Investigators accuse former health department lawyer of emailing herself threats over medical marijuana

• Joe Wertz
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
• Jackie Fortiér
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Jackie is StateImpact Oklahoma's health care reporter. In a partnership with Kaiser Health News and National Public Radio, Jackie covers health in Oklahoma and the health care industry for local and national audiences. She has many journalism awards to her name during her years of multi-media reporting in Colorado and was part of a team recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists with a Sigma Delta Chi award for excellence in breaking news reporting in 2013. She is a former young professional fellow of the Journalism and Women's Symposium, and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Reporters without Borders, and a lifetime member of Kappa Tau Alpha, awarded for her thesis on disability and technology in news reporting. She holds a bachelor's degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Colorado State University and a Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder. When she's not reporting, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three cats.

The former lawyer for the Oklahoma State Department of Health faces felony charges accusing her of sending herself threatening emails related to Oklahoma’s recently adopted medical marijuana rules.

Oklahoma County prosecutors filed three separate charges Tuesday against Julie Ezell. The criminal complaint accuses Ezell of sending threats to her own government email account earlier this month and reporting the threats to health department investigators.

Ezell did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Oklahoma State Department of Health declined to comment.

The complaint says Ezell admitted to sending the emails after state investigators examined her cell phone.

One of the emails contained Ezell’s home address and descriptions of the vehicles she drove, according to an affidavit signed by an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Another email stated, “We will expose your corruption and evil. We would hate to hurt a pretty lady. You will hear us. We are just beginning,” the agent wrote in the affidavit.

Ezell is charged with preparing false evidence, falsely reporting a crime and using a computer to send falsely threatening emails.

Ezell resigned June 13 as general counsel for the state health department, three days after the board of health ignored her legal advice and approved two contentious amendments to the state’s first-ever medical marijuana regulations that banned the sale of smokable marijuana and require a pharmacist dispense the drug. Two groups of Oklahomans have since filed lawsuits to block implementation of the two amendments.