A dispute over control of a volunteer fire department in southeastern Oklahoma has erupted into a federal lawsuit accusing county and municipal officials of effectively taking over a privately owned fire station, fire apparatus, and other department assets. The Hochatown Fire Department Association and Hochatown Volunteer Fire Department filed suit today against McCurtain County, the Town of Hochatown, County Commissioner John Williams, and Town Administrator Adam Vossen. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

According to the complaint, the Hochatown Fire Department Association was organized as a nonprofit in 1993 and established the Hochatown Volunteer Fire Department the following year. The Association acquired the department’s fire station in 1993 and claims it remains the sole owner of record. In 2003, the Association petitioned McCurtain County to establish a county fire department for the Hochatown area under Oklahoma law. The plaintiffs contend that arrangement transferred “administration and control” of fire department assets to the county fire department, but expressly left ownership of the property and assets with the Association. The dispute took on a new dimension after the Town of Hochatown was incorporated in 2022 and county officials subsequently began shifting responsibility for fire protection in the area from the volunteer department to the Town.

Quoting from the complaint:

• Beginning in October 2025, the County — on the motions of Defendant Williams — stripped the Hochatown Volunteer Fire Department of its service territory, halted the sales-tax funding that paid its bills, and refused to process the insurance invoices that funding was meant to pay, until the department’s insurance was cancelled for non-payment in December 2025.
• On March 2, 2026, citing the very “non-functional” condition it had created, the County contracted with the Town to provide fire protection in the department’s territory, and the department’s Fire Chief was ordered to stand down. Since then, the County, the Town, and the Town’s fire chief have prevented Plaintiffs from responding to any fire or emergency call in the community Plaintiffs have served for more than thirty years.
• Then, on April 21, 2026, County Commissioner John Williams, acting with Town personnel and a hired locksmith, changed the locks on the station and locked out its owners.
• Two days later he returned with a technology vendor under contract with the Town and caused the station’s security system to be dismantled.
• No document authorized either act, as Williams later admitted to a tribal police sergeant.
• On July 13 and 15, 2026, the County and the Town ratified and extended the taking by approving a “Fire Station Facilities Agreement” granting the Town the exclusive right to occupy and control HFDA’s property.
• This was an agreement between two entities, neither of which owns the property, that expressly excludes everyone else, including the record owner, from the building.
• The deprivation has since escalated: on July 20, 2026, Williams directed McCurtain County Rural Water District No. 5 to shut off water service to the station, without any agenda item or vote; and on August 10, 2026, the BOCC purported to seat a hand-picked board over the “Hochatown Volunteer Fire Department” in a bid to capture the very entities and assets at issue; and on August 31, 2026, that appointed board — meeting inside HFDA’s station, with Williams present and the County’s outside counsel assisting — ratified the very agreements challenged here; and on September 14, 2026, on three days’ notice, the same three appointees voted to rename themselves the “Hochatown County Fire Department,” to adopt new bylaws listing HFDA’s own post-office box as their address, to “secure” HFDA’s bank accounts and websites, and to enter and inventorythe locked office of HVFD’s Fire Chief.
• As a result, Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief, quiet title, restoration of possession of real and personal property, and damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The complaint alleges nine counts, including claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures, as well as a Fifth Amendment takings claim. The plaintiffs also seek to quiet title to the fire station, recover possession of the apparatus through replevin, obtain declaratory and injunctive relief, invalidate certain actions under the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, and recover compensation under the Oklahoma Constitution for inverse condemnation.

The plaintiffs are seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief restoring the Association’s access to and control of the fire station and restoring the volunteer fire department’s possession of its apparatus. They also seek an order barring the defendants from asserting control over the plaintiffs or their assets through the board appointed by the county, a judgment quieting title to the station, compensatory damages, just compensation for the alleged taking, and punitive damages against Williams and Vossen.

The plaintiffs have also served notices of claim on the County and Town under the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act for conversion, trespass and related state-law claims. Those claims are not included in the present complaint, but the plaintiffs state they intend to seek permission to add them after satisfying the statutory notice requirements.

Here is a copy of the complaint: