You may recall the Schlitterbahn case from last year, where a 10-year old boy was decapitated on a water slide and the owner and designers were charged with various crimes, including second degree murder.
Well.
The Kansas City Star reports that Wyandotte County Judge Robert Burns found Friday that state prosecutors showed grand jurors inadmissible evidence in dismissing second-degree murder charges against Schlitterbahn owner Jeff Henry and designer John Schooley. The judge also dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against operations manager Tyler Miles.
Here’s the coverage from the KC Star, which clarifies things a bit for me:
[Judge Robert] Burns sided with defense attorneys who argued that lawyers in Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office showed a Wyandotte County grand jury evidence that would not have been admissible in trial — clips of reality television, misleading expert testimony and references to an unrelated death from years ago — that improperly influenced the grand jury in handing down criminal charges.
…
For now, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry, Verruckt designer John Schooley and former Schlitterbahn operations manager Tyler Miles face no criminal charges in Caleb’s death. The Kansas Attorney General can seek criminal charges again, either through another grand jury, through a preliminary hearing or seek an appeal of Burns’ decision. Or they could just walk away from the case.
Interesting side note:
Since the Kansas Attorney General took over the case from the Wyandotte County District Attorney, county taxpayers have paid {Kansas AG Derek] Schmidt’s office more than $125,000 in reimbursed expenses through November. The office’s work has resulted in two defendants being acquitted at trial last year and now five dismissed indictments.
One of Grits For Breakfast’s round ups this week contained a little more information on that Lubbock medical examiner mess I mentioned previously. This situation is even weirder than I initially thought it was. You have Dr. Andrews saying “the previous ME was a drunk, he used county facilities for private business, and he took bribes to change results”. But then you have the guy who supposedly made these claims to Dr. Andrews saying, “No, I never said any such thing.” Keep an eye on this one.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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