Katy’s story OKGOP dilemma

Katy and David Arnett, Tulsa Today during interview.

Katy would prefer to avoid the drama, but her ex-boyfriend-housemate issued a press release soon after his appointment to one of the most powerful positions in the Oklahoma Republican Party. Katy is a Republican activist that attended county and state conventions since her ex, Thomas Clint (TC) Ryan, inspired her to become active in politics and even after he bit and beat her in a domestic assault and battery. He pled guilty to assault and battery in the presence of a minor and to interference with an emergency telephone call.

Katy says Ryan and his “companion” employer and recently elected OKGOP Chairman Randy Brogdon have attempted to diminish and dismiss the incident that occurred in 2012, but in an exclusive interview with Tulsa Today, Katy says she will not be silenced and her story is true. Further Katy said the call by attorney Corbin C. Brewster, son and employee of one of Oklahoma’s most visible attorneys, Clark O. Brewster, was the final straw in her decision to speak on the record with this writer.

Katy is a small soft spoken attractive woman, but there is steel in the substance of her words. Her voice, during our interview, faltered several times as she struggled not to cry. This is hard for her.

Thomas Clint (TC) Ryan

Question: Tell me the story of your relationship with TC Ryan.

Katy: I knew him from high school. He moved away and then we reconnected on Facebook several years later. We were together for a little over a year – 14 months. We had our ups and downs like all couples, but he progressively got more and more hot tempered. He would have a few flare ups. There were a couple of situations that could have ended in violence, but didn’t until the night we broke up [in April 2012] and I filed the police report.

I don’t want to discuss all the details. It’s painful and embarrassing. Basically, we had an argument just watching some news show. It was right before State Convention so there were a lot of political things going on and I can’t remember who we were debating, but my opinion differed from his and he got very condescending. He told me I didn’t know anything.

Question: So your personal relationship ended over politics?

Katy: Yes. I think that is one of the things that made the D.A. want to prosecute to the extent of [filing as] a felony and him being so rash and hot tempered. [The D.A.] originally told me that it was something he was not going to allow to be expunged from his record which is why I came forward because I felt like it was something that was important especially for somebody who is aspiring to be in politics and having such a bad temper. People should be aware this is the kind of person they are dealing with.

Katy told Tulsa Today she sought medical treatment the next day following the violence. TC Ryan has insisted to others that her injuries were the result of a car wreck she had a few days later. She was not ticketed by police for that car wreck as they determined on scene her tires were near bald, streets were wet, and she spun-out then hit a tree. Further, a car wreck does not leave bite marks or thumb print bruises.

According to Katy, TC Ryan grabbed her phone as she dialed 911 and threw it against the wall breaking it which led to the charge of interference with emergency telephone call to which TC Ryan pled guilty. As she searched for her six year old son to leave the house to call police from a nearby QuikTrip, she found the child “cowering in the corner of his room crying.”

Ryan's Hand Tattoos

Question: Were there drugs or alcohol involved the night of the violence?

Katy: He was drinking that night. I wouldn’t say it was any more than normal. I don’t know that I would say he was drunk.

Question: What makes this incident embarrassing to you?

Katy: Well, I guess for me being an educated woman who has her wits about her to stay in an abusive relationship is the biggest embarrassment and the way it ended was pretty embarrassing. I don’t know that I want to say more or exactly what happened.

Question: He is saying that nothing really happened.

Katy: I read that and obviously something did happen and he did plead guilty. There were pictures taken which led to his conviction. I know that the public would love to see those pictures and those files and it is unfortunate that they were expunged from the record. My best friend took the first photos… there is evidence out there.

Question: Will you speak about the call you received from attorney Corbin Brewster?

Katy: [Brewster] said he had not been officially retained by TC, but had been talking with him and wanted to find out what my intentions were.

Question: If he was not working for TC; did he say he was a friend of TC?

Katy: He did not. He had heard TC’s side of the story and I told him what had happened and my feelings about it and I also told him that I didn’t know if I was going to do an interview or not.

He said, ‘I want to warn you that there is the possibility of litigation and lawsuits for defamation of character’… along those lines. I told him that I felt the only person whose character that had been defamed was mine.

I don’t have anything in my background that I need to be afraid of. I’m a registered nurse. I’m squeaky clean. I have to take drug tests. I have to go in front of the board and renew my license so you are not going to find [anything bad on me]. I garden. I take care of my patients, I go to church and I go home to my family.

