A federal appeals court has sent back a civil rights lawsuit over the 2022 death of Bobby Barrick, requiring a fresh review of whether the case can proceed against McCurtain County officers and a state game warden. The order vacated a district court judgment for the defendants; it did not decide whether the officers used unconstitutional force.
According to NonDoc Media, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a two-page order on September 21 vacating the district court's judgment and remanding the case for further proceedings consistent with its recent ruling in Walden v. City of Duncan. The appeals court had canceled scheduled oral arguments before issuing the remand. U.S. District Judge John Heil III will now reconsider the lawsuit in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
Bobby Barrick was arrested on March 13, 2022, in Eagletown, Oklahoma, according to NonDoc Media's reporting. Barrick, who had been dropped off at a closed corner store, ran through the store's glass front door before entering the cab of a semi-truck and jumping onto a woman's car, per the same account. Contractors at the scene then hog-tied Barrick with his hands behind his back and his ankles bound together, the outlet reports, and separate reporting from the Southwest Ledger states that responding deputies found Barrick already bound tight enough that his wrists and feet were turning purple.
Deputies Removed Restraints, Then Used Stun Guns
Once on scene, McCurtain County Sheriff's Office deputies Matthew Kasbaum and Quentin Lee untied Barrick, handcuffed him, and placed him in a vehicle, the article notes. The two deputies then used stun guns on Barrick four times, according to NonDoc Media. Public Radio Tulsa's earlier reporting, cited in supporting court records, adds that deputies and a game warden noticed Barrick had stopped breathing and suffered a seizure at the scene, after which he was placed on a ventilator at McCurtain Memorial Hospital before being transferred to Texas.
Bobby Barrick died at Paris Regional Medical Center in Texas, per NonDoc Media's account. Court filings reviewed by Turtle Talk show his death certificate recorded the cause of death as pneumonia with acute respiratory failure caused by acute kidney injury, listing bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and hypertension as contributing factors. Barrick's widow elected to cremate his body before a state autopsy could be conducted, according to the same court filings.
Widow's Lawsuit Targeted County Officials and a Game Warden
Barbara Barrick filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that the defendants violated her late husband's civil rights during the arrest, according to NonDoc Media. She sued Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation game warden Mark Hannah along with McCurtain County Sheriff's Office deputies Matthew Kasbaum and Quentin Lee. Public Radio Tulsa's April 2023 reporting indicated the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, sought $2 million in wrongful death damages from McCurtain County commissioners, Sheriff Kevin Clardy, three deputies, and the game warden.
Kasbaum, Lee and Hannah argued they acted under Choctaw Nation authority because they were cross-commissioned, according to NonDoc Media, and each said they knew Barrick was a tribal citizen and believed they were acting under tribal law. Judge Heil ruled for the defendants in September 2025, and Barbara Barrick appealed to the 10th Circuit. That ruling relied on a legal rationale that, according to the Addison Law Firm, both Heil and fellow U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick had used in late 2025 to dismiss similar civil rights lawsuits against cross-commissioned officers by concluding that the officers acted under tribal rather than state authority.
Walden Ruling Undercuts Cross-Commissioning Defense
The 10th Circuit's August ruling in Walden v. City of Duncan held that state police officers have initial detention authority to stop tribal citizens who commit crimes within Indian Country, according to NonDoc Media. The appeals court also indicated that an officer's subjective belief about the source of his or her authority may bear on whether the officer acted under state law. That distinction is relevant to the Barrick defendants' stated belief that they were operating under tribal authority, but the appeals court's remand did not resolve the lawsuit's excessive-force allegations. Walden was returned to Judge Wyrick's courtroom in the Western District of Oklahoma after the opinion was released on August 12. The ruling drew on Supreme Court precedent holding that tribal police can detain non-Indians, while state officers may hold a tribal citizen until tribal officers arrive or transport the person to tribal authorities.
The Addison Law Firm's analysis notes that law enforcement agencies across eastern Oklahoma expanded cross-commissioning agreements with tribes following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which re-established reservation boundaries across eastern Oklahoma and restricted state criminal jurisdiction over tribal members. That legal uncertainty over whether cross-commissioned officers act under state or tribal law stemmed directly from post-McGirt adaptations, according to the firm, and the Walden ruling has now dismantled a jurisdictional defense that officers had used to block federal civil rights suits.
How Oklahoma addressed cross-deputization after McGirt
The post-McGirt jurisdictional uncertainty also prompted efforts to create more consistent agreements between law-enforcement agencies and tribal governments. According to the Office of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Stitt created the One Oklahoma Task Force in December 2023 to address McGirt's effects, including recommendations for uniform cross-deputization and jail agreements.
The Barrick case unfolded alongside broader turmoil in the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office. In April 2023, the McCurtain Gazette released audio recordings of Sheriff Kevin Clardy and county officials discussing killing journalists covering Barrick's death and lynching Black residents, according to the Associated Press, prompting Governor Kevin Stitt to demand the sheriff's resignation. The sheriff's office had also initially refused to release body-worn camera footage and use-of-force records from Barrick's arrest, according to McCurtain County Gazette News, prompting the newspaper to file a state Open Records Act lawsuit in March 2023 to compel release of footage showing Barrick begging officers for his life; the paper dropped that suit in May 2023 after the sheriff's office complied. In July 2023, a reserve deputy who is the son of Sheriff Clardy arrested a process server on trespassing charges while she attempted to serve legal documents related to the Barrick lawsuit at the sheriff's home, the outlet also reported.
The district court must now apply the 10th Circuit's jurisdictional analysis before the lawsuit can proceed to any consideration of the central allegations, including whether the deputies' repeated stun-gun deployments and physical restraints on Barrick amounted to unconstitutional excessive force. NonDoc Media reporter Tristan Loveless, who covers legal matters and civic issues in the Tulsa area and graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2023, reported on the appellate order.
