Monthly Archives: December 2008

Wichita police officer to go to trial with sex discrimination suit

Dec. 22, 20086:38 p.m.

A Wichita police officer’s claims that she was sexually discriminated against should go to trial, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled today.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Monti Belot to dismiss the lawsuit by other women working for the WPD but reinstated the case of Greta Semsroth.

But the three-judge panel said a jury should decided whether the department treated Semsroth unfairly on two of her claims:

  • That she was subjected to a hostile work environment by other supervisors and officers repeatedly referring to her by a derogatory term usually reserved for women.
  • And that after she complained her supervisors retaliated against her by reassigning her to a job on what other officers called “the banishment beat,” in east Wichita, where there are few serious crimes and limited opportunity for advancement.

In the ruling, the judges said:

“The evidence indicates a work environment that was permeated with gender-based intimidation and insult. … The allegations suggest that sexual discrimination remains a concern within the Department.”

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A new face joins Wichita’s Parents of Murdered Children

Dec. 18, 20087:53 p.m.

I did a double take when I saw Andrea Brooks in the courtroom of a trial that didn’t involve her murdered sister, Chelsea.

Now Andrea, 20, is volunteering with Wichita’s chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. Andrea and her family said Parents of Murdered Children helped them through their difficulty navigating the court system as they waited more than two years and watched three defendants in the case of Chelsea’s killing at age 14. It ended just two weeks ago with the sentencing of Elgin Robinson.

This week, Andrea was in court with another family enduring a tragic loss: that of Kailee Hundley, the 13-month-old girl who died accidentally at day care. Jessica Cummings, the day care provider, was convicted Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter, as Andrea helped console Kailee’s family.

“I decided I wanted to give something back,” Andrea said. “Because Corinne helped me so much.”

There’s rarely a murder trial in Wichita where you won’t see Corinne Radke, who founded the local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. She has been a steady shoulder for the tears of those who have lost loved ones, as she lost her son, to violence. I’ve even seen Corinne in trials where we were the only ones in the gallery: no family for either the victim or defendant.

If you want to volunteer for, or need help from, Parents of Murdered Children, call the local office at 316-265-1600.

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Office manager’s sentence: two years in federal prison for fraud

Dec. 18, 200812:02 p.m.

A 51-year-old Wichita woman will spend more than two years in a federal prison for stealing more than $300,000 from the doctor’s office where she worked.

U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown sentenced Frances E. Holt to 27 months in prison on Wednesday.

Holt pleaded guilty in September to mail fraud and wire fraud, admitting she made $323,356 in unauthorized purchases on a credit card issued to Wichita physician Charles W. Beck. Holt had worked for Beck since 1996, keeping payroll records, entering patient charges, printing checks and paying bills for the office.

But she also obtained a credit card without Beck’s knowledge and used it to buy items for herself, her friends and relatives.

Brown also ordered Holt to pay back the money she embezzled.

There is no parole from federal prison. After Holt’s release she will serve another three years probation.

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Harper returns home after serving time for shooting PI

Dec. 10, 200812:47 p.m.

The man who shot Wichita private eye Emory Goad said through his lawyer that he was too old and sick to go to prison. But two years later, 79-year-old John Harper called after returning from serving his time and said he’s never felt better.

As his 2006 trial for second-degree murder ended, Harper drove the Rolls Royce at the center of the violent case to the Sedgwick County Courthouse

As his 2006 trial for second-degree murder ended, Harper drove the Rolls Royce at the center of the violent case to the Sedgwick County Courthouse

“I came out healthier,” Harper said.

Harper spent the first year of his sentence for attempted second-degree murder at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in 23-hour lockdown.

“There’s not much you can do there except read,” Harper said.

But after being transferred to Lansing, Harper said he started getting exercise, which improved his health.

“I started walking five miles a day around the path, and then I started running,” Harper said. “Pretty soon, I’m was so healthy they put me on work detail. I’m almost 80 years old, and I’m mowing lawns.”

The former car dealer was convicted of shooting Goad in May 2005, as the private investigator tried to repossess a 1951 Rolls Royce at Harper’s house. Goad could have died.

Harper was outspoken during his trial, claiming he shouldn’t have been charged with a crime. After the shooting he told police he hoped Goad died. And after going to prison, his family took out a series of ads in the Eagle claiming his innocence.

Now, Harper sounded more mellow on the phone. He’s on parole and said he’ll end up on house arrest, an ankle bracelet monitoring his movements, for the rest of his life.

“It really will help me,” Harper said. “I don’t ever want to see Emory Goad again.”

Harper’s family managed to maintain his house. And his grandson still has the Rolls.

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How much prison time should a fake Indian chief get?

Dec. 9, 20088:30 a.m.

Malcolm Webber will soon face sentencing as the convicted chief of a fake American Indian tribe that duped thousands of illegal immigrants out of money with the promise of U.S. citizenship.

Lawyers in the case are asking U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown to consider sentences between eight months and 18 years for the 70-year-old Webber.

A jury in August convicted Webber on six counts, including immigration fraud, for selling memberships in the unrecognized Kaweah Indian Nation for hundreds of dollars. As the case unfolded in Wichita, evidence showed that Webber used Hispanic churches to recruit members, which eventually reached 10,000 to 12,000 nationwide.

Prosecutor Brent Anderson said Webber should get maximum time of more than 17 years for preying on vulnerable victims:

Here, we have thousands and thousands of persons who gave what little money they may have had to Mr. Webber in the hope he could make good on his promise of making them U.S. citizens. … (They) either did not know that or naively believed, in their desperation to stay in the United States, that he somehow could make that happen.

