An appeals court has given new life to the felony theft case against a Wyandotte County attorney accused of stealing more than $400,000 from the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities.
Late last week, the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned a 2009 district court ruling that threw out 57 felony charges against Rodney Turner, the Star reported. A grand jury indicted Turner and ex-BPU chief administrative
officer Marc Conklin in October 2008 for allegedly stealing more than $400,000 from
the BPU. Conklin allegedly knowingly approved payment of phony bills for legal
services that Turner
had submitted between September 1, 2003, and April 30, 2008.
In
March 2009, Conklin
committed suicide. A judge later threw out the charges against
Turner, citing "prejudicial statements" made by Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Bill Delaney to the grand
jury that implied the two men in the 1987 killing
of Wyandotte County Democratic Party Chairman Chuck Thompson.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman appealed the ruling, arguing the grand jury indicted the men solely on the alleged BPU scheme. The appeals court has now agreed with him:
The Star reported that Turner's attorney will ask the Kansas Supreme Court to review the ruling. Meanwhile, Turner and Conklin's widow are suing Delaney over the Thompson comments."While we agree with Turner that any reference to the Thompson murder investigation was completely irrelevant to the grand jury proceedings, it does not necessarily follow that such irrelevant testimony was sufficient to warrant a dismissal of the grand jury indictment."
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finally,the real figure they stole was probably closer to 3/4 million $.rate payer money,and the elected board was never very active in getting it back.some of the current members recieved donations from these thieves,which explains their reticence,hopefully the da will explre this avenue
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