Less than a week after a wealthy Norman woman’s release from prison after only 73 days, Oklahoma lawmakers have introduced legislation to change the rules for the Department of Corrections’ GPS monitoring program.
The program allows prison officials to release people convicted of nonviolent crimes back into the community, who are then monitored via GPS tracking devices and probation and parole officers.
GPS monitoring has come under new scrutiny after Sara Polston was released earlier this month. McClain County District Court Judge Leah Edwards sentenced Polston in December 2025 to 15 years, with all but eight years suspended for a DUI crash that nearly killed 20-year-old Micaela Borrego. Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, wants to keep anyone who has been sentenced to prison after they caused severe injuries to others while driving under the influence from getting released early through the program. Hamilton has amended Senate Bill 137 to exclude anyone convicted of DUI-causing great bodily injury from GPS monitoring.
Lawmakers heard the bill in the Senate public safety committee Tuesday and it passed unanimously.
Hamilton said the GPS program essentially “freed” Polston, and it was an unfortunate situation because the judge sentenced Polston with an expectation she would serve more time in prison.
“This unfortunate situation has brought to light a hole within our law,” Hamilton said.
Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, praised the bill. He said while reconnecting people with their families is important, it doesn’t mean they don’t have to “pay for their crime.”
Over the past two years, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has granted early release for three people, including Polston, who were sentenced to prison for DUI-causing great bodily injury.
A violent crash leads to prison time
On Feb. 7, 2023, Polston blew through four stop signs, going 66 miles per hour in a residential area in Norman before blowing through an intersection and plowing her Cadillac Escalade into the back of Micaela Borrego’s Kia. The speed limit was 25 mph.
Court records showed Polston’s blood alcohol was nearly twice the legal limit, and she had marijuana in her system. Polston had stopped at a nearby liquor store just three minutes before the collision, according to court records. Police found a half-empty bottle of alcohol in Polston’s car. She later admitted she had a boozy lunch with friends earlier in the day and had been drinking margaritas.
The catastrophic crash put Micaela Borrego in a coma. Doctors initially gave her a 5% chance of survival, her mom said.
Polston’s attorneys declined to comment. The Frontier also messaged Polston while she was in prison via a messaging app and didn’t receive a response.
Cleveland County District Attorney Jennifer Austin, who prosecuted Polston’s case, said she knew of the Department of Corrections’ GPS release program. But the only other early releases she was aware of involved low-level drug offenses and burglaries. Because of the seriousness of Polston’s crime, Austin never thought Polston would be released with an ankle monitor after a few months.
This is a very simple fix and it’s not something we take lightly.
— Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, on his proposed legislation to change the rules for the Department of Corrections’ GPS monitoring program
“Every single person that’s out there on GPS release right now is out doing whatever they want, just with a regular ankle monitor on, but they still call it in custody, and that is laughable,” Austin said. “They’re not in custody. They are able to do whatever they want. They just have that ankle monitor on.”
Polston was eligible for release through the program because her conviction is classified as nonviolent under state law and her prison sentence was less than 10 years. Polston was also open to treatment and did not have any previous criminal convictions, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said.
State law doesn’t dictate how much prison time someone must serve before consideration, leaving the timing to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections policy. The policy states inmates can become eligible for the GPS program after serving at least 30 days in a minimum-security prison. Prisoners who are serving sentences longer than 10 years can also be eligible for release on GPS monitoring if they have less than three years until their projected release date.
Kay Thompson, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said the agency followed state laws and agency policies in approving Polston’s early release. The agency has sole discretion over granting release through the GPS program if someone is eligible.
“Records show she successfully completed the Victim Impact Panel, multiple courses and counseling programs, attended approximately 100 meetings, submitted more than 200 negative drug and alcohol tests, and completed over 2,000 hours of community service,” Thompson wrote via email.
Polston won’t be on house arrest, but she is required to have a curfew. The Department of Corrections determines curfew times on a case-by-case basis, Thompson said. The agency wouldn’t release Polston’s curfew because of “security concerns.”
It’s not up to the Department of Corrections whether Polston can drive after her release. Service Oklahoma said it can take action to suspend or revoke a driver’s license if it gets a notice of a criminal conviction or an affidavit of impaired driving from a police officer.
