OKLAHOMA CITY – A state representative who oversaw the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s budget appropriation conspired with two DEQ staff members to gut the agency’s funding this year. One staff member had been demoted and the other transferred, documents obtained by The Journal Record show.

Emails and text messages show that state Rep. Don Armes, R-Faxon, removed more than $21 million from DEQ’s budget with the help of DEQ attorney Mista Burgess and Wendy Caperton, who had been demoted from her post as the agency’s director of policy and planning.

Burgess and Caperton allegedly sought to dramatically reduce the agency’s state funding as retribution against new DEQ Executive Director Scott Thompson, whom both women saw as a threat.

Scott Thompson became the agency’s leader after Steve Thompson, DEQ’s former executive director, abruptly retired. Steve Thompson was forced out in July 2013, following allegations of sexual harassment by his executive assistant, Jennifer Wright. The two Thompsons are not related.

After Steve Thompson left, Burgess and Caperton complained to Armes about the appointment of Scott Thompson, previously the director of the Land Protection Division, to the executive position.

In January 2014, Scott Thompson demoted Caperton, citing poor work performance, and moved Burgess to the agency’s Land Protection Division.

Because she had been demoted, Caperton, who served as DEQ’s legislative liaison, spent most of the 2014 session working to undermine the agency, kill its request bills, and reduce its funding. Burgess, a longtime friend of Caperton, allegedly assisted in the effort, feeding Armes information designed to make the agency and its new director look bad.

The trio planned their strategy in a series of telephone calls, text messages and secret meetings at Armes’ Oklahoma City residence, which he called the Blue House, a small pale-blue two-story house just a few blocks south of the state Capitol. Burgess and Caperton met there with Armes in December 2013 and again in January 2014.

“Why don’t we order something and meet at the Blue House so we aren’t seen or overheard,” Armes wrote to Caperton in a text message on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013.

Burgess, in a phone call with The Journal Record on Friday, said she had been to the house about three times, but denied attending secret meetings with Armes and Caperton. She said she did not recall the subject of the Dec. 20 meeting.

She also denied that she took part in any plan to harm the agency. She said that the texts to Armes were in regard to a $1.5 million public water supply fund. She said that officials above her misled her about the number of staff members that fund needed.

Inside information

Text messages obtained from Caperton’s cellphone show she was a frequent visitor at the Blue House during business hours and, at times, late into the evenings.

Following the secret meetings, in mid-January 2014, Armes began moving aggressively to reduce DEQ funding during the agency’s budget hearing. Armes’ appropriation subcommittee had oversight over the DEQ.

“It was obvious that Armes was being fed information,” a person familiar with the details said, “because some of that stuff was so deep only people inside the agency would know about it.”

To help Armes, Burgess and Caperton provided the lawmaker with detailed information about the agency, including a list of proposed questions and suggestions on how to ambush new DEQ Executive Director Scott Thompson and Shellie Chard-McClary, director of the DEQ Water Quality Division.

Burgess outlined the plan in an email to Armes.

“Print this when you get to work before your hearing,” she wrote on Jan. 17. “It gets to the main point without the detail getting in the way. I’ll send it via email is case you don’t know how to print from your phone. I almost forgot the most important part, when Shelly (sic) starts squinting her eyes or spreading her fingers apart she is nervous. When Scott starts talking, no matter what he sounds like, you should ask him to speak up. That will totally knock him off kilter if he isn’t already there.”

The DEQ allocation reduction was part of a series of appropriations bills finalized during the last week of the legislative session. State lawmakers took more than $122 million worth of revolving funds from dozens of state agencies to help balance a $188 million shortfall in the budget.

Most agencies were cut by about 5.5 percent. However, at DEQ, the cut totaled more than 20 percent and eliminated several programs designed to clean up hazardous waste.

Exit Steve Thompson

Popular, politically skilled, and friendly, Steve Thompson had served as the chief from 2002 to 2013. Steve Thompson, one DEQ staff member said, kept his finger on the political pulse of the state and on his 450-employee agency.

But Steve Thompson’s personal life and his relationship with Wright, his executive assistant, tarnished his reputation and eventually led to his retirement.

Wright began her career at DEQ as a typist clerk in 1998, making about $15,000 per year. Payroll records show that Wright’s salary was more than $80,000 per year when she resigned in 2013.

Employment records obtained by The Journal Record show that Wright, a graduate of Prague High School, did not have a college degree when she was hired. Instead, Wright’s DEQ application lists that she attended Seminole Junior College, earning 38 semester hours. Wright eventually earned a degree from Southern Nazarene University.

