Key Takeaways
- Police arrested Ree Drummond’s 23-year-old foster son, Jamar Goff, after they say he fled an officer and struck another near the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
- Goff faces assault, controlled-substance possession, eluding, and drug-paraphernalia charges after investigators reported finding a glass pipe and suspected methamphetamine; his bond stands at $37,000.
- Goff joined the Drummond household in 2018 after meeting Ree’s sons through football and later played for the University of Central Oklahoma.
Jamar Goff, the foster son of Food Network star Ree “The Pioneer Woman” Drummond, is facing drug and assault charges after police say he ran from an officer and struck another during a chase near the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Police arrested Goff, 23, in Birmingham. His bond was set at $37,000.
According to People, the encounter began with a report of someone asleep on a bench near a campus fountain. An officer found Goff there and later learned of an outstanding warrant. When the officer tried to take him into custody, police say Goff ran toward nearby hospital buildings and hit a second officer in the chin as she tried to stop him. Investigators reported finding a glass pipe and suspected methamphetamine after the chase.
Goff is charged with second-degree assault involving a law enforcement officer, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, attempting to elude an officer, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
For viewers of The Pioneer Woman, Goff is someone Drummond has written about with unmistakable affection. He met her sons Bryce and Todd through football and moved in with Ree and her husband, Ladd, in 2018.
“Jamar’s circumstances presented themselves to us in a way we couldn’t ignore,” she wrote in her book Frontier Follies.
Days after his arrival, an ATV accident left him with a serious foot injury that required surgery. Drummond said the family grew close while helping him recover. He later returned to football and began playing for the University of Central Oklahoma in 2021.
Drummond’s image as a “down home” ranch cook has faced scrutiny before. In 2017, critics called out an older Pioneer Woman segment in which she served “Asian hot wings” to a group of men who rejected them before she brought out Buffalo wings. The food blog Thick Dumpling Skin criticized the scene for making the Asian dish the joke.
Her family’s ranching history drew far more consequential questions after Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon renewed attention on the Osage Nation’s history. An investigation found that members of the extended Drummond family, including Ladd, owned an estimated 9% of Osage County.
Earlier family landholdings also included property once owned by William “King” Hale, who was convicted of murder tied to the Osage Reign of Terror and was played by Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon.
