Turner challenged by two for district judge

By ADAM CATLIN
NHJ Editor

There are three candidates running for judge in District 8, which covers Kay and Noble counties. The incumbent, Judge Lee Turner, is being challenged by Scott Loftis and Rob Davis in the Republican primary which is June 16.
All three candidates were contacted and asked the same relative questions, with Turner’s question being slightly different of why he is seeking re-election as compared to his challengers.
Turner was first appointed to the position in 2012. Since then, he has been elected in 2018 and again in 2022.
Turner graduated Cum Laude from Cameron University with bachelor of accounting degree.  He graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  He became a police officer in Lawton, then began practicing law as an Assistant District Attorney with the Kay County District Attorney’s Office.
He entered private practice and was appointed as a Special District Judge, then elected as a District Judge for Kay County and elected as the Presiding Judge of the North-Central Judicial Administrative District.
Turner said he is seeking re-election because he believes the citizens of Kay and Noble counties deserve a judge who is fair, firm and impartial and who has the necessary experience.
“The issues I feel the strongest about are providing access to the courts for all citizens, applying the law equally to everyone the way it is written by our legislature, and ensuring my personal views never replace the law itself,” he said.
Turner said he cannot discuss cases that may come back before the court, but during his tenure as district judge he said he implemented the family treatment court and expanded the drug court program to include a mental health court component.
“I presided over the district court during the lengthy renovation of the courthouse and the Kay County Annex resulting in one of the most beautiful courthouses in the state,” he added.
Regarding his judicial philosophy, Turner said he is a committed legal textualist who believes in applying the laws of Oklahoma as they are written. He added that his judicial philosophy centers on fairness, equity and ensuring meaningful access to the courts for all citizens.
Turner said he admires Antonin Scalia from the United States Supreme Court and Justice Marian Opala from the Oklahoma Supreme Court, because they were philosophically aligned with his textualist view of the law.

Davis
Rob Davis was born and raised in Ponca City, attained the rank of Eagle Scout at 14 years old, and graduated from Ponca City High School, according to his candidate website.
He attended Northwestern Oklahoma State for two years, then finished his undergraduate degree at OSU. When he graduated law school, he initially worked at a District Attorney’s Office in Colorado. He accepted the Assistant District Attorney position in Noble County in 2019, then transferred to the Kay County office in 2020. He has been married to his wife, Sarah, for 13 years and they have three children.
He is an active member at First Lutheran Church in Ponca City, a volunteer with Hospice of North Central Oklahoma, a member of the Poncan Theatre Advisory Board, and he teaches legal courses for new law enforcement officers at the Basic Peace Officer Certification course hosted by Pioneer Tech.
Davis said his is running for district judge because, “Active leadership is necessary to promote fairness, efficiency, and effectiveness within our courts so that courts can accomplish their main goal: providing a forum for citizens to resolve their disputes. When citizens do not trust their court system, it erodes our sense of community. I can provide such leadership and promote these values.”
Davis said his main priority would be to promote efficient processes within the court system. The courts are a community resource designed to provide a service, and the system does have a maximum capacity.
“As district judge,” he said, “I would make changes to increase efficiency, starting with the way certain steps in the criminal court process are scheduled. First, I would preside over preliminary hearings, in addition to the two judges who currently handle this step in the process. This would allow preliminary hearings to be conducted sooner.”
Davis added that he would change the way jury trials are scheduled. He also said he would utilize pretrial orders to ensure parties are prepared to proceed to trial on their assigned date.
These tweaks, he said, would greatly increase the efficiency of our courts and help safeguard this community resource.
Davis said he was proud of his work as an assistant district attorney.
“I work day in and day out to help victims navigate a system that is not easy for them,” he said. “During my career I have worked to impose accountability upon those who would prey upon the vulnerable. While not every case has turned out exactly as I hoped, I take great pride in my record as a public servant.”
Davis concluded by saying that he is an admirer of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
“He is a strict textualist who gives the words of a law their common meaning and applies that meaning to the circumstances presented,” Davis explained. “There is no personal twist or looking for the opinions of others, just the words the legislative branch has chosen. His writing style is clear, approachable, and direct.”

Loftis
Scott Loftis spent more than two decades practicing law in Oklahoma and Kansas and serving the people of this area. Throughout his career, he has handled a wide range of cases and spent countless hours in courtrooms across Oklahoma and Kansas. That experience, he said, has given him not only a strong understanding of the law, but also an understanding of the real people behind every case file.
“I believe strongly in hard work, personal responsibility, integrity, and service to the community. Those values were instilled in me long before I became an attorney, and they continue to guide both my professional and personal life today,” Loftis said.
He wants to become district judge because he cares about the people and communities this court serves, Loftis said. After more than 20 years practicing law, he said he has seen firsthand how much impact the justice system has on everyday lives.
“The decisions made in a courtroom affect families, victims, businesses, law enforcement officers, and people facing some of the hardest moments of their lives,” Loftis said. “I believe those people deserve a judge who is fair, prepared, respectful, and willing to put in the work every single day.”
Loftis said he thinks people want consistency and accountability. He said he believes his experience, work ethic, and approach to the law make him prepared to serve this district well.
The issues he feels strongest about are public safety, accountability, fairness, and restoring trust in the judicial process. Loftis said he believes victims deserve to know their voices matter, law enforcement deserves respect and support, and citizens deserve a court system that treats people fairly while upholding the law as written.
“I also believe the courtroom should be a place where people feel heard and treated with dignity,” Loftis added. “Whether someone is a victim, defendant, attorney, juror, or family member, every person who enters the courtroom should feel the process is fair and impartial.”
Loftis said he is grateful for professional recognition throughout my career, including honors from organizations such as Super Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and the National Association of Distinguished Counsel.
“What I am most proud of is the trust people have placed in me over the years,” he said.
Loftis said as a judicial candidate, he is not allowed to state his political leanings.
“However,” he said, “I do believe it is important to focus on the law and the Constitution rather than partisan politics. A judge’s responsibility is not to create laws or push personal opinions, but to interpret and apply the law fairly, consistently, and impartially.”
The judge he would strive to be the most like is John E. Sanders from Butler County, Kan. Loftis said he tried his first three jury trials in front of Sanders in 2004 and 2005.
“He retired from the bench in 2010, but he will always be my favorite trial judge,” he said. “He had a strong sense of justice, a superior legal mind, and believed lawyers should be able to try their cases with minimal interference from the Court and that juries should decide the outcomes of jury trials and not the Court through oppressive evidentiary rulings and by ‘tying the hands’ of the lawyers involved.”