During her tenure at DEQ, Wright received 18 pay increases. However, the relationship between her and Steve Thompson became toxic after Wright accused him of sexual harassment in 2010. A personnel action form notes that Wright was transferred from Thompson’s office to a different post within the agency.

Hired initially as a typist, Caperton’s rise at DEQ was similar. Caperton’s original employee records, listed under her maiden name, note that she attended the University of Oklahoma, but failed to earn a degree. Subsequent records, listing Caperton’s married name, show that she earned a communications degree at OU.

Later, when the DEQ’s functions were transferred out of the state Department of Health, Caperton followed. By 1998, her salary was about $22,000 per year. By July 2002, Caperton had been moved under Thompson as his executive secretary with a salary of more than $37,000 per year.

In July 2013, records show that Caperton, by then a division director, was being paid $108,792 per year.

After Wright filed the sexual harassment complaint with the agency’s human resources office, she was granted victim’s status.

Though several staff members have confirmed Wright’s complaint, a request for the document was denied by DEQ’s attorneys.

“Pursuant to the Open Records Act, DEQ will not be able to provide documents, which may or may not exist, concerning Jennifer Wright’s sexual harassment claim,” agency spokeswoman Erin Hatfield wrote in an email to The Journal Record. “As such, DEQ also cannot confirm or deny that the claim was made.”

However, several staff members told The Journal Record that Wright also wrote her concerns in an email sent to Caperton from Wright’s personal account. Unknown to Wright, however, Caperton shared the information with others, including Steve Thompson and Armes.

After word of Wright’s complaint circulated, she was ostracized. The atmosphere at DEQ became so toxic that several months later she rescinded her victim’s status and returned to Steve Thompson’s office.

Steve Thompson attempted to placate Wright, floating a plan in July 2013 to combine the agency’s office of Communications and Education with its Business and Community Relations office. The change would have made Wright the director of the combined office and increased her salary again. That plan, though, failed.

Wright resigned from the DEQ on Aug. 9, 2013. Sources told The Journal Record that Wright was encouraged to leave by Steve Thompson.

Wright’s departure sparked an excited text message exchange between Caperton and Armes.

“Guess who resigned yesterday and turned in her employee badge, etc?” Caperton wrote to Armes on Aug. 10, 2013. “A dark era is finally over for me and the DEQ. So happy.”

Armes replied a few moments later: “Wow! So far it’s played just like you wrote a script yourself. I stand in awe.”

But even with Wright’s departure, Steve Thompson’s problems continued.

Media requests about Steve Thompson’s travel also questioned his relationship with Caperton. In November 2013, he helped Caperton develop a response to potential media inquiries.

“Your PMP is solid,” Steve Thompson wrote, referring to an employee evaluation. “We both know there was never any sex involved. You were assigned to go to (the) Environmental Council of the States, before I became (executive director) and continued that responsibility. Our travel will reflect that we went to board meetings together along with all senior staff.”

Enter Scott Thompson

After Steve Thompson retired, his replacement, Scott Thompson, found himself quickly engulfed in a toxic mix of staff bickering and raw, bare-knuckles politics.

Chosen at the DEQ’s December 2013 board meeting, Scott Thompson had sold board members on a plan to reform the agency.

But not everyone was happy with the board’s choice for the new leader. Armes, Burgess and Caperton said they were shocked.

In a December text message, the trio analyzed Scott Thompson’s selection.

“Stunned,” Caperton wrote. “He spends his time walking around gossiping.”

“OMG,” Burgess replied. “That changes a whole lot of things.”

Steve Mason, DEQ board member, said Scott Thompson’s plans encouraged the board.

“Scott published a plan to improve the agency,” Mason said. “The idea was, ‘How do we take a good agency forward?’”

A short time after he took over his new post, Scott Thompson began making changes, drawing the ire of Armes, Caperton and Burgess.

Text messages from Armes to Caperton show that on Dec. 20, 2013, Armes ordered Scott Thompson and DEQ Deputy Director Jimmy Givens to the Capitol in an effort to protect Caperton.

“Had an hour long meeting with Scott and Jimmy,” Armes wrote. “Can you and Mista get lose (sic) for lunch?”

A few weeks later, Caperton complained to Armes that she was being demoted.

“So they are demoting me and cutting my pay,” she wrote. “I’m almost 100 percent sure. No one will tell me.”

“What!” Armes wrote back. “Give me 10 minutes I’m hooking up a trailer.”

About three months after Caperton’s demotion, on March 3, 2014, Armes sent Caperton a text, touting the fact that a DEQ-requested bill failed.

“You’ll be happy to know that House Bill 2313 went down in flames today with Armes voting green and a shocked look on his face,” he wrote. “Oh my!”

Caperton, replying several hours later, called the bill’s defeat a nice gift.

“Thank you, I am happy to know,” she wrote. “Nice gift before I go to sleep.”

Armes was mistakenly referring to House Bill 2413, by state Rep. Randy Grau, R-Edmond. The bill would have set up a new revolving fund known as the Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund. During debate on the bill, Grau said DEQ had loans that needed be paid back starting in 2015, and agency officials wanted to create the interest-bearing fund so the interest could be used for remediation projects.

Though Armes voted in favor of the bill, the measure failed, 45-44. Armes, sources told The Journal Record, secretly helped defeat the bill.

Mason said he was disappointed that the DEQ’s own staff would work to help hamper the agency’s function.

“If that did happen, it’s very disappointing,” he said. “I think DEQ took either the first or the second highest cut in its budget. That people would do that surprise me. It makes me sad.”

The Armes connection

A popular, charming and very conservative lawmaker, Armes leveraged his media experience with an agricultural background to get elected to the House of Representatives. Encouraged to run in 2002 by then-GOP Chairman Gary Jones, who is now state auditor, Armes told OKIE Magazine that he ran for office not because he had an axe to grind, but because he cared about rural Oklahoma.

But Armes, who holds a degree in agricultural education from Cameron University, wasn’t a big fan of state government or the DEQ.

A surveillance video also shows Caperton exiting Armes’ car in the Bass Pro Shops parking lot one morning. She appears to kiss him, then remove an overnight bag from his car and place it in her vehicle.

Text messages between Armes, Burgess and Caperton show an unusually relaxed, flirty relationship. Armes referred to Caperton as his Wendy and his buddy, and invited her frequently to the Blue House.

“April 9th shrimp boil, Blue House,” he wrote.

In the same message, Armes wrote that Caperton had a button on her clothes undone but he didn’t want to mention in front of the boys. Later Armes invited Caperton to his Capitol office for cupcakes and, again, commented on her appearance, telling Caperton she is prettier than an unknown woman.

“You’re prettier than her,” Armes wrote. “Just sayin’. Quit selling yourself short.”

Messages between the two go back and forth at all hours of the day, and, at times, continue late into the evening. At 12:51 a.m. on May 16, 2013, Caperton sent a text to Armes telling him she arrived home safely. On May 22, 2013, Caperton wrote Armes, just after 10 p.m., inviting him to the Colcord Hotel.

“Come over to Colcord,” she wrote. “Beautiful night.”

“Blue House is magic,” Armes replied. “We playing blues.”

On June 10, 2013, Armes wrote Caperton asking her if she was free for the evening.

“You got kiddos tonight?” he wrote. “I’m (at) Blue House if you are free.”

Late in July, while he was in Oklahoma City to conduct an auction, Armes asked Caperton if she had time for lunch. Caperton, attending a department head meeting, declined at first. But after learning that Armes would be alone at the Blue House, she accepted the invitation.

“Think I’m just gonna make a sandwich at the Blue House before I head back,” he wrote. “Think you can get away for a few after your meeting?”

Caperton replied yes, telling Armes she would text him when she was on her way.

“K,” Armes wrote. “Door’s unlocked. Just me here.”

A source with direct knowledge of the relationship confirmed the two were romantically engaged.

Armes also attempted to protect Caperton, circulating her resume with contacts and attempting to prevent her eventual termination at DEQ.

“Get some rest and we will work on this in the morning,” he wrote to Caperton, after Caperton had come under fire at DEQ. “I get really protective of people I care about. You have been a loyal soldier and I won’t stand by watch you get crapped on.”

Even with his position and despite his efforts, Armes could not save Caperton’s or Burgess’ jobs. In May, both Caperton and Burgess were fired by Scott Thompson.

The Journal Record attempted to contact Armes by email Friday, but did not receive a response. It also did not receive responses from Wright or Steve Thompson. Caperton did not respond to a voice mail Thursday afternoon.

Armes, who completed his 12-year tenure as a member of the Oklahoma Legislature, was forced to retire this year due to term limits.