TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa attorney Ronald Durbin announced he's running for mayor outside of the Tulsa County Courthouse on Aug. 16.
He was at the courthouse before a hearing with the City of Tulsa regarding a lawsuit accusing current Mayor GT Bynumof violating the Open Meetings Act and holding private meetings with city councilors.
Durbin spoke to media and members of the public for around 20 minutes.
He made several accusations against city councilors and the mayor. Since 2 News is unable to verify all the claims made independently, we won't be detailing them here. The announcement was streamed on Durbin's law firm's Facebook page, which is publicly available.
- Previous coverage >>>Tulsa attorney speaks out after Okla. Bar Association files complaint against him
Durbin went on to say that given the alleged corruption within the city, he will be joining the race for mayor.
"I'm here today to now officially announce that I am throwing my hat into the ring for mayor of the City of Tulsa," he said. "I'll be filing to run for mayor of the City of Tulsa, and look, do I have any expectations of winning? No, but do you know what? We are going to hold every single person that is running for that office accountable."
"There's a lot of things that we need to be dealing with," he added. "And what I would say is the fact that I can talk about all those issues right now intelligently - put any other candidate right up next to me and let's have a debate. I'll get on a stage anytime, anywhere with any person and debate every issue in the city of Tulsa, and that's what I'm going to bring to the table."
Filing for mayor opens in June 2024. Karen Keith and Monroe Nichols have also announced their plans to run.
Moments after Durbin made this announcement, he headed into the courthouse where he was stopped and arrested by Tulsa County deputies on a warrant for assault and battery against a security officer in April.
Durbin strongly denies the accusations against him and claims the security officer put his hands on him first. 2 News is working to get the security camera footage from the incident to verify these claims independently.
Several deputies assisted in the arrest of Durbin and he can be seen taken to the ground. He was taken to the hospital for evaluation. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said was medically cleared and booked into the Tulsa County Jail.
He had a $1,000 bond and was released about an hour after his booking time, according to the Tulsa jail website.
TCSO provided this statement about the arrest:
"After review of the video and all pertinent reports regarding this incident, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office believes our Deputies acted appropriately and within state law and our own policies and procedures during the arrest of Mr. Durbin," TCSO said. "Mr. Durbin was checked out and has been medically cleared for booking. His mug shot will be available on the jail website once the booking process is complete."
Witnesses 2 News spoke with afterward didn’t want to give their full names.
One who didn’t want to speak on camera said Durbin is dishonest and probably faked much of his pain.
Others identified themselves as supporters of Durbin said he was brutalized without reason by deputies.
“We’re talking about a professional attorney that has a spot on Greenwood and Archer or whatever over there. He’s living well. If they just said, ‘Hey we’ve got to arrest you,’ he would’ve said ‘Hey, no problem.’ That was the plan for today anyway. So to think they would have to jump him and beat him up to get a set of cuffs on him makes zero sense at all,” one man identified as Ken said.
“They came in like a gang and just, like a whole mob, like they were waiting on him," a woman identified as Queen said. "It was like, you would’ve thought the president had come out and somebody touched him and everybody just went in. It happened so quick.”
This a developing story.
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