FEATURED
ANALYSIS: At least one student plead guilty to theft
The University of Oklahoma released a police report documenting at least one theft of Turning Point USA signs months after telling The College Fix that “no responsive records” existed.
The exclusive documents came after The Fix submitted a second identical records request with the university following information provided by a campus police officer.
After publication of the first article, an officer called a Fix reporter and said he was “99% sure” there were records pertaining to the October 2025 incidents. There could be multiple cases stemming from this sign theft, as the campus club posted multiple videos of various students removing signs, including one who bragged about taking 56 of them, as The Fix previously reported.
“We are aware of reports of removal of signs. OUPD is actively investigating those incidents,” the school wrote on X last October in a statement attributed to President Joseph Harroz.
The university ultimately required The Fix to file a second public records request for the documents instead of simply reprocessing the first one which they evidently botched.
An OU spokesperson said The Fix’s first records request had a too “narrowly defined scope,” citing a specific date period from the original request. However, the second one “clarif[ied] a separate request that was broader in scope,” even though both requests contained the exact same language.
The initial request referenced October 16, 2025, as that was the date the Turning Point USA page posted videos on Instagram. However, the request did not specifically say the report must have been that day, and instead requested information on the October 2025 investigation into the theft. The report provided showed a suspect was reported on October 14, 2025.
Campus officials then released a case report showing OUPD investigated at least one incident as a misdemeanor larceny. This appears to be a different report than first referenced by the school, which told The Fix in May that the issue had been transferred to the student conduct office.
The new report shows officers responded to the theft of signs near the Van Vleet Oval on Oct. 14, 2025 and classified it as “Petit Larceny (Shoplifting)” under Oklahoma law. The report identified a suspect who was later charged through municipal court.
A spokesman for the municipal court told The Fix that the suspect “plead no contest and received a 6 month deferred sentence and was ordered to pay a $50 judicial assessment and $85 court costs.”
The Fix has removed the thief’s name for privacy reasons and because his sentence now appears to be over. (The people pictured in the featured image are from screenshots of the Turning Point chapter’s Instagram and the photo does not necessarily show the suspect).
The report lists the suspect’s race as “W” for “white,” but he has a Hispanic last name.
The existence of the police report contradicts the university’s initial response that no responsive records exist.
The executive director of Freedom of Information Oklahoma said it could be due to specificity, wording, or lack of matching documents that the university did not return documents at first.
“Sometimes this response can also come from the record not being created or were not retained,” Kurt Gwartney wrote in an email to The Fix. Regardless, “[t]he University of Oklahoma is not known for making it easy to retrieve public records.”
The Fix asked the campus police department why the records were not originally released and whether they found the report, but it did not respond to those inquiries.
Instead, police Lieutenant Chase Brooks, who contacted The Fix and said he was nearly certain those records exist, wrote in an email that “OUPD reviewed the matter and determined it met the threshold for referral to the Office of Student Conduct.”
Officer Brooks did not answer questions regarding why OUPD originally said no records exist, how that determination was made, or whether other records exist.
An OU spokesperson told The Fix via email that “[t]his matter was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and resolved through the university’s established processes. In accordance with FERPA, we cannot comment further,” also declining to answer further questions.
The Office of Student Conduct did not respond to several email and phone requests regarding why the case was referred to its office, whether it investigated, whether students were found responsible, and what conduct code violations were involved.
The Fix also contacted the campus Turning Point USA chapter about the incident. A representative declined to comment on the record.
