Whipped Cream Difficulties

It has been a minute since we had one of these, but this one is swell. Hattip to Mike the Musicologist on it.

Ayshia “Ajay” Pittman pled guilty to felony charges yesterday, and resigned from the Oklahoma House of Representatives. This moved fairly quickly: as I understand the story, her plea and resignation came just “hours” after she was charged.

She was charged with three felonies: conspiracy to commit a felony, second-degree forgery, and “violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act”. (Trena Byas, an executive assistant, was also charged. As far as I can tell, she has not taken a plea.)

What exactly did she do? Well, she forged a cashier’s check.

Forgery is uncommon among the hyenas, so this would be noteworthy by itself. But that’s not the best part. She forged a cashier’s check…

…and sent it to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission.

The background for this is that former rep Pittman has a problem with campaign funds. Specifically, she has a problem with diverting campaign funds for personal use.

The Ethics Commission reached a settlement in 2024 with Pittman over her misuse of campaign funds. Under the 2024 settlement, she was required to reimburse her campaign $17,858 and pay a $17,141 civil penalty to the state.

The Ethics Commission wanted to see proof she was making payments.

Pittman said on a campaign report she had repaid her campaign account $2,500 on Jan. 27, 2025. The investigation found the Jan. 27, 2025, deposit was actually a $2,500 donation from the Osage Nation.

…

According to the filing, Byas — an Executive Assistant in the Oklahoma State Senate and owner of GraphixByUs, Inc. — allegedly received instructions from Pittman to alter an image of a check. Investigators say Byas used a computer to modify the document before sending it back electronically. Records also note that Byas previously worked as an assistant finance manager for Pittman’s mother.

…

Search warrant affidavits from October 2025 outline an alleged scheme in which Pittman provided the Ethics Commission with a fraudulent $2,500 cashier’s check, dated January 27, 2025, from Sovereign Bank, as proof she was making payments toward a $35,000 restitution agreement. Investigators later confirmed Sovereign Bank never issued the check.

Ms. Pittman agreed to a seven year probated sentence, with deferred adjudication. So if she keeps out of trouble, the charges won’t go on her record.

Her resignation was part of her plea deal.
While on probation, she cannot seek state office, cannot work in state government and cannot work for a government contractor. She must make restitution for misuse of campaign funds, with the money going to charity.
Under a separate settlement with the Ethics Commission, she agreed not to run for any state office, city office, county office, school board office “or any other elected position” in Oklahoma for 15 years.

…

Under her new settlement with the Ethics Commission, she must pay what was still owed her campaign − $7,858 − to a non-profit organization. She also still must pay the $17,141 civil penalty.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.