Question: It sounds like he was trying to bully you.

Katy: That is how I felt. I really felt like he wanted to intimidate me into not saying anything. In a roundabout way, he wanted to encourage me not to say anything so it will just go away. Things have been stirred up over the last week as a result of my comment on Tulsa Today. [Katy posted a reader comment to the story; GOP tempers up and later contacted this writer by email.]

Question: Are there medical bills from this incident still outstanding?

Katy: [TC] never paid them. I put them on a payment plan and I pay them by the month – it’s not a lot [each month] and it will probably take me forever to pay them off, but that is not the concern.

He is saying he is remorseful, but his actions don’t show the same thing. To me that means if you are truly remorseful and you went through a process to make yourself a better person would you not apologize to the person you victimized? He has never once apologized [to Katy].

The last time I saw him was that night with the exception of seeing him at state conventions or accidentally at festivals or places I didn’t know he would be there.

TC brought me into Republican Party activity. I got introduced to Ron Paul and the Liberty Movement and that was exciting, new and fun. I still believe in the politics, but to put myself in the trenches with somebody that is fake is not something that I want to be a part of.

Ryan once featured this photo on his Facebook profile.

Question: In your experience with TC’s politics; is he more Ron Paul or traditional Republican?

Katy: He was very pro-Ron Paul when we were together and he claimed to be a Constitutional Conservative, but … he puts himself into places he thinks he can align in some position of power or leadership as opposed to backing a candidate that you really truly believe in.

For example; I worked on Sen. Nathan Dahm’s campaign. I believe in him as a senator and as an individual and his politics and what he believes in for the people. TC backed a few other candidates that don’t align with those same Christian, wholesome, Conservative values. TC just seemed like a hypocrite to me especially after we split up and went our separate ways. I chose the candidates I believed were true of heart, conviction and I felt he just wanted to be in the campaign scene and get his name and face out there as opposed to really having true beliefs.

After the incident; I moved from the house I had been in for several years because I was afraid of him. I found it hard to sleep at night. I had a little PTSD afterwards and took some anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medicine for it. I was on edge for a really long time.

As I moved, anything of his I just left in a box on the porch and I sent him a text, but never heard from him and never went back to see if he picked his stuff up or not.

Question: People have commented online that you are not real. What do we say to that given that I have pledged to protect your identity at all cost?

Katy: I think there are a lot more people out there who really know what happened between me and TC than they realize and they have experienced his temper on a personal level on their own just being in politics. I don’t think there is a question of who I am. Everyone knows. I was born in Tulsa, raised in Coweta and have lived in Broken Arrow for the last ten years.

Question: What have you learned about relationships from this one?

Katy: All that glitters is not gold. There is a reason I fell in love with TC. He can be a very exciting, well-spoken charismatic person, but the flip side of that coin is that he can be very vile and argumentative and quick to judge and quick to temper. I think I mistook his temper for passion in politics and things he believed in when really it was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to his temper.

Now when I meet people and engage them, I try to get a better reading on their personality. Those that are argumentative and abrasive – there is usually a whole other side to that personality other than just isolated incidents.

OKGOP Chairman Randy Brogdon

From what I have read about Randy Brogdon, maybe he believes that this was an isolated incident for TC, but there are a lot of other people out there that have also encountered, not to the extend I have, but have encountered his temper.

I don’t think TC is a person that emulates Republican values. I think he is a bit flippant and I think he is a Yes-Man a lot of the time just because he wants that position of power and recognition and for people to revere him as being this great political activist.

I don’t think the Republican Party is really considering how many women voters are out there who are outraged by [TC’s appointment]. He is representing all Republicans if he is in this leadership position and I think that needs to be taken into consideration. If they don’t discharge him from that position I think the right thing would be for him to step down because I think young people have made a lot of strides in getting involved to make real changes, but when you have an arrogant misogynistic person leading the GOP I think it kind of makes us look like a joke.

We have all these people who have dedicated their lives in service to their communities and now you are bringing this guy in that you knew has a history of domestic violence and you want to put him in a leadership position? I don’t want him representing me or my children and I know there are a lot of women [that feel the same].

Tulsa Today's final question and Katy's answer is posted as an audio file: DS300237