Public records reveal overlapping ties among Ottawa County judge, bank executive, marijuana enterprise and suspended lawyer

Public records reveal overlapping ties among Ottawa County judge, bank executive, marijuana enterprise and suspended lawyer

Historical state records list names matching Judge R. Matt Whalen and bank Vice President Joe Morgan in cannabis-company ownership fields; separate Supreme Court records show Whalen personally backed attorney disciplined after cocaine case

MIAMI, Okla. — Public records reviewed by Miami News-Digest reveal a striking series of overlapping civic, business and professional relationships involving Ottawa County Associate District Judge R. Matt Whalen, a vice president of First National Bank & Trust Company of Miami, a vertically integrated Oklahoma cannabis operation and an attorney whose law license was suspended following cocaine and marijuana offenses.

The records do not, by themselves, establish corruption, conspiracy or an ethics violation.

They do establish relationships and timelines that warrant closer scrutiny.

Whalen currently serves as Ottawa County’s associate district judge. The Youth Athletic Development Foundation, an Ottawa County nonprofit devoted to youth athletics and development, currently lists Matt Whalen as secretary of its executive board and First National Bank Vice President Joe Morgan as treasurer. First National Bank separately identifies Morgan as one of its vice presidents.

Serving on a nonprofit board is not itself improper for an Oklahoma judge. Rule 3.7 of the Oklahoma Code of Judicial Conduct expressly allows judges to participate in qualifying charitable, educational and civic organizations, subject to restrictions intended to protect judicial independence and impartiality.

But another set of state records presents a different issue.

A historical Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control registrant export lists WAMM Holdings LLC, of Commerce, as an active medical-marijuana manufacturer and identifies “JEREMY MULLIN, JOE Morgan, richard WHALEN” in the record’s owner field.

Immediately below it, the same state export lists WAMM Processing LLC and identifies Jeremy Mullin and Richard Whalen as owners.

Both records list Commerce in Ottawa County and show Oct. 31, 2023 expiration dates.

The operation reflected in public cannabis records was not simply a neighborhood dispensary.

Historical Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority records list WAMM Holdings LLC as a licensed grower in Commerce. Separate OMMA records list WAMM Processing LLC as a licensed processor in Commerce.

And the retail side carried another name: Homestead Harvest.

Historical OMMA dispensary records show Homestead Harvest LLC operating in Stillwater using the email address WAMMHOLDINGSLLC@GMAIL.COM and the same telephone number appearing in the WAMM licensing records.

Homestead Harvest itself publicly described the operation in 2022 as “vertically integrated,” saying it held grow, processing and dispensary licenses and then operated retail locations in Stillwater and Miami.

Taken together, those records describe an interconnected cannabis operation spanning cultivation, processing and retail.

The OBNDD export identifies Richard Whalen and Joe Morgan by name, but the record reviewed by Miami News-Digest does not contain additional personal identifiers sufficient, standing alone, to conclusively establish that they are Judge R. Matt Whalen and First National Bank Vice President Joe Morgan.

The matching names become more notable because Whalen and Morgan are independently documented as serving together on the Youth Athletic Development Foundation executive board. 

The timeline is also notable...

On March 7, 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court expressly identified R. Matt Whalen as the associate district judge of Ottawa County. The historical OBNDD registrations naming Richard Whalen and Joe Morgan were shown as active with expiration dates approximately seven months later, on Oct. 31, 2023.

An expiration date does not establish that ownership remained unchanged until that date. The records currently reviewed also do not establish whether an ownership interest was passive, had previously been transferred, or involved management of the businesses.

Oklahoma judicial ethics rules treat investment ownership differently from operational business activity.

Rule 3.11 permits judges to hold and manage investments. But it generally prohibits a judge from serving as an officer, director, manager, general partner, adviser or employee of a business entity, subject to specified exceptions. 

The rule also limits financial activities that produce frequent disqualification or continuing business relationships with lawyers or others likely to appear before the judge.

The totality of the circumstances raise a public-record question worth resolving: exactly who owned and operated WAMM Holdings, WAMM Processing, and the related vertically integrated cannabis operation, and when did those interests begin and end?

