Oklahoma County judge in charge of Epic co-founders' case faces another request to recuse
Epic Charter School co-founders David Chaney, left, and Ben Harris, right, attend a preliminary hearing on March 27, 2024, at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors laid out evidence against Harris and Chaney in hopes of establishing probable cause for charges of alleged financial crimes. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — After a year on hold, there's still no end in sight for the criminal case against the co-founders of Epic Charter School.
Yet another delay emerged Friday as defendant David Lee Chaney, 45, requested that the judge in charge of the case recuse, said an attorney who attended a closed-door meeting where the request was made. Fellow co-founder Benjamin Scott Harris, 49, kept the case in limbo for much of the past year while pursuing the same tactic.
Harris and Chaney were charged in 2022 with racketeering and a litany of financial crimes. Prosecutors alleged the co-founders engineered a complex scheme to enrich themselves with millions of taxpayer dollars intended for Epic students.
The co-founders, who started Epic in 2011, deny that any of their business practices were illegal. Their attorneys said Harris and Chaney were successful businessmen following the advice of their legal counsel while their virtual charter school rapidly grew into the largest public school system in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Epic cut all ties with the co-founders in 2021. The school educates nearly 31,000 students across Oklahoma, about half as many as it did during its peak enrollment in 2020.
Prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office began laying out their case against Harris and Chaney in a preliminary hearing in March 2024. A judge would decide after the hearing concludes whether the state has collected enough evidence for the case to continue to trial.
A week wasn't enough time for attorneys on both sides of the case to question witnesses and discuss evidence. Similarly, a year hasn't been enough to resolve various conflicts that have blocked the hearing from proceeding.
On the day the preliminary hearing was meant to resume in May, attorneys representing the case's star witness and co-defendant, former Epic CFO Joshua Aaron Brock, filed a request for Chaney's lawyer to recuse.
Brock, 43, contended that Chaney's attorney, Gary Wood, used to represent him, too. It would be unethical for Wood to cross-examine a former client, his filing stated.
Wood denied ever representing Brock.
Before the matter of Wood's disqualification was resolved, an attorney representing Harris called for the judge in charge of the case to recuse last year. Defense attorney Joe White accused district Judge Susan Stallings of having bias in favor of the prosecution.
Stallings would preside over the co-founders' trial, if the case ever gets that far, and she is tasked with deciding whether Wood should be disqualified.
Stallings refused to step down from the case, and White appealed the decision three times.
His string of appeals came to an end in February when the Oklahoma Supreme Court declined to hear his arguments, instead opting to uphold lower court decisions that favored keeping Stallings on the case.
Now, Chaney has asked Stallings to recuse. His attorney, Wood, made the request in a confidential meeting with the judge on Friday.
Afterward, Wood declined to comment on any matters discussed in the closed courtroom. The Attorney General's Office also declined to comment.
Another attorney present in the meeting, Chris Box, who represents Brock, confirmed Wood asked Stallings to disqualify herself because a lawyer from the Attorney General's Office represented her in the prior recusal appeals. Box said the judge will hear the disqualification request again in a public hearing at 2:30 p.m. May 2.
If the past year is any indication, it could take several months to resolve the dispute.
Attorneys requesting that a judge step down first do so in private, like what happened Friday. If the judge declines, the attorney could repeat the request in a public court hearing.
If denied again, the attorney could appeal to the county's chief district judge, a role the district judges accept on a rotating basis. Then, the matter could be elevated to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and finally the state Supreme Court.
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