07/10/2026
By Dustin Reed Terry
EastOklahoma
The RICO Case Against Oklahoma's Sheriffs
“On November 2, 2017, seven plaintiffs filed what would become one of the most sweeping civil rights cases in Oklahoma history. Graff v. Aberdeen Enterprises II, Inc. charges the Oklahoma Sheriffs' Association, Aberdeen Enterprises II, county sheriffs, judges, and court officials with operating an extortion scheme that violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—RICO—alongside constitutional protections against unlawful detention and denial of due process.
RICO laws are typically deployed against drug cartels, organized crime syndicates, and the Mafia. Their use in this case signals the gravity of the allegations: that Oklahoma's law enforcement establishment created and profited from a system designed to extract money from people who have none, using the threat of jail as leverage.
The lawsuit is being handled by an unusual coalition of legal firepower. Tulsa-based firm Smolen, Smolen and Roytman, led by attorneys Daniel Smolen and Jill Webb, filed the original complaint. They've since been joined by the Civil Rights Corps and Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection—organizations that typically take on only the most constitutionally significant cases.
"In the United States—you can't put people in jail because they're too poor—and that's what's happening here," one of the attorneys told the Tulsa World shortly after filing.”
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