Michael Todd Bunch, the 50-year-old former superintendent of Ninnekah Public Schools, has entered a blind plea of no contest to a felony strangulation charge stemming from a 2022 incident at an Oklahoma City hotel, closing out the criminal case just weeks before he faces sentencing this fall.
Bunch pleaded no contest in court, according to KFOR, resolving two charges that dated back to 2022: rape in the first degree by strangulation and domestic assault. The station reports that the state dismissed the rape charge in 2024, leaving only the strangulation count, to which Bunch ultimately entered his no-contest plea. He was accused of sexually and physically assaulting his now-former fiancée while staying at the Omni Hotel for a work event, and security was called to the room because of a commotion before Bunch left as security arrived, per the outlet’s reporting.
Attorney Shelby Ross, representing the victim, told KFOR that the woman cannot live the way she could before the attack and said she constantly lives in fear and has flashbacks of what happened. Bunch has a sentencing date set for October 14, and the strangulation charge could result in one to two years in jail or probation, according to the station’s report.
A Strangulation Charge Carries Statutory Weight
Under Oklahoma law, domestic abuse committed by strangulation or attempted strangulation against an intimate partner is a felony that carries a mandatory sentence of one to three years in state prison and a fine of up to $3,000 for a first offense, according to Justia Law. That statutory ceiling is higher than the one-to-two-year range cited in the KFOR report, leaving open exactly what the judge will impose when sentencing arrives…