Oklahoma Governor Pressured DOC to Grant Preferential Treatment to Friend
by Jo Ellen Knott
A stark example of prisoner preferential treatment was laid bare in a May 7, 2026, multicounty grand jury report detailing the “rank political favoritism” afforded to Sara Polston, 43, at the Cleveland County Jail. Polston, who was arrested for drunk driving and released early, is a close friend of state Governor Kevin Stitt (R).
In 2023, according to Oklahoma Voice, Polston was driving with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit. While going 66 in a 25 miles per hour zone, Polston crashed into another car and injured its driver. In 2025, she was sentenced to eight years in prison and seven on probation. Despite her sentence, however, Polston only spent 73 days in jail before being released with a GPS tracker to monitor her. The grand jury was tasked with figuring out how and why Polston was allowed to walk out of jail so early.
Gov. Stitt, the grand jury found, brought up Polston’s pre-sentence investigation process during a call with the interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC). Stitt, who knows Polston and her husband, a tax firm owner in Norman, instructed DOC officials to “ensure Polston was treated with respect and made to feel comfortable.” While Stitt’s call did not explicitly instruct the DOC to grant Polston leniency in sentencing, the DOC official in charge of Polston’s case “believed that the message carried an implication that he was to be lenient. He felt that the wrong decision could cost him his job.”
During her brief stay at the Cleveland County Jail, then-Sheriff Chris Amason followed through on Gov. Stitt’s order to grant her preferential accommodations. As a result, Polston was housed in medical units solely for comfort and shuffled between cells to ensure access to a television. Beyond standard rations, she received Chick-fil-A during unauthorized in-person visits and was issued a tablet outside normal procedures.
Sheriff Amason, who was put on probation for five years on an unrelated single embezzlement count after a plea deal on April 27, 2026, said he wanted to “do them [the Polstons] a solid.”
Sources: Oklahoma Voice, The Oklahoman
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