A second McCurtain County jailer has pleaded guilty to charges related to incidents tied to the administration of disgraced Sheriff Kevin Clardy.
While many former county officials are named in civil cases for alleged acts under his administration, no one, other than former jailers, has faced criminal charges.
This week, Joseph Ebert, 35, told Muskogee’s Eastern District federal court that he was a shift supervisor on the night of a brutal attack on Roper Harris. Harris was 19 at the time.
In a plea agreement, Ebert admits he was instructed by former jail administrator Scott McClain to give Harris the “royal treatment” by getting another inmate to attack him in exchange for a commissary reward.
Ebert also admits to striking Harris three times while Harris showered, with enough force to fall to the ground, and “without legal justification.”
In the agreement, he also said he believed he was promoted to shift supervisor because he would provide unnecessary force if asked. He said he was called “the enforcer.”
He also admitted to lying to the OSBI.
Ebert said he came forward after one of his co-conspirators, Cody Johnson, confessed, adding he did not want him to take the fall for it alone.
Johnson pleaded guilty in September, but has yet to be sentenced.
They are both charged with one count of conspiracy against rights, which carries a penalty of zero to 10 years in prison, and up to a $250,000 fine.
In a separate case, Ebert pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under the color of the law, which carries the same maximum penalties.
In that case, according to the plea agreement, he admits to striking Marion Whitten while in a restraint chair and “not posing a threat to anyone.”
A civil case names other players in the attack against Harris, including Clardy and McClain. McClain allegedly ordered the arrest and attack on Harris because Harris dated McClain’s stepdaughter.
A series of alleged corrupt acts under Clardy were widely reported by the McCurtain Gazette News, and eventually made national headlines when they secretly recorded Clardy and several other officials making violent and racist comments.
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