But Kurt Kerns argues in Webber’s defense that the people who joined were in the U.S. illegally and so were participants in the crime – not victims. Kerns also disputed the prosecution’s contention that Webber carried out an elaborate scheme over years to promote fraud:

The government contends that because tribal members received official looking membership cards and certificates, this somehow makes this a sophisticated operation. This is the equivalent of saying that because someone has nice handwriting, they must be a writer.

Anderson said no court has ever contemplated the kind of lengths Webber went to in selling his “tribe:”

Mr. Webber created an entire government … complete with a secretary of state, cabinet members, articles of incorporation, multiple offices complete with official seals … an Indian store complete with Kaweah trinkets and merchandise, actual Kaweah Indian Nation license plates, and a police department with vehicles, uniformed officers, badges and guns.

Kerns is asking the judge to compare the sentences given to those other chiefs, secretaries of state and police officers – all of whom received about a year or less following guilty pleas.

Webber faces Brown for sentencing at 10 a.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Wichita.

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County public defender’s office stops taking cases

Dec. 8, 200811:56 a.m.

UPDATED: With judge’s plan to appoint private attorneys and quotes from the judge.

The Sedgwick County Regional Public Defenders office has stopped taking cases for at least two weeks, its chief said this morning.

“We have an obligation to offer ethical representation, and we just can’t keep going on like we’re have been,” Steve Osburn said. “We just had to stop the bleeding.”

Update 1: Judge Eric Yost, who presides over the criminal division of Sedgwick County District Court, said he will appoint private attorneys to fill the void and expects them to be paid by the state.

“We have an obligation under the law to make sure everyone has legal representation, and we need to do everything we can to provide that,” Yost said.

Osburn’s office lost two lawyers, who went to work for the district attorney’s office at the first of the month, and he learned last week that there wasn’t enough money to replace them. Two other attorneys are on extended medical leave. That came on top of a caseload that has been increasing for three years. Public defenders in Wichita average nearly 200 cases apiece every year. There are currently 22 attorneys in the office.

“We are hoping for permission to fill the vacancies with the reduced budget,” said Pat Scalia, director of the state’s Board of Indigent Defense Services.

This is the first time the Wichita office has had to stop accepting cases, Scalia said, although she said it has happened in other offices throughout the state.

Update 2: Yost said he will assign cases to lawyers who have volunteered to take court-appointed clients.

“But their volume is about to increase,” the judge said.

Meanwhile, judges in Sedgwick County district court are struggling to find representation for people charged with crimes who can’t afford attorneys, as required by law.

“We don’t have an answer,” said Judge Eric Yost, presiding judge of the criminal division, after getting word of the shut-down late Friday afternoon. “We don’t know what we’re going to do.”

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Hey, lawyers: I’m more trusted than you … kind of, for now

Dec. 4, 200811:54 a.m.

I always say that when I married an attorney we were both shocked, shocked, to learn that each other’s profession had a code of ethics. The public might agree.

A Gallup poll released this week shows the public rated journalists above lawyers in their perceptions of ethics and honesty. But not by much. For journalists, 25 percent of the public think we have high ethics and honesty, compared to 18 percent for lawyers. Of those distrusting us, 31 percent think journalists have low ethics. For attorneys, it’s 37 percent.

Trust in bankers fell amid the mortgage crisis. Despite making a mess of the economy, they ranked just behind journalists but still ahead of attorneys.

Nurses are perceived as having the highest ethics and honesty (84 percent), followed by pharmacists, teachers and doctors. Clergy, interestingly, were sixth on the list, behind police.

At the bottom of the list: members of Congress, auto salespeople, telemarketers and — dead last — lobbyists.

(via AM Law Daily)

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Judge again admonishes Schneiders’ lawyers

Dec. 3, 20084:01 p.m.

Judge Monti Belot continues to admonish lawyers for motions they’re filing on behalf of Stephen and Linda Schneider, as the couple await trial charged with more than 30 federal crimes related to their prescription practices for painkillers at their Haysville clinic.

As in earlier orders, Belot’s latest ruling was terse and critical of the Schneider defense team’s efforts to argue their case

The Schneiders’ lawyers had asked Belot to reconsider a ruling last month, in which he rejected their attempts to keep prosecutors’ medical experts from testifying at the Schneider’s trial.

Belot noted in his order today the defense included a list of medical articles to support their arguments but which, in fact, supported the other side:

“The court is left to wonder whether defendants’ counsel even read the articles they claim will require exclusion of the government’s experts’ testimony.”
Belot concluded that the government’s experts’ opinions “are reliable, credible and will be helpful to the jury” and the Schneiders’ lawyers “have failed to provide any basis to challenge that conclusion.”

Trial is set for February.

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The kinds of emails that get you in trouble

Dec. 3, 200811:55 a.m.

My wife says you should never put anything in a company e-mail that you don’t want to be shown to 12 strangers on a big movie screen. She practices employment law, including sexual harassment lawsuits, and she said you wouldn’t believe what people put in e-mails that end up being shown to juries in public courtrooms.

Searching electronic archives of company e-mails and files is becoming an increasingly useful tool for lawyers involved in lawsuits against you or your boss. It’s called “e-discovery.”

Following are phrases that lawyers and investigators like to search for, from Roger Matus’ “Death by E-mail” blog:

  • “I could get into trouble for telling you this, but…”
  • “Delete this email immediately.”
  • “I really shouldn’t put this in writing.”
  • “Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.”
  • “Is this actually legal?”
(Thanks to Walter Olson for pointing this out via Twitter):

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