Colleen McCarty's short, progressive, soft-on-crime resume

At the top of her experience list is President of the Scissortail Family Foundation from December 2021 to the present. Form 990-PF tax returns show that this is a private foundation with three board members, Paula Marshall (McCarty's mother, chairman and CEO of Bama Companies, Inc.), Colleen McCarty, and Jacob Chapman. The returns report that each board member spends an average of 15 minutes a week in their role. The only returns available on the IRS website, for 2021 and 2022, show the foundation receiving stock and mutual fund shares from Paula Marshall and Paula Marshall Revocable Trust and giving money to Riverfield Country Day School. The foundation appears to be nothing more than a mechanism to donate stocks and convert them to cash to benefit the recipients while avoiding any tax due on capital gains. It doesn't seem to be a job requiring any ongoing effort or involvement.

Next on the list is her work for Bama Companies, Inc., the family business founded by her grandparents and run by her mother, Paula Marshall. McCarty worked as communications director from July 2013 to December 2015 and then four months as manager of Bama University, the corporate training department.

McCarty is listed as a "Founding Member, Marshall Family Council," part-time from February 2015 to the present. "The Marshall Family Council mission is to keep The Bama Companies family owned." I can't find any other information about it, but it sounds like an informal family board of directors for this privately-held corporation.

Next up is her most recent full-time job: McCarty is the Founding Executive Director of the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, starting in March 2022. She states in the profile that she is currently on a leave of absence. The job description states, "The [Founding Executive Director] sets the strategic direction and goals of the organization." This is not the role of a passive paper pusher, only following the orders of her board.

Here's how the organization introduces itself on its website (emphasis added):

Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice was founded in May of 2022 with the mission of fighting for justice and opportunity for every Oklahoman. We are part of a national network of justice centers called the Appleseed Network. This network is made up of seventeen other centers across the United States and one in Mexico City.

The Network was founded by the 1958 Harvard Law Class in the 1990s to serve as a grassroots public interest law network. The Network uses four tools of social change to improve society and advocate for under-resourced communities. Those tools are structural litigation, legal research, community organizing, and legislative change.

What is structural litigation? It's using the courts to bypass the legislative process and change the law, through judicial activism.

The description of Oklahoma Appleseed on the Appleseed Network site:

Oklahoma Appleseed is a fiscally sponsored non-profit organization that fights for justice and opportunity for all Oklahomans. We approach big issues--like Criminal & Juvenile Justice, Education Justice, and Election Justice--by tackling their root causes. We take our work wherever we believe we can do the most good, whether that's in the courthouse, at the Capitol, or in the community.

I'm still digging in to what "fiscally sponsored" means, but impala.digital, a philanthropy database, lists the George Kaiser Family Foundation as a "top funder." GKFF's tax return for 2023 lists Oklahoma Appleseed Center as receiving a $50,000 grant from them. The Just Trust lists Oklahoma Appleseed as a grantee.

The Oklahoma Appleseed Center website lists four priorities, all including the leftist misuse of the term justice to mean something other than actual justice. Click the links to read their words; in the list below is my summary of what you'll find:

• Criminal Justice: The common thread through the entire page is helping crooks, including repeat offenders, avoid the consequences of their crimes.
• Education Justice: McCarty's group wants to repeal HB 1775, so that public school teachers can once again teach white children that they bear irredeemable guilt for the actions of their ancestors. McCarty's group is also a partner with Advance Oklahoma's Kids, whose legislative agenda includes more money for failing educational methods and lower educational standards. McCarty is credited with helping to write that report.
• Election Justice: McCarty's group wants open primaries, election-day voter registration, voting rights for paroled felons, permanent absentee voter status (meaning ballots are sent on autopilot, with no need for voters to show proof of life once a year), and at least two weeks of early voting (which favors big-money candidates), because waiting half an hour in line to vote is just too burdensome. (The paper on Election Justice was written by Colleen McCarty and David Blatt, the former head of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a leftist think-tank.)
• Economic Justice: McCarty's group wants to kill entry-level Oklahoma jobs by passing the SQ 832, the inflationary minimum wage escalator.

Oklahoma Appleseed Center proudly boasts of its Anthem Award. Here is what the Anthem Awards says about itself (emphasis added), and it gives you an idea of what they consider "good."

The Anthem Awards is the Webby Awards' benchmark for social impact work, recognizing brands, nonprofits, and individuals who are setting the standard for good worldwide.

Since 2021, we've received more than 10,000 entries from over 40 countries. Past winners include leaders like Planned Parenthood, Rare Beauty, ACLU, and World Central Kitchen, alongside Special Achievement honorees Gloria Steinem, Matt Damon, Billy Porter, and Megan Rapinoe.

