OKLAHOMA CITY -- The top lawyer at the Oklahoma State Department of Health already at the center of a controversy over new marijuana rules was charged for allegedly sending threatening emails to herself. The agency's former general counsel, 37-year-old Julia Ezell of Edmond, was charged Tuesday in Oklahoma County with two felonies and one misdemeanor for allegedly sending the threats and then lying to investigators about it.
A forensic examination of Ezell's mobile phone revealed she sent several menacing emails to her own government email address and then reported them to authorities, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Nicholas Rizzi wrote in an affidavit.
In one of the emails from "MaryJameprotonmail.com," Ezell's home address and vehicle description was included. The first reported email, sent on July 8, was titled "marijuana laws" and accused the government of taking away people's rights and warned her: "We will watch you." Ezell reported the emails to the Health Department's own investigator, who forwarded them to state investigators.
