Tulsa DA Just Won Reelection. Now a Citizens’ Group Wants a Grand Jury to Investigate Him. 

A citizens’ petition effort to remove longtime Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler from office revisits many of the same concerns his challenger raised in this year’s Republican primary, setting up questions about whether the effort is driven by accountability concerns or political grievances.

But leaders insist their effort isn’t political revenge or an attempt to use the judicial system to undermine the will of voters, who reelected Kunzweiler to a fourth term with nearly 60 percent of the vote in June’s GOP primary. 

“The petitioners are concerned citizens that have compiled these stories over time,” said Shar Agosto, attorney for the petitioners, Grand Jury Justice. “I think bringing up 11 categories will make people take it more serious – we could have put more. There are more stories. This isn’t just one group of people who are mad at him because they didn’t get their way in an election.”

In its petition, Grand Jury Justice seeks an investigation into 11 areas of concern involving both Kunzweiler and the Tulsa County DA’s office as a whole, including the handling of a few specific criminal cases, legal guidance to Tulsa County commissioners in two instances, potential conflicts of interest, public-records access and whether taxpayer-funded resources were used during his 2026 reelection campaign.

Their target said the timing smacks of political grievance.

“The overwhelming majority of the issues raised in the grand jury petition were raised and debated during the campaign,” Kunzweiler said. “It seems to me that the proponents may have political motivations. With that being said, the constitution guarantees citizens the right to seek and impanel a grand jury, and I’m supportive of that process.”

As for attorney Colleen McCarty, who unsuccessfully sought to unseat Kunzweiler in the Republican primary, no record shows she directed or organized the grand jury petition, and she adamantly denies any involvement. 

When asked about the overlap of issues she and her supporters raised during the campaign and those in the petition, McCarty said it made sense that people would support both her campaign and the citizens’ grand jury petition, and she believes she could be called to testify.

Moments later, she took to Facebook and issued a lengthy public statement on what role she might play in the process.

“Because I may be called as a witness concerning matters referenced in the petition, I believe the responsible course for me is to avoid publicly commenting on the merits of those allegations,” she wrote.

“I am not counsel for the petitioners, and I do not intend to publicly litigate the factual allegations contained in the petition,” McCarty said in the post. “I have no role with the petitioners, and neither does my former organization, Oklahoma Appleseed.”

McCarty went on to clarify why she wants to distance herself from the petition.

“I ran against Steve Kunzweiler for District Attorney earlier this year,” McCarty wrote. “Anything I say about a matter involving his office can understandably be viewed through the lens of that election. That makes it even more important to me to separate any role I may have as a witness from political commentary or conclusions about matters that have not yet been investigated.”

Agosto describes herself as a close, personal friend of McCarty’s for the last decade and said she voted for McCarty this year, as well as for another candidate who ran against Kunzweiler in a past election. 

She pointed out that a few of the specific cases cited in the petition predate this election cycle, and said the citizens of Grand Jury Justice have been working together for about a year and intend to file new petitions targeting other public officials. 

“I do believe the campaign unearthed it,” Agosto said. “The petitioners had been gathering this information and the campaign just added to it, because Mr. Kunzweiler ran an eight-month campaign and, during working hours, there were people in his office on Facebook campaigning, using county resources for his political benefit.”

District attorneys are not subject to impeachment under state law.

But Oklahoma is one of only a half dozen states that allow citizens to petition to convene a grand jury investigation into suspected wrongdoing by DAs and other public officials. 

After clearing judicial review, supporters have 45 days to gather the required number of valid signatures, 5,000 in Tulsa County, before a grand jury can convene to examine the allegations, interview witnesses, compel evidence, and decide whether to issue an indictment for removal from office.

State law allows removal for habitual or willful neglect of duty, gross partiality, oppression or corruption in office, extortion, or willful maladministration.

Citizen grand jury petitions are relatively rare. 

A petition seeking a grand jury investigation of former Payne County District Attorney Laura Thomas this year and a 2024 petition in Tulsa County targeting Oklahoma Human Services both failed to obtain the necessary number of signatures.

As it races to gather signatures, Grand Jury Justice is also fighting the entry of attorneys representing Kunzweiler in court, who seek to stop signature circulation and collection. 

They argue that the citizens’ grand jury petition process doesn’t require the target to be a respondent or to have any intervention or participatory rights at this early stage.

Kunzweiler said he finds it ironic that citizens exercising their right to seek a grand jury would oppose his rights to due process and legal representation. 

“The people are challenging my ability to do what any American citizen has a right to do and expect,” he said of the opposition to his attorneys.

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at [email protected].

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