After pleading guilty last year, Polston asked the judge for leniency. Before her sentencing, Polston was attending counseling and had already completed an “intensive alcohol treatment program,” her attorneys said in court documents. Polston had been sober for 20 months and volunteered at the Norman homeless shelter Food & Shelter, where she also served on the board of directors. “During her time volunteering, she aided the Director by contacting and coordinating aid from first responders, while the Director provided life-saving CPR to a homeless person,” her attorneys wrote the court in a request for probation.
A state probation and parole officer who investigated Polston’s case before she was sentenced recommended she serve a period of incarceration and then be supervised by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, according to court records.
Austin said she believes Polston’s case would have turned out differently if she didn’t have money. Polston wouldn’t have had the resources to hire good attorneys, do volunteer work, and go to treatment while the case was ongoing.
Polston is married to tax attorney Rod Polston.The Polstons have donated $48,900 to Oklahoma politicians over the past 11 years, according to state campaign records. In 2022, the couple hosted a fundraising dinner for Gov. Kevin Stitt at their home on 63 acres in Norman, where guests were encouraged to contribute up to $2,900 a person to the governor’s reelection campaign.
Expanded monitoring aimed at people convicted of low-level crimes
The Department of Corrections says the goal of the GPS program is to reintegrate people into society through home confinement, reentering the workforce, and community-based treatment and support programs. The agency calls the program an “extension of incarceration,”
Sen. Bill Coleman, R-Ponca City, authored a bill in 2021 at the request of the Department of Corrections to expand the GPS program. The bill expanded eligibility to include people sentenced between five and ten years of prison if they are within three years of release, excluding those convicted of child abuse and exploitation of vulnerable adults.
“This bill improves our community sentencing statutes by ensuring those who committed low level crimes and don’t present a danger to society can return to their families and the workforce,” Coleman said in a press release at the time. “This will allow them to become productive members of society while lowering incarceration costs and prison overcrowding.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the bill into law in May 2021.
After news of Polston’s release broke, Coleman told The Frontier he didn’t remember the bill.
Few people in state prisons get released through the program. The Department of Corrections had 128 people on GPS monitoring as of Monday.
The Borregos today
For the Borrego family, it’s not about following a policy but justice.
Micaela’s mother, Krista Borrego told The Frontier that everyone assumed her daughter would be a “vegetable” after the crash, but she fought to survive.
Micaela Borrego visited the Oklahoma State Capitol during a DUI awareness event on Feb. 16. a few days after the family learned that Polston would soon be released. Her right hand, which she could no longer use, rested at her side as a permanent reminder of the crash that nearly killed her. Borrego has made a lot of progress through rehabilitation, but she still faces lifelong recovery. She suffered a traumatic brain injury which still affects her today. She walks with a limp, and can’t fix her hair or button her pants and speaks with a stutter. Krista Borrego said Polston wouldn’t look at Micaela in court and didn’t appear remorseful.
“The fact that she and her attorneys sat there in a courtroom watching videos of how she was before, how she was found by the police, the pictures and videos of her recovery and watched her limp up to a podium, give a victim’s impact statement with a severe speech impediment and be unmoved, is beyond me,” she said. “The callousness of acting like money fixes everything.”
Micaela Borrego had to stop attending college and attend an adult daycare during her parents’ work hours, according to a negligence lawsuit her family filed against the Polstons in 2023. The Polstons eventually agreed to pay $5 million to the Borregos to settle the case, Sara Polston’s attorneys said in court documents.
Polston’s attorneys later told the judge in her criminal case that the settlement should be weighed in giving her a lighter sentence, according to court records.
“While of course, we are grateful that she does have that, it is certainly not a legal defense and it did not come from them personally,” Krista Borrego said.
Comment from civil attorney
Krista Borrego believes the judge already took all of Polston’s sobriety tests and programs into consideration when sentencing her to prison, and that should have no bearing on her incarceration.
Krista Borrego said her daughter was happy to be alive, but Polston’s actions changed her forever.
“Every aspect of her life has been altered. Yes, we make it work. Yes, we find workarounds. But this woman has not even been inconvenienced, other than having to pay legal fees that she personally incurred and whatever expenses are coming with this GPS,” she said. “This has just been a hiccup for her. My daughter will be dealing with this stuff forever. She wants to have kids. How do you change a diaper with one hand?”
Krista Borrego said she believes driving under the influence should be classified as a violent offense if it causes serious injuries and that people like Polston shouldn’t be eligible for release on GPS monitoring.
“My daughter literally almost died, and quite frankly, a part of her did,” she said. “She’s not the same person.”
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