Undersheriff pushes for reality TV series following law enforcement in Osage County

Undersheriff Gary Upton said he hopes to get a contract to permit the filming before the Osage County Commission for consideration at its Sept. 25 meeting.

But Upton said he is skeptical of its chances for approval, based on comments made the first time it was proposed Sept. 5 that it would improperly benefit Sheriff Eddie Virden’s reelection campaign.

“I’ve already gauged the temperature of them, and I suspect — I hate to say — but I suspect they will end up saying ‘no’ to it,” Upton said of the contract.

“They are suggesting, inaccurately, that it’s about the sheriff,” Upton said of the would-be series. “That it would be a promotional video for his campaign next year.”

Upton said a production company approached the Sheriff’s Office regarding the filming of an unscripted television reality show tentatively called “The Force,” which would air sometime in 2024 on the CW network.

The pitch was film crews would follow two deputies around for 10 weeks as they did their jobs, Upton said.

“You get to know those deputies as the show progresses, and so it’s not really, as they say, ‘political,’ like it’s about the sheriff or anything like that,” Upton said.

But one county commissioner, among three who voted to table the item earlier, said he had concerns about the timing of the request and thought the Sheriff’s Office was getting “the cart before the horse.”

“The concerns I had were the contract that they showed us was not the contract that would actually be signed,” said District 3 County Commissioner Charlie Cartwright. “It had not gone through our legal adviser yet.”

Upton said those issues are being worked out now between the production company and District Attorney’s Office officials.

The undersheriff said he thinks the show would help boost recruitment efforts for OSCO deputies, as well as driving tourism in the area.

“I think that show would present us in a great light,” Upton said. “It would be neat to watch the sunrises and the sunsets of Osage County on the TV screen nationally.”

Both Upton and Cartwright agreed discussion about the issue got a little testy during the Sept. 5 meeting.

Upton said he told commissioners there was talk about a possible Open Meetings Act violation related to discussion of the matter among commissioners prior to the meeting.

Upton told the Tulsa World that Virden received a phone call from someone, prior to the Sept. 5 meeting, who urged him to pull the agenda item after taking the pulse of the commission. The insinuation was that commissioners may have violated the Open Meeting Act by discussing the matter amongst themselves prior to the meeting.

“I got a little petulant at the end” of the meeting, Upton conceded. “I think I was polite.”

Cartwright said all commission members denied involvement in any illegal meeting to discuss the matter.

“He gets up (during) citizen’s input and goes to talking about how everybody’s violated the Open Meetings Act here and you know there’s corruption and that kind of crap going on,” Cartwright said of Upton.

“I probably shouldn’t have gotten as rough with him as I did, but you know that’s insulting me in public,” Cartwright said.

“I said, ‘undersheriff, if you think I’ve violated the Open Meeting Act, you need to do your job and prosecute me,’” Cartwright recalled.

Upton confirmed the exchange, calling Cartwright’s comment “adorable.”

Virden on Tuesday released to the media an email from Upton sent to Osage and Pawnee County District Attorney Mike Fisher that purported to address Fisher’s concerns about the proposed taping by the reality show.

Fisher could not be reached for comment.

The contract request flareup comes after the OCSO and Fisher railed against each other during dueling press conferences earlier this week regarding Virden’s investigation of BTK serial killer Dennis Rader as a suspect in the 1976 disappearance of a Pawhuska teenager.

Fisher said Monday that he doesn’t consider Rader a suspect in the disappearance of Cynthia Dawn Kinney, 16, who went missing after being seen leaving a laundry where she worked after getting into a vehicle driven and occupied by others.

Fisher said he requested the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation probe the matter amid concerns that reopening Kinney’s case was upsetting her parents, who are still alive.

Virden’s office counters that Fisher has not seen evidence he has uncovered, which he claims supports him calling Rader his chief suspect in Kinney’s disappearance.

Cartwright said he brought up the issue of the reality show and its effect on the upcoming sheriff’s race in 2024.

Virden will likely face fellow Republican Bart Perrier in the June 18 Republican primary for sheriff as campaign signs for both are already popping up in the county.

Fisher said while he has not explicitly endorsed Perrier, he is quoted on Perrier’s campaign website as saying he would be an “excellent Sheriff.”

Virden’s pursuit of Rader as his No. 1 suspect in Kinney’s disappearance has drawn similar charges of political grandstanding.

Cartwright, a former OSCO investigator himself, said he believes the resurrection of Kinney’s case and the alleged links to Rader is to blame for some of the Republican party politics being played out in the public.

“I think everybody is getting worked up over this BTK killer being a suspect in a deal here,” Cartwright said.

As for how a show would help Virden, Cartwright had this to say: “You can read into that how as much you want to, but the timing — it wouldn’t hurt him. How much it helps him, I don’t know, but it wouldn’t hurt him.”

Cartwright, who worked under Virden briefly as jail administrator, said he likes the sheriff but wants to stay out of election matters until after the June primary.

“Whenever I came down with lung cancer, I got really sick, and Eddie was just super to me all that time,” Cartwright said. “I had to tell him, ‘I’m staying out of this. It is not appropriate for me as an elected official to get involved in party politics.’

“And that’s what this is, is Republican Party BS, it really is.”

Cartwright said he would like to avoid having the show, if it is approved, run prior to the party primary in June.

“If they could postpone it until after then, it just wouldn’t look like we’re trying to do something here to help one candidate over another because I don’t want to do that — let the people decide,” Cartwright said.

Upton, meanwhile, said he is still hopeful, despite his skepticism.

“I could be pleasantly surprised and then we’ll have a TV show,” Upton said. “I think that would be real cool.”

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