Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson will step down from his post April 3, according to a letter sent to the county clerk’s office Friday. Davidson decision to resign comes nine days after a Cleveland County District Court Associate Judge granted a three-year victim’s protective order to a woman who accused him of repeated sexual harassment and assault.
Davidson, 51, has had a long history in Oklahoma County government. An employee in District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan’s office from 2009 to 2019, Davidson worked for District 3 Commissioner Kevin Calvey until he ran to succeed him in 2022.
In his resignation letter, Davidson said his chief deputy, Paul Foster, will serve the remainder of his term. Davidson had been up for reelection this year, but it’s unclear if he had planned to run for another four-year term prior to this month’s VPO hearing.
“It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Oklahoma County, and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so,” Davidson wrote.
Formal candidate filing is set to begin April 1, and Republican candidates Wendy Jo Hampton and Alex Warren have already announced campaigns for Oklahoma County’s District 3 seat.
VPO hearing added details to allegations
In the March 11 VPO hearing before Cleveland County Associate District Judge Beth Stanley, a woman testified that, during her employment at an organization that works with Oklahoma’s circuit engineering districts, Davidson repeatedly made unwanted advances toward her. The woman alleged that he touched her breast on a work trip and masturbated in front of her while intoxicated on another occasion.
Days prior to the hearing where Stanley granted the woman’s VPO request, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office declined to pursue criminal charges against Davidson over the same allegations. Davidson’s attorney, Ed Blau, called the allegations “utterly without merit” prior to the March 11 hearing.
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Nonetheless, Davidson resigned six months after the woman first filed her VPO petition. He had rejected calls for his resignation since September.
Davidson touted himself as a candidate providing “steadfast leadership for the future of Oklahoma County” on his campaign website. But that future will no longer include Davidson, who has helped shape plans for a new county jail while also serving as a long-term member of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority, the public trust that has oversee the jail’s operations since 2020.
Both the new jail and the jail trust have a clouded future. The county lacks more than $400 million needed to fully build what has been designed, and the jail trust has recently seen members squabbling over pay raises. Most recently, the county’s budget board approved a recommendation to dissolve the trust and return the jail’s operation to the sheriff’s office.
During his tenure, Davidson also faced criticism in the selection of the proposed new Oklahoma County Jail location at 1901 E. Grand Blvd. According to a report from KFOR-TV, Davidson accepted a campaign donation from the owner who sold the 70-acre property to the county. Del City officials who objected to the location’s selection led a failed petition drive to empanel a grand jury to investigate Davidson in 2024 after the sale of the property.
