The top lawyer at the Oklahoma State Department of Health who recently resigned now faces criminal charges after authorities said she sent threats to herself and then lied about it to investigators.
The agency's former general counsel, 37-year-old Julia Ezell of Edmond, was charged Tuesday in Oklahoma County with two felonies and one misdemeanor. An agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation wrote in an affidavit that Ezell sent threatening messages to her own official government email and then reported that to authorities.
Ezell resigned her position as general counsel on Friday, days after the agency's board ignored her advice on rules for medical marijuana. She had helped draft rules on medical marijuana approved by the agency's board last week.
Ezell cautioned the board against banning sales of smokable marijuana and requiring a pharmacist in every dispensary. She said those last-minute changes were beyond the board's legal authority and would likely invite legal challenges, but the board voted to make the changes anyway.
Medical marijuana advocates then filed two separate lawsuits.
Court records do not list an attorney for Ezell. A telephone message left at a number listed for Ezell was not immediately returned.
Oklahoma voters approved medicinal cannabis in June.