The ghost of Chuck Thompson is still haunting Wyandotte County 21 years after the Democratic Party Chairman's murder. Questions about Thompson's murder has led a Kansas judge to dismiss the case against an attorney accused of stealing $400,000 from the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities.
Kansas Senior Judge Jack Lively told The Kansas City Star that he threw out the case against Rodney L. Turner because Wyandotte County prosecutors let KBI Special Agent William Delaney undermine the grand jury process by repeatedly making statements about the murder.
In testimony before the grand jury, Delaney "tainted the grand jury and violated Mr. Turner's rights of due process" by making statements that attempted to connect Turner to Thompson's murder, Lively wrote.
"The murder was
irrelevant to the alleged Board of Public Utilities violations that the
Grand Jury was charged with investigating, but the State allowed
information and speculation about the murder to be thrust into the
hands of the grand jury proceeding," Lively wrote.
posted a copy of the journal entry from the judge's ruling, which
outlines Lively's reasons for dismissing the case. Those reasons
include prosecutors and Delaneydepriving Turner of his Fifth Amendment rights and the state failing to conduct a fair grand jury proceeding.
A grand jury field charges against Turner and Marc Conklin, the BPU's
chief administrative officer, last October for allegedly stealing $400,000 from the power company. WyCo prosecutors alleged
that Conklin knowingly approved payment for fake bills submitted by
Turner over a five-year period. The case against Conklin ended in late March when the 44-year-old committed suicide.
The Star is also reported that Wyandotte County District
Attorney Jerome Gorman has pledged to appeal the Lively's decision this
morning. Gorman is also keeping open his option for filing charges
against Turner but will wait for an answer to his appeal.
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