Oklahoma Secretary of State Ben Lepak Arrested for Public Intoxication

The Secretary of State of Oklahoma got arrested outside a McDonald's on a Friday night, and the cops had their body cameras rolling for all of it. Benjamin Lepak, 42, was standing near the drive-thru window holding a bag of food when Edmond police pulled up on the night of Aug. 14. Somebody had called 911 because he looked drunk and might get behind the wheel. What the officers found did not help his case one bit.

The 911 calls that started it all

A caller dialed 911 around 10:45 p.m. and asked officers to check on a man who had been hanging around the McDonald's on Kelly Avenue for a while. The caller was actually pretty decent about it. "He's been out here for like a while now, like he's not causing a scene or anything, but he does seem drunk," the person told dispatch. Then came the part that got officers moving: the caller did not want him to "cause any harm while he's driving." Edmond police said it was not the only call they took.

Officer Lucas DeRose got there first and found Lepak on foot near the drive-thru window, food in hand. According to the police report, he had extremely slurred speech, smelled like alcohol, and could not seem to pull his ID out of his own wallet. Officers wrote that he could not hold a coherent train of thought while answering their questions.

Less than one beer and a story that kept changing

The bodycam is where things fall apart for Lepak. When DeRose asked if he had been drinking, Lepak flatly said, "Nope." A minute later he admitted he had one beer. Then he backed off that too and said it was actually less than one, because he did not finish it. He told officers he came from home "just a block away," then gave an address that sits about four miles from the restaurant, according to NonDoc.

The car story was just as slippery. He first said he had driven to the McDonald's, then said he had not, according to the police report. His car, meanwhile, was parked right there in the lot. He also offered up a very Oklahoma dad explanation, telling officers he had been at church earlier that day with other dads. The report has him explaining the food this way: "this is my night to have McDonald's."

You're lucky it's not a DUI

One officer did not bother softening it: "You're off balance, clearly intoxicated." Jacob Spencer, the second officer on the scene, pushed harder. "I can smell it coming from your breath while you're talking with me," he said. "Stop lying to me." When they finally cuffed him, Spencer added the line that stung, as NonDoc reported it: "You drove here. Like I said, you're lucky it's not a DUI."

As officers loaded him into the back of the police car, Lepak tried one last card. "I work for the state," he told them. The reply was short and unimpressed: "OK. Have a seat." He was booked into the Edmond jail on a municipal public intoxication complaint. His office later said he was never given a breathalyzer and will handle the ticket through the legal process.

This was not his first run-in

Officers ran his record over the radio and found something from a few years back. In May 2021, The Village Police Department found Lepak asleep in a running pickup truck, and officers had to knock on his window for several minutes just to wake him up.

He pleaded guilty to actual physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated and to transporting an opened container of beer, both misdemeanors. KFOR, which obtained the court records, reported he was sentenced to community service and probation. The same records show he later asked the court to seal information about that arrest. Court records released Aug. 19 turned up a second case: Edmond police cited Lepak for public intoxication in June 2022, and he pleaded no contest that December, The Oklahoman reported. The records do not say what prompted the citation.

The attorney general wants him gone

Attorney General Gentner Drummond did not sit on this one. He called for Lepak to be fired and said Governor Kevin Stitt should have known better than to hand him such a senior job in the first place. After watching the footage, Drummond said it was clear Lepak was "thoroughly inebriated and very likely lied to law enforcement about how much he had to drink and how he and his car both arrived at the same place without him driving it."

He called the whole thing unbecoming of a high-ranking state official. Before he demanded a firing he had urged Stitt to at least put Lepak on leave until an investigation wrapped up, and he pushed for the body-camera video to be made public. Edmond police released it on Tuesday, Aug. 18, along with the 911 calls.

There is history behind all of this. Stitt made Lepak his general counsel in October 2024, and in that job Lepak argued the governor's side against Drummond at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in Stitt v. Drummond. Drummond, for his part, faces former state Sen. Mike Mazzei in the Republican runoff for governor on Aug. 25, and Stitt, who is term-limited, has endorsed Mazzei.

So can they even fire him?

That is the question hanging over the whole thing, and the governor's office will not answer it. Stitt appointed Lepak interim secretary of state in October 2025 and made the appointment permanent in January 2026. Since the arrest reporters have gone back to that office repeatedly and gotten nothing, including on the simple question of whether Lepak still has the job.

Lepak, for his part, has no plans to walk away. The Oklahoman reported that he does not intend to resign, citing two people familiar with the matter. It is worth remembering that an arrest is an allegation, not a conviction. No breath test was administered that night, and no court has ruled on any of it.

Who is Benjamin Lepak, anyway?

Outside Oklahoma, Lepak is not a household name. He got a finance degree from the University of Oklahoma, then a law degree from Notre Dame, where he was articles editor of the law review. Before politics he ran the State Chamber Research Foundation. He sat on the Statewide Charter School Board, became Stitt's general counsel in 2024, and in October 2025 was appointed interim Secretary of State after Donelle Harder, Stitt's first pick, turned out not to meet the state's requirement of ten years as a registered Oklahoma voter. He replaced Josh Cockroft, who had resigned.

He is also plugged into a well-connected Republican family. His father, Mark Lepak, is a Republican state representative from Claremore. The Secretary of State job itself is mostly clerical: running the initiative petition process, keeping the record of what the legislature and the governor do, and maintaining the state's register of businesses. It is not the kind of post that usually lands a person on the national news, which is exactly why the McDonald's footage traveled so far.

What happens now

Public intoxication is a municipal charge, so it heads to Edmond Municipal Court, according to police spokeswoman Emily Ward. Lepak's team says he will address the ticket through the legal process, and he has given no sign of stepping aside. Drummond keeps hammering. Stitt stays silent.

What sticks, no matter how the ticket shakes out, is the video. A sitting state official standing in a fast-food parking lot at almost 11 p.m., clutching a McDonald's bag, telling police "I work for the state" while an officer explains he is lucky he is not getting a DUI. NonDoc reached him late Tuesday. He declined to comment.