Tulsa Attorney Ron Durbin Arrested At Courthouse On Assault Charge

Deputies from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office arrested an attorney as he arrived for a hearing at the Courthouse Wednesday morning.

Attorney Ron Durbin claims he was injured during the arrest, on a misdemeanor assault and battery complaint.

Durbin claims he tried to turn himself in at the jail Monday night but was turned away. “This was all set up, so they could do this and embarrass me and arrest me when I showed up for a hearing,” said Durbin, shortly after his release.

Durbin has bruises on his arms he blames on deputies who briefly struggled to get him into handcuffs. Durbin went to the ground, asked for an ambulance, and was dragged inside the courthouse. The Sheriff’s Office says he was medically cleared before being booked into the Tulsa County Jail, where he posted bond and was released.

Durbin had live-streamed his walk to the courthouse, saying he fully expected to be arrested. The charge came out of a scuffle with a security guard at City Hall earlier in the summer. He admits shoving a guard, after refusing to go through the security process for the public at City Hall, which caused guards to block him from entering.

The Sheriff's office says deputies "acted appropriately, within state law, and their own policies and procedures” during the arrest.

Durbin is suing the City and Mayor G.T. Bynum, over the release of City records, and allegations Bynum violated the Open Meetings Act. Durbin now says he's going to run for Mayor, without any expectation of winning, just to get the other candidates to answer uncomfortable questions he intends to ask.

“Look, we have been fighting against government corruption for some time,” he said.

Durbin is also facing complaints from other lawyers about his confrontational behavior, including screaming matches outside courtrooms and online rants about judges and other attorneys. The Bar Association will have a hearing on his conduct in the coming months.