www.kxii.com/2026/02/19/former-coal-county-undersheriff-pleads-no-contest-charge-obstructing-an-officer/
10. NonDoc (Derrick James): "Suspended Coal County Sheriff Pleads No Contest, Fate in Office Unresolved." April 7, 2026. https://nondoc.com/2026/04/07/suspended-coal-county-sheriff-pleads-no-contest-fate-in-office-unresolved/
11. NonDoc (Derrick James): "Judge Refuses to Toss Removal Proceeding for Suspended Coal County Sheriff." April 8, 2026. https://nondoc.com/2026/04/08/judge-refuses-to-toss-removal-proceeding-for-suspended-coal-county-sheriff/
12. Hoodline: "Coal County Sheriff's No-Contest Plea Sets Stage for Courthouse Showdown." April 16, 2026. https://hoodline.com/2026/04/coal-county-sheriff-s-no-contest-plea-sets-stage-for-courthouse-showdown/
13. Radio Oklahoma News: "Coal County Sheriff, Undersheriff Indicted on Multiple Charges." November 27, 2025. https://www.radiooklahomanews.com/post/coal-county-sheriff-undersheriff-indicted-on-multiple-charges
14. The Ada News: "Grand Jury Recommends Removal of Coal County Sheriff Over Accusations." November 29, 2025. https://www.theadanews.com/news/local_news/grand-jury-recommends-removal-of-coal-county-sheriff-over-accusations/article_4ac0f848-ea07-442b-9a0c-5233c078da7b.html
15. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Incident Report, July 26, 2025. (Obtained and published by NonDoc.)
16. Coal County District Court, State of Oklahoma v. Jason Smith — Accusation for Removal, filed November 20, 2025. (Public court filing.)
17. Judge Mark Campbell, Order of Suspension, Coal County District Court, December 11, 2025. (Public court record.)
18. Judge Mark Campbell, Order Denying Dismissal of Removal Proceeding, April 7, 2026. (Public court record.)