Before founding Oklahoma Appleseed, Colleen McCarty worked for nearly two years for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR), the group that pushed SQ 780 and 781, which made it easier for criminals to have a career in crime while staying out of jail. The goal of the organization is to reduce incarceration rates, without regard to public safety. "OCJR's mission is to advocate for criminal justice reform in Oklahoma through research-driven policy and reform efforts that improve public safety by reducing the state's dependence on incarceration. Safe criminal justice reform saves taxpayer dollars and allows for reinvestment in alternatives to incarceration that ultimately benefits the individual, their family and the community."

Under 780, a thief could steal goods worth $999 every single day and never get charged with anything more than petit larceny. OCJR's push for passage of SQ 780 and 781 has led to an explosion of retail theft in Oklahoma, leading to stores keeping items under lock and key and retail chains closing locations.

McCarty served as OCJR's Policy Counsel and Deputy Director. "Coordinate, develop, and analyze criminal justice policy in Oklahoma to reduce incarceration, strengthen families, and invest in people, not prisons." "Managed a team of six to achieve high-performance and cross-collaboration. Together with the team and the board, created a 3-year strategic plan. Wrote and collaborated on the legislative agenda for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Wrote and consulted on wide-ranging criminal justice reform intiatives [sic] across the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. Traveled across the state to gather and understand the needs of urban, suburban and rural communities." Every time you have to ask a store clerk to unlock the toothpaste, you can thank Colleen McCarty for helping to make shoplifting a lucrative profession.

While still in law school, McCarty worked for seven months as an intern for OCJR's Legal Intern for "Oklahoman's [sic] for Criminal Justice Reform's 2018 Commutatuion [sic] Campaign." She boasts that, "Our team secured commutations for 30 Oklahomans who were serving excessive sentences after Oklahoma's State Question 780 was passed." In other words, OCJR having convinced Oklahoma voters to make it easier for career criminals to stay out of jail, Colleen worked with OCJR to make sure criminals didn't have to serve their full sentence.

McCarty had a number of internships during her time at TU Law School: The longest was her seven-month stint at OCJR. She spent two months at the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office Juvenile Bureau, one month at the Wagoner County DA's Office, five months at the Tulsa County Public Defender's Office, five months at the US Attorney's Office, and two months as a law clerk at Titus Hillis Reynolds Love. Three months at two different DA offices is the extent of her experience preparing for the elected office she seeks. Internships, of course, are not full-time jobs, and they are typically more about giving students exposure to different career paths than productive contribution to an organization. That's particularly true of stints as short as those McCarty lists.

Here's the whole of Colleen McCarty's court-related career as seen on OSCN since she was admitted to the bar on September 9, 2020: An open records lawsuit, two mandamus petitions targeting State Superintendent Ryan Walters, one involving his conservative reforms of social studies curriculum in the public schools, and attempts to use the Oklahoma Survivor's Act to free April Wilkens, a convicted first-degree murderer and Tyesha Long, convicted of first-degree manslaughter.

Colleen's decision to run for DA appears to have left Ms. Wilkens in the lurch, in need of a new attorney, and the docket record indicates the case is held up until the new attorney can get all the information from the previous lawyer, which seems to be taking a while.

2. On March 16, 2026, this Court directed Ms. Wilkens to file her amended petition within two weeks of the receipt of records from prior counsel.

3. Ms. Wilkens's current counsel requested Ms. Wilkens's complete case file from prior counsel on March 13, 2026.

4. On March 25, 2026, Ms. Wilkens's prior counsel provided Ms. Wilkens with some responsive records. However, upon reviewing these records, Ms. Wilkens has identified several categories of records that were not provided, including counsel's communications with expert witnesses retained on behalf of Ms. Wilkens in connection with her re-sentencing hearing, which are material and go to the heart of the additional claim that Ms. Wilkens intends to advance.

5. On April 3, 2026, Ms. Wilkens's counsel sent an email to prior counsel identifying the likely deficiencies and are awaiting a response.

(The appeal brief includes Judge David Guten's findings of fact that Wilkens does not qualify for sentencing relief under the Oklahoma Survivor's Act.)

Last December, McCarty filed another Oklahoma Survivors' Act appeal for Tyesha Long. From McCarty's Petition in Error:

In the early morning of November 4, 2020, Petitioner shot and killed Ray Brown at the Hilton Garden Inn located on E. Sheridan Avenue in Oklahoma City. Mr. Brown had been staying at the hotel due to his electrical power being out at his residence. Petitioner, with whom Mr. Brown had been in an on and off-again dating relationship, went over to the hotel around 3:00 a.m. While in the hallway outside of Mr. Brown's hotel room, Petitioner took a 9mm pistol out of her waistband and fatally shot Mr. Brown in the back from a distance of several feet. Mr. Brown was unarmed.

Doesn't sound like self-defense to me.

