POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – A new report from Oklahoma Watch alleged Pottawatomie County Jail officials defied state laws and a judge’s order when they concealed information about the deaths of seven inmates.

“The Pottawatomie county jail is concealing information about the deaths of seven people that were in their care,” said Whitney Bryen, an investigative journalist.

Bryen investigated the deaths of the seven Pottawatomie County inmates, who struggled with mental and medical issues. She said they were arrested after some sort of episode before dying in custody. Bryen said only two deaths were reported to state regulators.

“A lot of these folks are in your every day lives and they had one bad day,” said Bryen.

Bryen said the wife of one inmate, Kellie Wright, didn’t even know her wife was in custody until she got a call.

“The doctors at the hospital called and said, ‘She’s on life support. You need to get out here,'” said Bryen.

The medical examiner ruled her death as natural, despite broken ribs and bruises. Wright’s wife pleaded for records and answers but, “the jail refused or ignored her calls.”

After the wife filed a lawsuit, a Tulsa judge ordered the jail to release records by August 5th. So far, they have not received anything. The wife’s attorney reportedly said, “it’s likely the jail will appeal the decision.”

“Families that are filing lawsuits now, there’s no hope really on getting those answers any time soon,” said Bryen.

The journalist of 14 years said she submitted eight requests for public information. However, the jail, that is run by a board of trustees, has not responded.

“In some cases, they refused to allow me to submit a request to the jail for that information. Which is against the law,” said Bryen. “They’re playing a lot of games with what previously have been thought to be straightforward laws.”

“Eventually, they’re going to get sued in federal court anyway and it’s all going to come out. There’s no reason to hide it,” said Sean Cummings, part of The People’s Council for Justice reform, an advocacy group.

While digging, Bryen also discovered alarming relations between jail officials.

“The director of the jail, is married to the investigator at the jail,” said Bryen. “The fact that these two are number 1 and 2 in power at the jail is certainly concerning.”

“So if anything’s wrong, her husband is investigating it, and he’s not going to hang her out to dry,” said Cummings. “Pot County’s probably going to end up with a federal investigation out of this. This looks terrible. It doesn’t look bad. It looks terrible.”

News 4 reached out to jail officials for comment. They told us their attorney has advised them not to talk amid pending litigation.