Kays Charged With Burglary, Assault in 2019 Arrest Case

WATONGA – A warrant was issued for the arrest of former Watonga Police Chief Shawn Kays last week after a rough arrest he made in 2019 was caught on video and leaked to the public.

Kays has been charged with felony first-degree burglary and assault and battery, a misdemeanor.

According to court documents, the arrest in question occurred on Aug. 13, 2019. About 4:45 p.m. that day, police received a call reporting that a man on a bicycle had entered a 4th Street home without the homeowner’s permission. The homeowner made the call from a neighbor’s house.

Watonga Officers Michelle Singh and Ryan Gibson responded to the call. But when they arrived, they didn’t find the man but instead Julia Cosby, a woman who said she was living there.

Singh told Cosby to leave the house, but Cosby insisted that she lived there and her belongings were inside. The conversation was captured on body camera footage, according to a probable cause statement.

Cosby let Gibson into the house. He checked each room and didn’t find the male intruder mentioned in the call.

About five minutes later, the statement says, Kays arrived at the scene. He was not in uniform. Singh told Kays that the call for help was not about Cosby, and that Cosby had the homeowner’s permission to be at the residence.

“The Defendant (Kays) asked for further clarification about the call for service,” the statement says. “The Defendant was told that the call was regarding an intruder and not (Cosby). The defendant acknowledged that he knew that the intruder was no longer in the residence because the residence was checked.”

Kays then approached the house’s back porch to speak with Cosby, who was in the doorway. The statement says he told Cosby that “she was a burglar if she could not prove she lived at the residence.”

That’s when the statement says Kays entered the home through the back door as Cosby backed away saying “Don’t do it,” and “Don’t touch me.” Kays told Cosby “This ain’t your home,” then “forcefully shoved” Cosby backward into the residence with his left hand.

What happened next was captured on the leaked video. Kays apparently shoved Cosby again, out of the house and onto her porch. When she fell, he and Singh placed her in handcuffs. “The Defendant then forcefully pulled the right arm of (Cosby) behind her back and up toward her head,” the statement says, “causing her to yell out in pain.” Cosby was also yelling, “Stop!”

She was taken into custody and led away.

Kays’ burglary charge stems from entering the home “without the consent of (the) occupant with the intent to commit the crime of Assault and Battery,” court documents show, while the assault charge is related to “forcefully pulling the right arm of Julia Cosby with force and violence.”

If convicted, the first-degree burglary charge carries a sentence between seven and 20 years in prison.

A felony warrant was issued for Kays’ arrest. On Saturday, July 24, Kays turned himself in, was booked and then released from the Blaine County Jail on $40,000 bond, a figure prearranged between the state and Kays’ attorney, Daniel Webber.

His first court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 5.

The 2019 arrest case was investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The charges come about a month after Kays was fired from the Watonga Police.

On the day he was let go, a Watonga woman brought an emergency restraining order against Kays. That order is scheduled for a second court hearing in August.

Cosby was interviewed last month on News 9, an Oklahoma City television news station, and said the arrest had permanently damaged her arm. She reiterated that she had permission to be inside the house that day.

Cosby’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment last week.

Neither Gibson nor Singh is currently with the Watonga PD. The Watonga Republican reached out to Webber’s office for comment Tuesday, but as of press time they had not responded.