Oh, and there was an amicus brief in a challenge to a bill that would require initiative petitions to get signatures from across the state, not just from urban counties. McCarty cites SQ 780 and 781 (criminal justice "reform"), 788 ("medical" marijuana), and 802 (Medicaid expansion) as the types of petitions the bill would have thwarted -- left-wing initiatives with well-funded publicity campaigns, initiatives that passed mainly with urban support and which have damaged public safety and public finances. McCarty seems to prefer Oklahoma to be more like Illinois and Oregon, where voters in progressive big cities force their priorities on conservative rural voters.

Before law school, Colleen McCarty lists four jobs. Two of them, noted above, are as communications director and manager of corporate training for Bama Companies, Inc., the business her mother owns and runs. That covers the period from July 2013 to December 2015.

She spent three years (2010 - 2013) as "The Conceptualizer" for the Expert Message Group: "Help authors, speakers and small business owners refine their messages through books, websites and public speaking consultation."

What's a "conceptualizer"? Colleen's bio page explains:

It's a curious title, that's for sure. The Conceptualizer...what does that mean? At the heart of the word "Conceptualizer" is the word Concept. Colleen can take your concept and turn it into a proven, polished message by using a "Big Picture" strategy.

Colleen has been marketing and branding business concepts for years. After she and her husband ran their own restaurant [The Collective, a coffeehouse across 11th Street from Skelly Stadium], Colleen realized that her heart belonged in marketing. She left the restaurant business (though she's still in charge of marketing for their award-winning restaurant, Mod's Coffee and Crepes) and joined a publishing company.

One of her satisfied clients is her mother, Paula Marshall. Expert Message Group published Marshall's autobiography, Sweet As Pie, Tough As Nails, in 2011.

Concurrently with EMG and the Bama jobs, she lists herself as co-owner (2010-2017) of Mod's Coffee and Crepes, with her job described as "Co-Own and help with marketing and PR," which I read as not significantly involved in day-to-day operation. Her husband, Russell (Rusty) Rowe, owned and operated the gelateria in the Philcade building, which was a family favorite of ours. It was a frequent stop for study sessions and after-concert desserts. McCarty's decision to go to law school was cited by Rowe as a significant factor in the decision to close Mod's. (Rowe lists two concurrent full-time jobs since 2020, Program Manager for Bama and Program Director for Food on the Move, but he's not currently listed on the Food on the Move website. Jacob Chapman of Bama Companies, Inc., is the board chairman of Food on the Move.)

The education section highlights how recently McCarty became a lawyer. She started at University of Tulsa Law School in 2017 and graduated in 2020. Her bachelor's degree was in 2008, also at TU, in "Arts Management, Business, Women's Studies." McCarty highlights as her "Activities and societies: Coalition for Women's Issues -- Vice president 2007, President 2008. Active participant in the United Campus Ministries."

What is United Campus Ministries? Now called "the Little Blue House," it's a leftist social justice organization with a religious veneer. For current programs they list only a vegetarian lunch, an "LGBTQ Support Group," and a "Trans Closet." ("We have a collection of traditionally male and female clothing, outer garments, shoes, and bras available for students free of charge!")

The Little Blue House fosters an interfaith voice for peace and social justice on The University of Tulsa campus.... The LBH is comprised of University of Tulsa students of all faiths and backgrounds -- including those who are not sure if they have a faith. The LBH is a "ministry of inclusion," meaning that we believe everyone is a child of God and that all are welcome -- regardless of faith tradition, race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, ability or background.

The oldest web capture I can find, from 2011, indicates that the organization hasn't changed much since Colleen was involved, except that they used the acronyms GLBT and BGLT back then. UCM hosted meetings of the Coalition for Women's Issues, the group Colleen led:

The Coalition for Women's Issues exists as an open group on the TU campus for both the discussion of women's issues and the promotion of women's health and well-being through community service, open dialogue and educational opportunities as an educating and open-minded coalition of aware, diverse and interested members of the TU community.

Don't miss the publications section at the bottom of McCarty's profile.

• When Voters' Intent Backfires: Interpreting Inconsistencies Created by Voter-Approved Criminal Justice Reforms within Oklahoma's Drug Court Statute: Tulsa Law Review, May 1, 2020

Colleen McCarty is the sole author of this paper, in which she calls for removal of the District Attorney's role as gatekeeper to the alternative sentencing drug court program She also calls for allowing violent felons (both past offenders and current offenders) to be eligible for alternative sentencing through drug court. She complains that accomplices to violent crimes are regarded as violent criminals under Oklahoma law:

This means that an accomplice who sits in the getaway car of a robbery will be charged with a violent felony if the robbery is attempted or completed with a weapon. Many defendants are charged with violent felonies yet present no violent tendencies. It is these complexities in Oklahoma law that make sentencing and restrictions on rehabilitative treatment extremely punitive.

