Find Custer County District Court Cases

Custer County District Court Overview

Oklahoma's District Courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction. They handle nearly every kind of case that opens at the local level. The Custer County District Court sits in Arapaho, the county seat. It hears felony and misdemeanor charges, civil disputes, family and divorce matters, probate, small claims, protective orders, and traffic cases written by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Custer County is part of Oklahoma Judicial District 2. That district groups Custer with Beckham, Ellis, Roger Mills, and Washita counties. The same regional pattern shapes the District Attorney's office and the public-defense system. A judge or prosecutor assigned to District 2 may work across more than one of these counties.

Records from the District Court are searched online through the state court portals. For the search fields and step-by-step lookups, the Custer County court records page breaks down each portal.

Oklahoma Court Structure

Oklahoma's court system has four main levels. At the top sit two courts of last resort. The Oklahoma Supreme Court is the highest court for civil cases. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest court for criminal cases. Below them, the Court of Civil Appeals reviews many civil appeals. The trial level holds 77 District Courts, one of which is Custer County's.

The OSCN court-system page confirms the structure: the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Court of Civil Appeals, and 77 District Courts.

Custer County's trial court is one of those 77, and its dockets are searchable through the same statewide system.

Custer County Trial Courts and Offices

More than one court and office handles cases tied to Custer County. The District Court is the hub, but the two clerks and the city courts each hold their own records. The table lists the main offices, their roles, and how to reach them.

The Court Clerk keeps the District Court file, so certified copies and filing questions go to the Court Clerk's office.

Custer County District Court Divisions

The District Court works through divisions, and each handles a class of case. One clerk's office supports them all. A single courthouse holds the civil docket, the criminal docket, the family docket, and the rest. The case-number prefix signals the division, such as CF for a felony or PB for probate.

• Civil: lawsuits, debt claims, tax liens, and money judgments.
• Criminal: felony and misdemeanor charges and probable-cause filings.
• Probate: wills, estates, guardianships, and trusts.
• Juvenile: delinquent, deprived, and youthful-offender matters, with restricted access.
• Domestic relations: divorce, paternity, custody, and child support.
• Small claims and protective orders: lower-dollar disputes and court safety orders.
• Traffic: Highway Patrol citations filed in the District Court.

Each division feeds the same public docket, except where the law seals a file.

Custer County District Court vs Municipal Court

The District Court is not the only court in the county. Two cities run municipal courts. The District Court is the higher court, with broad power over felonies, civil suits, and family cases. A municipal court is the lower court, limited to city-code and city-citation matters. The table compares the two.

A ticket from city police in Clinton or Weatherford is filed in that city's municipal court, not the District Court docket. Highway Patrol tickets, by contrast, run through the Custer County District Court in Arapaho.

How a Custer County Case Moves

A case follows a set path through the Custer County courts. A criminal case and a civil case start the same way, at the District Court, and each can climb to the state's higher courts on appeal. The flows below trace the routes.

Criminal flow: Arrest › First Appearance › Information or Indictment › Arraignment › Pretrial › Trial or Plea › Sentencing › Appeal

Civil flow: Petition Filed › Answer › Discovery › Hearing or Trial › Judgment › Appeal

Appeal flow: Custer County District Court › Court of Civil Appeals or Court of Criminal Appeals › Oklahoma Supreme Court

Civil appeals run toward the Court of Civil Appeals and the Supreme Court. Criminal appeals run to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Day-by-day events along the way appear in the case docket.

Custer County District Court Judges

Judges rotate and change. The most recent change came in 2025. On May 22, 2025, Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Dana Jean Hada as Associate District Judge for Custer County. Hada had served as Custer County Special Judge since 2022 before the appointment.

Her background runs through the region. The governor's release said Hada earned undergraduate degrees from Oklahoma State University and a law degree from Oklahoma City University School of Law. She worked in private practice and as an Assistant District Attorney for District 2 before taking the bench.

The governor's appointment notice lays out Hada's record and the date of the appointment.

Judge assignments appear on each case docket, so a current file shows which judge is hearing the matter.

The Custer County Courthouse

The Custer County Court House anchors the court system in Arapaho. The building holds the District Court, the Court Clerk, the County Clerk, and other county offices. Courthouse security screens close to 350 people on an average day, using scanning and surveillance equipment at secured entrances. Visitors should plan for a screening line and check road conditions before driving in, since the county is rural and weather can close roads.

The courthouse has a long history in Arapaho. After the Cheyenne-Arapaho Homestead Run opened the land on April 19, 1892, the first courthouse was a tent operating by sunset in the county seat. The county was first called "G" County and became Custer County in 1896. Voters later rejected several attempts to move the courthouse to another town. During the oil-boom years residents improved the building, and the renovated courthouse held an open house in June 1985. That history is why court, clerk, and county offices remain in rural Arapaho rather than the larger cities of Clinton or Weatherford.

District Attorney for Custer County

Criminal cases in the District Court are prosecuted by the District Attorney. Angela Marsee is the District Attorney for District 2, which covers Custer, Beckham, Ellis, Roger Mills, and Washita counties. She was elected in 2014 and has served since January 2015. Her office keeps a Custer County courthouse contact for payments and case matters.

The District Attorney District 2 page lists the Custer County courthouse contact and payment location.

The District Attorney is a party on criminal dockets, listed alongside the defendant, the arresting officer, and the agency.

Defendants who cannot afford a lawyer are served on the other side. The Oklahoma Indigent Defense System runs a Non-Capital Trial office in Clinton that covers Custer, Washita, Beckham, Roger Mills, and Ellis counties. That regional pattern mirrors the District Attorney's reach across District 2. For a criminal case in the Custer County District Court, this office is the official public-defense resource rather than a private legal-aid group.

Federal Courts and Custer County

Not every case in the county is a state case. Federal matters go to a different court. Custer County falls within the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, based in Oklahoma City. That court hears federal crimes, civil-rights claims, and other cases under federal law. It is separate from the Custer County District Court and from the state appellate courts.

The Western District is the largest of Oklahoma's three federal judicial districts and includes 40 of the state's 77 counties. Bankruptcy cases from Custer County go to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District, a separate court within the same district. Oklahoma sits in the Tenth Circuit for federal appeals.

Federal dockets are searched through PACER, not OSCN or ODCR. For state cases in Custer County, the District Court and its clerk remain the right starting point, and the county portals carry the District Court file.