A judge decided Thursday that former Kingfisher High School football coach Jeff Myers will not be bound over for trial on the felony child neglect charge he’s been facing since last October.

However, Myers’ teaching certificate was suspended the same day in a separate proceeding before the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Blaine County Associate District Judge Allison Lafferty ruled the state did not provide sufficient evidence during the preliminary hearing to find probable cause that child neglect occurred.

She said the state failed to prove acts were willful and/or malicious during the proceedings held at Kingfisher County District Court.

Lafferty, from Blaine County, presided over the hearing after Kingfisher County Associate District Judge Lance Schneiter recused himself from the case.

Assistant District Attorney Jimmy Bunn announced after the ruling that he planned to appeal Lafferty’s decision.

The judge’s announcement came after about four hours of testimony and set off an emotional celebration of hugs and tears by Myers’ family and supporters sitting on one side of the courtroom, many of whom wore stickers that read “We Support Jeff.”

Myers, his attorney Joe White and Bunn all declined to comment after the hearing.

As the criminal hearing was taking place, the state board of education was also meeting in Oklahoma City.

During that meeting, the state board voted unanimously to suspend the teaching certificates of Myers and five other teachers from across the state.

Myers has been on paid suspension at Kingfisher Public Schools since he was initially charged with the felony by then-District Attorney Mike Fields on Oct. 17, 2023.

That charge stemmed from a lengthy investigation that began after a former KHS football player, Mason Mecklenburg, filed a civil suit against KPS, Myers, assistant coach Derek Patterson and former assistant coaches Blake Eaton and Micah Nall (see related story).

Mecklenburg, one of four people to testify Thursday, alleged a culture of hazing, abuse and bullying within the program.

The district settled the lawsuit for $5 million less than two months after Myers was charged and less than a week before the federal civil trial was set to begin. Part of the settlement agreement was that Myers could not coach at KPS again.

However, Myers currently remains part of the KPS staff as he was among the tenured teachers rehired in the spring for the 2024-25 school year.

“We are very pleased with the recent action to suspend the teaching certificate of Jeff Myers and want to thank (State Superintendent of Education) Ryan Walters, the state board of education and the Oklahoma State Department of Education for taking the appropriate action to protect our children when other institutions, including the Kingfisher Independent School District and former OSDE administration, have failed to do so,” said Justin Mecklenburg in a statement provided to the KT&FP.

Justin Mecklenburg is Mason Mecklenburg’s father and has strongly advocated for Myers’ removal not just as a coach, but also a teacher at KPS.

“As a parent, you expect that your child will be safe from harm under the supervision of adult teachers and coaches. Our son, Mason, along with many other student-athletes, endured years of hazing, physical and verbal abuse and sexual assaults under the supervision of Coach Myers.

“We are hopeful that the OSDE’s action will prevent future students from enduring the pain and abuse our son and others experienced.”

White told the KT&FP that he and his wife, Kate White, both attorneys at White & Weddle, P.C., will be working with Myers to appeal the state board’s decision.

White said he felt the state board members were provided information solely from the federal pleadings.

“We intend to fight it like hell,” White said. “The events in Judge Lafferty’s courtroom obviously help our cause.”

White said the plan is to schedule a hearing before the state school board as soon as possible.

“It’s going to take some time, but we’ll get to the bottom of it. That’s what we intend to do,” he said.

Witnesses testifying for the prosecution during Thursday’s criminal hearing included Mason Mecklenburg, fellow former KHS football players Declan Haub and Keaton Abercrombie and former KPS Superintendent Jason Sternberger, now the superintendent at Hennessey Public Schools.

Mecklenburg spent nearly two hours on the stand Thursday, a large portion of that under cross examination by White.

At the center of much testimony from the former players was “the ring.”

In his testimony, Haub described it as “a couple of kids would wrestle and the rest of the team would circle around them” in the football locker room.

All three former players said the ring generally occurred after a football practice during about a 30-minute gap prior to film sessions.