Let's all pause and shed a tear for the getaway drivers, straw gun purchasers, and other aiders and abetters of murders, muggings, and hold-ups who don't qualify for alternative sentencing.

She goes on:

Allowing the court to be the gatekeeper of drug court, in addition to adding a neutral body to the process, will also allow judges to perform a balancing test in regard to prior and current "violent" felonies when deciding whether or not they should preclude drug court admission. This balancing test should consider what type of crime the defendant is held on, whether or not the defendant has a violent history, a history of mental health issues, and also whether the defendant's addiction caused the behavior that led to the felony charge.

I just don't feel comfortable electing a District Attorney who feels the need to put sneer-quotes around the word "violent" in the phrase "violent felonies." I don't feel comfortable electing a district attorney who believes that drug addiction excuses or mitigates violent crime. I don't feel comfortable electing a district attorney who could write this paragraph (emphasis added):

Eliminating the prior felon restriction from the drug court statute is consistent with voters' intent because more defendants of greater diversity will be approved for drug court if the prior felon/current violent felon restrictions are removed. This would reflect the voters' intent in three ways: first, it would reduce incarceration because more properly indicated defendants entering drug court means less prison admissions, thus less prison spending. Second, removing the prior violent felon/current violent felon restriction allows a more racially compassionate system. Equal access to state drug rehabilitation programs indicates that all Oklahoma citizens are being offered equal protection of the laws and not suffering from systemic discrimination. Third, allowing prior felons a chance to participate system and allow them a chance at true rehabilitation. Even if this theory only partially bears out (i.e. some defendants still fail and return to prison) the spending reduction on rehabilitating those who revisit the criminal justice system frequently would still create a net reduction in government spending.

I can think of a lot of government spending that ought to be reduced. Keeping violent criminals locked up is the kind of government spending that is worth every penny.

The underlying theme of this paper is that the real problem is that too many criminals go to jail, which is sad for the criminals. Colleen McCarty evinces no consideration of the harm to the public her proposed policies might cause. For those saps who will excuse this paper as a "youthful indiscretion": It was published only six years ago, and it is consistent prelude to McCarty's post law-school career as an activist, free-the-crooks lawyer.

• SQ780: Reform and Resistance: Federal Sentencing Reporter, Feb 1, 2019

In this short article, Colleen McCarty was a co-author, listed second behind TU law professor Stephen Galoob and ahead of Ryan Gentzler, then-Director of Open Justice Oklahoma. ("Open Justice Oklahoma is OJO is [sic] primarily funded by grants from FWD.us and the George Kaiser Family Foundation.")

The summary in her LinkedIn profile states: "Oklahoma's State Question 780, which made possession of any controlled dangerous substance a misdemeanor, is a blueprint for criminal justice reform in conservative states." The gist of the paper is that those mean old DAs are charging more people with Possession with Intent to Distribute (PWID), now that 780 made drug possession no longer a felony. The obvious explanation is that DAs would charge felony drug possession as a way to target drug dealers, as possession is easier to prove than intent, and with that tool removed from their toolbox, they reverted to the only charge available, despite the increased difficulty of conviction. But that obvious explanation doesn't make an appearance in Colleen's article, which assumes that prosecutors are attempting to thwart voter intent.

In 2016, DA Steve Kunzweiler made exactly that point in a debate over SQ 780 with Kris Steele, who was later McCarty's boss at OCJR. I wrote at the time:

Kunzweiler pointed out that sometimes drug possession is the only charge for which enough direct evidence exists to convict a suspected drug dealer. Prosecutors are happy to send addicts through drug court to help them deal with their problem instead of going to jail, but they need the statutory tools to go after the pushers. Making every instance of possession of every kind of controlled substance a misdemeanor takes a very effective tool away from prosecutors.

Colleen McCarty's entire, albeit brief, legal career has been spent in service to leftist priorities. There's a place in the world for inexperienced, bleeding-heart-liberal lawyers who fight prosecutorial overreach and excessive incarceration, but that place is not the District Attorney's office.

A lot of research went into this in-depth article. If you'd like to express your appreciation and help fund further research, you can support BatesLine via PayPal or by a paid subscription to the BatesLine newsletter on Substack.

BACKUP: For your convenience, here's a zip file of screenshots from Colleen McCarty's LinkedIn profile. Unfortunately, Internet Archive will not preserve webpages that require a login, even if anyone can get a free login.

MORE: Don't miss the follow-up -- Colleen McCarty's kind of justice: Putting the criminal first. A surviving Twitter thread from 2020, McCarty's pitch in support of State Question 805, is clearly a heartfelt explanation of her personal motives driving her career and her personal philosophy of crime and punishment.