An Oklahoma trooper ticketed a driver over her tribal license plate. What happened next?

Six months after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper ticketed a driver for her tribal tags and sparked a statewide controversy, most prosecutors say they haven’t seen an influx of similar cases — or any at all.

The Oklahoman asked the state’s 27 district attorneys if their offices had ever prosecuted a driver for failing to pay state plate taxes when they had a current tribal tag.

None of the 14 district attorneys who responded said they were aware of their office ever prosecuting such a case. Five, including Erik Johnson, the top prosecutor in Hughes, Pontotoc and Seminole counties, said they never would.

“We have better things to do than wading into this issue, as the tribes in our district either have agreements with the state or otherwise have the authority to issue these tags,” Johnson said in an emailed response. “I prefer to have my prosecutors working on cases that affect public safety like putting child molesters and other violent offenders in prison.”

The cases first came under scrutiny in November after troopers ticketed at least two Garfield County drivers whose cars had current tribal tags. Both were accused of failing to pay state motor vehicle taxes. One of the drivers, Crystal Deroin, posted a picture of her ticket on social media. The image went viral and generated waves of confusion and concern among tribal citizens.

Gov. Kevin Stitt has pressed tribal leaders to sign license plate compacts with the state to clear up any legal uncertainty over whether their citizens could be ticketed.

But it remains unclear whether any recent ticket over a tribal tag has ultimately resulted in a state court conviction and fine. The cases against Deroin and the second Garfield County driver were dropped. Tommy Humphries, the district attorney for Garfield County and four others in western Oklahoma, has not publicly said if his office was involved in the decision.

Humphries did not respond to The Oklahoman’s questions about tribal tag prosecutions. The district attorneys who did weigh in represent 39 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, from the state's northeast corner to its western edge.

More: Most tribes provide vehicle and license plate data to Oklahoma, state records show

George “Buddy” Leach, who oversees prosecutions in the Panhandle, said he doesn’t believe officers in his area were writing any tickets over current plates, regardless of what government issued them. He added that he doubted local judges would put up with such cases.

“The bottom line out here is, if a person has a valid tag, I don’t care if it’s an Indian tag or what kind of tag it is, they’re not receiving citations,” Leach said.

Leach and the 13 other district attorneys who answered The Oklahoman’s questions largely represent more rural areas of the state. The district attorneys for the state’s two most populous counties, Oklahoma and Tulsa, did not respond.

Nearly all of the district attorneys who responded share at least some jurisdiction with tribal nations. Doug Pewitt, the district attorney for Ottawa and Delaware counties, said the nine tribes that exercise jurisdiction in his district provide vital law enforcement, fire response and social services that the region would otherwise be without.

State, local and tribal officials work together to provide what the community needs, rather than viewing issues as “us versus them,” Pewitt said. The collaborative approach informs how he would handle any ticket tied to a tribal tag, he said.

“I would not give offense by attempting to prosecute a tribal tag for failing to pay taxes due the state,” he said.

A handful of district attorneys told The Oklahoman that while they did not believe their office had prosecuted any such cases, they could not say for certain because it is not something they track.

“It is always possible a few have slipped by our attention, but I highly doubt that given the media attention involved with these types of citations,” Adam Panter, the district attorney for Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties, said in an email.

District attorneys collectively sit on a statewide council and also operate a nonprofit that allows them to lobby state lawmakers and officials. Neither organization’s representatives have said much about the issue of tribal tags.

Governor says Cherokees, Creeks owe millions in unpaid turnpike tolls

Stitt has denied directing troopers to issue such tickets but has backed them in cases where drivers do not live within the jurisdiction of the tribal nation that issued the plate. The governor has tied the issue to his bigger beef with tribal tags: Most cannot be read by the state’s new automatic plate readers on turnpikes. Toll readers only recognize Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation plates, unless drivers with tags issued by other tribes have Pikepass.

On April 12, the governor said drivers with Cherokee Nation plates owed the state $4.7 million in unpaid turnpike tolls. "At the end of this month it's going to be $5 million," he said. "At the end of next month, it's going to be $5.7 million."

The governor also said drivers with Muscogee Nation tags owed the state $1.8 million in unpaid tolls.

"When you drive on our turnpike system, call me crazy, but everybody should pay the same amount to drive on our turnpikes," Stitt said.

More: Why the future of Oklahoma's car tag compact with the Cherokee Nation is in dispute

The governor's ramped-up rhetoric — often conflating tribal citizenship with race — has landed as his office seeks to renegotiate the state’s car tag compact with the Cherokee Nation. While Stitt, himself, is a Cherokee citizen, as governor he is driven in a vehicle provided by the state.

He has put public pressure on Cherokee leaders to turn over plate data to Service Oklahoma so the state can start collecting tolls from drivers with Cherokee plates. Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said April 22 that the compact negotiations are ongoing.

Stitt has said he would like to see more tribes sign compacts similar to the state’s agreements with the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. Under those deals, Service Oklahoma issues the tribes’ plates directly, then remits a portion of the fees to the tribes.

As of early April, no tribal leader had expressed interest in signing on to such an agreement, said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for the governor. Many tribal nations have issued tags since the 1990s without dispute.

Stitt has framed his complaints about tribal tags as a public safety concern, because state and local officers should know as much as possible about drivers before they approach them during a traffic stop.

But most tribes that issue plates to Oklahoma drivers, including the Cherokee Nation, already share tag and registration information in a statewide law enforcement database, the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. The Turnpike Authority doesn’t have access to that database, meaning it needs another way of collecting plate information.

More: Gov. Stitt says new compact guarantees access to tribal tag data. But the state already had the data

A proposal that could have allowed the Turnpike Authority to have access to OLETS data was voted down in April by a House committee. Some tribal leaders had said the bill, Senate Bill 1907, could violate the terms of agreements to share information for law enforcement purposes only.

During a press conference, Stitt criticized the six House lawmakers who voted against the bill: Reps. J.J. Humphrey, Jason Lowe, Regina Goodwin, David Hardin, John Kane and Stan May.

"It's a head scratcher," Stitt said. "I have no idea why you think you should allow one race of people not to pay on the turnpikes."

While the issue has been the latest point of friction between the governor and tribal nations, it is far from the most entrenched dispute. Stitt has pushed back for years against the growing recognition of tribal reservations in Oklahoma. Since 2020, courts have recognized that at least nine tribal reservations still exist in the eastern half of the state.

The state cannot prosecute tribal citizens on reservations, a fact Stitt has called unfair.

The reality also impacts the current controversy over tribal tags. State courts in reservation areas cannot prosecute tribal citizens ticketed over tribal plates, five district attorneys confirmed to The Oklahoman. Those cases would instead go to tribal or federal courts.

“For the time being, we are not and would not,” prosecute such cases, District Attorney Chuck Sullivan wrote in an email. He is the top prosecutor for Haskell and Pittsburg counties within the Choctaw reservation.

“However, if the case law changed, we would follow the law and prosecute if permitted,” Sullivan said.

Will Drake, who oversees prosecutions in Nowata and Washington counties within the Cherokee reservation, said in an email that he would not pursue any cases against drivers with current tags.

“I understand there is apparently some argument being made because of this tribal/state compact issue, but I do not think a traffic court setting is the place to further the argument at the expense of a driver who is under the impression they have valid car tag,” Drake said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Has Oklahoma been prosecuting drivers over tribal tags on their cars?