An Oklahoma transportation official, an engineering firm, a public relations firm, and two staffers of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority all requested a choose to dismiss subpoenas for deposition in a lawsuit regarding authorities transparency.
Engineering consultants Poe & Associates, Jones Public Relations, the OTA, and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation every argued for dismissing subpoenas in opposition to members of their workers.
Judge Timothy Olsen heard arguments from every firm and state company in a digital courtroom listening to Friday. Attorneys count on Olsen to rule on the motions to dismiss subsequent week.
Last week attorneys representing the plaintiffs, a bunch of greater than 240 Cleveland County residents who object to the OTA’s ACCESS Oklahoma plan, accused the company of altering assembly agendas on its web site to look extra clear.
Related: Attorneys Accuse OTA Of Altering ACCESS Oklahoma Documents
Among these subpoenaed to reply questions was Jessica Brown, the director of strategic communications for the Oklahoma Transportation Cabinet. The cupboard’s businesses are the OTA, ODOT, and the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission.
ODOT Attorney Jonathan Brewer argued the plaintiffs didn’t correctly ship the subpoena paperwork to Brown. “They served that subpoena by leaving it with a coworker of hers at ODOT. They never served Jessica Brown,” he mentioned.
Brewer then prompt Brown isn’t affiliated with the OTA plan to construct new turnpikes in Cleveland County.
“ODOT is a completely separate state agency from the OTA,” Brewer mentioned. “ODOT’s jurisdiction is not turnpikes.”
After this lawsuit was filed in May, Brown spoke to News 9 on behalf of the OTA. She mentioned that the rollout of ACCESS Oklahoma was carried out in accordance with state transparency legal guidelines.
“We have been very transparent, we believe, in how we have offered the information, the amount of information we’ve offered so early in a 15-year-long program,” Brown mentioned on May 24.
Richard Labarthe, an legal professional for the plaintiffs argued later within the listening to that Brown performed an integral position within the rollout of ACCESS Oklahoma. He known as the declare that she isn’t concerned with OTA, “nonsense.”
Brown “is at the heart of all this stuff. She is the daggum director of strategic communications,” Labarthe mentioned.
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