A second inquiry: Whalen and P.J. Shyers

Another Oklahoma Supreme Court record documents a separate relationship involving Whalen.

Phillip John “P.J.” Shyers was arrested Dec. 17, 2020, in Perry, Oklahoma. According to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Shyers said he had injected Suboxone, became ill and pulled his vehicle over.

When police arrived, the court said an officer found Shyers in the vehicle rolling a marijuana cigarette. 

Police found marijuana, cocaine and a pipe used for smoking illicit substances.

Shyers ultimately pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges after the original driving-under-the-influence count was reduced to actual physical control. 

Those charges included possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court immediately suspended Shyers from practicing law in March 2022 and later imposed discipline conditioned on completion of his deferred sentence and probation requirements.

The 2023 disciplinary opinion contains another noteworthy fact...

While suspended from practicing law, Shyers was employed as a paralegal at Doney & Whalen PLLC.

And Whalen personally supported him.

The Supreme Court expressly identified R. Matt Whalen — by then Ottawa County’s associate district judge — as the person who provided Shyers a reference letter.

According to the court, Whalen told justices that he had observed changes Shyers had made in his personal and professional life and believed Shyers had “much to offer the legal community as a practicing attorney.”

The Supreme Court also noted that, apart from the employer reference letter, Shyers did not provide documentary evidence supporting a number of rehabilitation measures he said he had completed. 

That record establishes considerably more than a passing acquaintance between Whalen and Shyers: Shyers worked at Whalen’s firm during his suspension, and Whalen personally advocated for his professional rehabilitation before Oklahoma’s highest court.

A third thread: Shyers, Smolen Terry Ellis

Shyers’ current professional profile adds another Ottawa County connection.

LinkedIn identifies P.J. Shyers with Smolen Law, and Smolen Law’s own LinkedIn page lists him among the firm’s employees.

Smolen attorneys were involved in one of the most consequential civil-rights cases arising from Ottawa County in recent years: litigation over the death of Terral Ellis II at the Ottawa County Jail.

Ellis died in 2015 after 12 days in pretrial detention. His estate sued the Sheriff of Ottawa County, alleging unconstitutional denial of adequate medical care.

After an eight-day federal trial, a jury awarded Ellis’ estate $33 million in compensatory damages.

On April 21, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the judgment in full. The appellate opinion identifies Robert Blakemore and Daniel Smolen of Smolen & Roytman as counsel for the Ellis estate.

The documented chain is rather clear: Whalen employed and later personally supported Shyers; Shyers is now professionally affiliated with Smolen Law; and Smolen attorneys represented the Ellis estate in litigation resulting in a $33 million judgment involving Ottawa County.

That connection should not be confused with evidence that Shyers participated in Ellis or that Whalen had any involvement in that litigation.

The records examined by Miami News-Digest do not establish that participation in the Youth Athletic Development Foundation was improper.

They do not establish that lawful participation in Oklahoma’s medical-marijuana industry was improper.

They do NOT establish that Whalen was involved in Shyers’ possession of cocaine.

And they do not establish a conspiracy among Whalen, Morgan, Shyers, Smolen attorneys or anyone associated with WAMM or Homestead Harvest...

What the records DO establish is a network of personal and professional relationships involving individuals who occupy significant and powerful roles in Ottawa County’s judiciary, banking sector, nonprofit community, legal profession and a locally operating drug industry.

1. A sitting judge and a bank vice president serve together in leadership of a youth nonprofit.

2. Historical narcotics-registration records list people bearing those same names together in the ownership field of WAMM Holdings, while related licensing records document cultivation, processing and retail operations associated with a vertically integrated cannabis enterprise.

3. The Oklahoma Supreme Court separately documents the judge’s employment relationship with Shyers and his personal support for Shyers during discipline arising from cocaine, marijuana and paraphernalia offenses.

4. And Shyers is now publicly affiliated with a law firm whose attorneys participated in the $33 million Ellis litigation against Ottawa County.

Those facts do not supply their own conclusion; however, they do prompt serious questions which public records might answer.