Tinker Federal Credit Union Files Lawsuit Against Brent Rinehart

February 17, 2009

By James Miko

Tinker Federal Credit Union has filed a lawsuit against anti-gay figure and amateur comic book publisher Kenneth Brent Rinehart in Oklahoma County District Court. The suit seeks to recover over $10,000 that the credit union claims Rinehart owes to them over a defaulted loan. The actual amount of the lawsuit is not known at this time and could be substantially higher, as the $10,000 figure is the minimum amount the district court requires to file for major civil litigation.

TFCU’s first action in the case is to legally bar Rinehart from hiding or selling any property he used to back the loan. Rinehart is scheduled to appear March 5, 2009, over an application that seeks to force the former county commissioner to divulge the location of collateral he used to obtain the loan from TFCU and to bar him from transferring or disposing of such property.

Additional details regarding the lawsuit will not be available until later.

On May 4, 2009, Rinehart and co-defendant Timothy Pope are scheduled to go to jury trial over a number of felony charges stemming from a 2004 election campaign, which could result in lengthy prison sentences against the pair.  Those charges include: money laundering, conspiracy against the state, knowingly accepting political contributions through an intermediary, and multiple counts of perjury.   

In July of last year, Rinehart unleashed an anti-gay diatribe in a crudely produced self-published 16-page comic book during his 2008 campaign bid. Rinehart was later soundly beaten.