Former Health agency's top attorney charged after OSBI determines she sent threats to herself

The former top lawyer at the Oklahoma Health Department was accused Tuesday in a criminal charge of sending threatening emails to herself in an attention-seeking ploy.

Julie Ezell, 37, of Edmond, resigned as general counsel Friday, shortly after confessing, according to an investigator's affidavit.

"I am so sorry," she wrote in the resignation email to Tom Bates, interim commissioner of the Health Department.

She posed in the emails as a medical marijuana advocate who threatened retribution if the Health Department imposed restrictive rules on its use. "We would hate to hurt a pretty lady. You will hear us," one email said.