Felony charges were dropped fmr. Pittsburg County Sheriff, it was declared a misdemeanor

PITTSBURG COUNTY, Okla. — Former Pittsburg County Sheriff Chris Morris appeared in court on embezzlement charges Jan. 8.

Morris is charged with embezzlement related to the purchase of a UTV for the sheriff’s department.

2 News Oklahoma’s Douglas Braff attended the hearing and went to the officials involved to understand what it means.

An anxious crowd waited in a McAlester courtroom for Morris to appear at his arraignment hearing Wednesday morning — only to be delivered special news: He had taken a plea deal.

“Honestly, I’m just thankful that it’s over, that we have a resolution,” Pittsburg County District Attorney Chuck Sullivan told 2 News after the plea deal was reached.

Two felony charges are dismissed on the condition that Morris plead no contest to a new embezzlement charge filed Jan. 8.

“I’m sure it wasn’t something he necessarily wanted to do,” Jack Thorp said. “But in this case, it was a settlement of the criminal charges against him.”

Thorp is DA for several counties (Adair, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Wagoner). Pittsburgh is not among them. He took over the case against Morris after Sullivan recused himself.

As for why he did it, Sullivan said, “Because as the district attorney, I serve as legal counsel to all the other elected officials in the county, and that includes the county sheriff. So there is conflict there.”

After an investigation, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation charged Morris with embezzlement last year.

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Specifically, the State charged that he purchased a utility vehicle from a McAlester dealership for his personal use. Morris apparently later traded that vehicle in and bought it back for the sheriff’s office. OSBI said it was presented to the county clerk as a new vehicle to circumvent the state’s bidding requirements.

Morris has denied these claims in previous statements.

Before the trial began Wednesday morning, Thorp told us, “In exchange for a no contest plea to misdemeanor embezzlement, his two prior felony counts were dismissed.”

“Chris Morris pleaded to a two-year deferred sentence, so he will be on unsupervised probation for two years,” he added. “And also part of it, he didn’t take over as sheriff of Pittsburg County.”

Morris paid the county Wednesday morning and lost his cleat license for two years.

Despite facing felony charges, voters re-elected Morris in June. He was suspended the following month until Jan. 2, when he officially resigned under an agreement with Pittsburg County commissioners.

Morris’ next court date is scheduled for January 8, 2027.

“Our legal system has made its call. They did what they decided to do,” Commissioner Ross Selman told 2 News.

Selman, the chairman of the commissioners, said Frankie McClendon will serve as sheriff until November 2026, the next general election. That is if they can’t schedule a special election.

“We’ve tried as a council to get it out to the people so they can elect their own sheriff,” Selman said.

Morris did not respond to our requests for comment.

Asked if the settlement is justice for the citizens of Pittsburg County, Thorp said, “I think justice comes in many different forms, but I think it’s justice in this case.”

“We have rules and regulations on procurement,” he said.

“These individuals must obey the law. It doesn’t matter if you are an elected official or not an elected official. If you are an elected official and you break the law and it is discovered, then the prosecutors will file charges and move forward and see that justice is done for the citizens. And that’s what we did in this case.”

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