During his testimony, Mecklenburg said, “maybe it was between people who had beef in practice or it would be the upperclassmen that wanted it to be a good show; they would pit two underclassmen against each other. It would be a fight whether it be wrestling, kind of an MMA format or boxing.”

Mecklenburg said some of the matches in “the ring” were voluntary, but most of the time people, including himself, were “forced into it.”

Haub, who played football from 2015-2018 and graduated in 2019, testified “the ring” began his senior year. He described it as “I guess high school boys being high school boys.”

Haub testified he remembered Myers telling the team to stop “the ring” activities at some point during the season, but he couldn’t recall how far into it.

Abercrombie played football at KHS from 2016-2019 prior to graduating in 2020.

He said he recalled seeing “the ring” take place, but never participated and didn’t know specific names.

At one point he described the action in “the ring” as “you hit each other.”

He said he witnessed matches “maybe two, three times.”

Abercrombie later stated that during one of the matches, he recalled seeing Myers and Patterson watching as well. When asked what they were doing, Abercrombie replied: “They were just watching.”

Abercrombie stated “the ring” occurred during his junior year, which was 2018.

Both Abercrombie and Haub stated they never saw someone get injured while taking part in “the ring” or knew of anyone suffering injuries that required medical attention.

Mecklenburg stated he was forced to take part in “the ring” several times during his freshman and sophomore seasons, which were 2017 and 2018.

He also said that he didn’t take part in any of the matches during his junior and senior seasons, but observed several.

Initially he estimated participating “anywhere from 10 to 20” times during his freshman year, then narrowed it down to 10.

“Luckily I never got seriously injured, like a broke bone or anything,” he said. “I did get several bruises, obviously. I got a lot of strawberries. A lot of welts. Strawberries that would tear the skin off.”

During cross examination, White asked Mecklenburg details of the 10 fights during his freshman year.

He asked Mecklenburg if he ever sought medical attention for injuries suffered in “the ring,” ever told coaches about “the ring” or ever told his parents.

Mecklenburg said he did not.

He was also asked if he reported any of the locker room activities to other school authorities. He answered that he didn’t.

“I knew they would not do anything,” he said. “That’s not my duty to report that. That’s the coaches’ duties.”

Mecklenburg said he never voluntarily took part in “the ring,” but was forced to “by upperclassmen.” He said he would try to avoid taking part, but would be ridiculed.

“I had constant fear from other factors that motivated me to get in ‘the ring,’” he said.

Haub said during his testimony that team camaraderie was good.

“I’d say we were a tight team,” he said.

Mecklenburg had a different point of view during his questioning.

“From my personal perspective, how I felt, there was no camaraderie,” he said. “I felt completely isolated. I didn’t have anyone to turn to, so I felt there was no camaraderie on my part. Now other people like Declan may have had a different story. They may have had a good experience.”

Haub rated his experienced as a football player “an 8” out of 10. Mecklenburg said his was “a 0 or a 1.”

When asked if upperclassmen looked out for the underclassmen during his first year on the team, Mecklenburg replied: “In my case, obviously they didn’t look out for me at all.”

During White’s cross-examination, three videos were shown.

One of them was Mecklenburg in a wrestling match during a track meet. Another one was of Mecklenburg in a boxing match in a friend’s garage. A third video was of “the ring” inside the KHS football locker room.

Mecklenburg was not participating, but he did identify himself as one of those watching.

“You don’t look too stressed,” White said.

“I was just thanking God it wasn’t me that day,” responded Mecklenburg.

When asked by Bunn to explain the difference in what was shown in the videos and what took part in ‘the ring,’ Mecklenburg said: “It’s a vast difference. Whenever I would have to wrestle someone a lot bigger than me I was scared I would get seriously hurt. Luckily it never got to that point,” he said.

“However, when I was with my friends I knew it would never reach any point of severe injury. They were my buddies. It was all voluntary. We were doing it just for fun. That was just boys being boys. What happened in the locker room was not boys being boys.

“It was for show. They wanted me to get in there. They wanted me to get my ass beat. It was to humiliate me.”

Mecklenburg did testify that he sought counseling after he graduated high school and continues to do so while a student at Oklahoma State University.

Mecklenburg testified for about 90 minutes prior to a 30-minute lunch break and then another 30 minutes after the break.

During the morning session, Mecklenburg’s grandfather, Randy Mecklenburg, was escorted from the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy.

Randy Mecklenburg was sitting on one side of the gallery with several other members of Mason Mecklenburg’s family.

During Mason Mecklenburg’s testimony, Bunn and White were pleading their respective points with Lafferty regarding the testimony.

“I don’t need these people back here talking to me. I’m looking at the Mecklenburgs,” White said during the conversation.

“We know who you’re looking at,” came a reply from the gallery.

“Randy Mecklenburg just said ‘bull****’ and he should be taken out of this courtroom and you don’t need to talk to me,” White said as he looked toward the gallery.

“You started talking to me,” Randy Mecklenburg replied.

“No, I heard you say ‘bull****,” White said.

Lafferty allowed Randy Mecklenburg to return to the courtroom for the afternoon session and he stayed for the duration of the hearing.

A longtime attorney in Kingfisher, Randy Mecklenburg disputed White’s claim of what was said in the courtroom.

“I was there to support my grandson who was testifying,” he told the KT&FP. “Joe White was interrupting the DA’s direct examination. I whispered something to my wife about it. I did not say what Joe White said I said. His attack on me was inappropriate.”

In his closing statement, Bunn said there was ample evidence of physical and mental harm that took place in the KHS football program.

“Child neglect does not require broken bones or anything like that,” Bunn said. “The state absolutely has met every element of the crime of child neglect and the state requests coach Myers be bound over.”

White said the videos shown in the courtroom exhibited that wrestling and boxing took place outside of the locker room.

“Why is that important?” he asked before reading from the state uniform jury instructions adopted by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

“Because neglect of a child under CR 4-37A, ‘neglect shall not mean a child who engages in independent activities that include, but are not limited to, engaging in similar activities alone with other children.’

“Which is exactly what you saw of Mason Mecklenburg where he’s engaging in similar activity alone with other children, wrestling and boxing. How could that constitute any level of neglect in any way?”

White also estimated Myers coached more than 300 players during the seven-year time frame for which he was being accused of the felony crime.

“One student comes into your courtroom and wants to try and testify that somehow either his feelings were hurt, or something else,” White said. “But in your courtroom, your honor, when pressed, he couldn’t give you any specific evidence of being hurt.”

He also pointed out that Myers “put a stop” to the boxing once he discovered it was taking place, according to Haub.

White said Mecklenburg was the lone witness to take the stand “and tell you my guy, my client, neglected anyone.”

“That’s the only witness that got up here,” White said. “You have the power to put a stop to this. You have the absolute power to stop this. He’s no longer the football coach, but you can stop this felony count from moving forward because in your courtroom on this date of June 27, the state of Oklahoma wholly failed to show probable cause there was a crime committed and that by probable cause he is the one that committed it.

“And I know we live in a different day and time, but the beautiful thing is we have courtrooms and we have justice and the one thing money can’t buy is justice.”

When asked for comment, Randy Mecklenburg said more witnesses were subpoenaed, but were never called to testify.

“We were always disappointed that the district attorney chose to limit the charges to ‘the ring’ as opposed to the multiple other more serious offenses that occurred and that were well-documented in the civil case, but we had no control over that,” Randy Mecklenburg said. “I was also disappointed that there were two witnesses that had been subpoenaed, and were in the courthouse, that were not called. These two witnesses had given sworn statements and could have given very strong testimony about the abuse Mason endured.

“I was shocked when the assistant district attorney rested. I know he was doing what he thought was right. I just don’t understand it.”