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KC Star: Congressman Marshall Used Political Ties to Erase Conviction

A new report from the Kansas City Star shows how Kansas Senate candidate Congressman Roger Marshall used political and business relationships to erase a reckless driving conviction in an arrangement described as “bizarre” and “very unusual.” The report reveals for the first time that the county prosecutor handling Marshall’s case was the son of Marshall’s neighbor, business partner, and campaign donor. 

Weeks after Marshall was found guilty of reckless driving, the prosecutor asked a judge to erase the conviction from Marshall’s record and replace it with a minor traffic infraction. Marshall, his counsel, and the prosecutor had all signed and approved of the original document that showed Marshall was convicted of reckless driving prior to the prosecutor telling the judge that the document was “typed up the other way” and asking for the conviction to be erased. 

Marshall’s campaign offered “no explanation” for the request to erase the conviction. The Kansas City Star and the campaign of GOP primary opponent Kris Kobach have asked Congressman Marshall to release a sealed affidavit that contains more information about why Marshall was convicted of reckless driving and charged with battery, but Marshall has refused. 

“This type of corruption and backroom dealing is exactly what Kansans can’t stand about Washington,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Congressman Marshall owes Kansans an explanation of how he used his chummy relationship with a prosecutor to get himself off the hook for a criminal conviction, and should immediately release the affidavit and stop hiding the facts from Kansas voters.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Kansas City Star: Roger Marshall was convicted of reckless driving in 2008. Here’s how it was erased
By Jonathan Shorman and Bryan Lowry

Key Points:

  • On Christmas Eve 2008, court documents show, Assistant Barton County Attorney Carey Fleske approached a district court judge with a request: erase Roger Marshall’s conviction that fall for reckless driving and replace it with a lesser charge.
  • The judge agreed, turning a suspended jail sentence for the future Kansas Congressman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate into a slap on the wrist.
  • But Fleske was more than a prosecutor. He was also the son of Marshall’s business partner and neighbor.
  • Marshall was originally charged with reckless driving and battery after a May 2008 encounter where he was accused of hitting a Great Bend resident with his truck. 
  • Marshall’s campaign has offered little explanation for the reduction in charges or the candidate’s ties to the prosecutor. The campaign also refused a request by The Star to release an affidavit in the criminal case that would likely contain a law enforcement narrative of the incident.
  • But weeks later on Christmas Eve 2008, Fleske went to District Court Judge Mike Keeley with a proposal to eliminate Marshall’s conviction from a sentencing document.
  • Fleske is the son of Leonard T. Fleske, a prominent Great Bend orthopedic surgeon who in 2000 co-founded with Marshall and other physicians a surgical center that eventually became a hospital. Business records show Marshall and a living trust named for the elder Fleske’s wife both had ownership stakes of 9.4 percent in Great Bend Surgical Properties at the time of the case.
  • In addition, Leonard Fleske lived across the street from Marshall on Quail Creek Drive in Great Bend in 2008, according to business and court records. Since 2015, he and his wife, Sheila, have given a combined $3,500 to Marshall’s campaign.
  • It’s unclear how Marshall could have been convicted of reckless driving in error. A Journal Entry of Plea and Sentencing — the formal court record of the conviction — was submitted and signed by Fleske. Both McVay and Marshall signed that they approved of the Dec. 11, 2008, document. Judge Don Alvord, who oversaw most of the case, also signed.
  • Patrick McInerney, a defense attorney who works in both Kansas and Missouri, called the nunc pro tunc order bizarre.
  • “It’s interesting that the prosecutor, defense lawyer, judge would miss that big of an error, particularly the defense lawyer,” said McInerney, who previously worked as a prosecutor in Jackson County, Mo., and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Western Missouri. “That’s very unusual.”
  • More than a month later, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office filed a complaint with the district court alleging one count of battery and one count of reckless driving. According to the complaint, Marshall “did unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally, or recklessly, cause bodily harm” to Suchy.
  • An affidavit supporting the complaint, filed the next day, is under seal. While Kansas law was changed a few years ago to allow routine disclosure of probable cause affidavits, those filed prior to July 1, 2014 are accessible only by court order at the request of defendants or their attorneys.
  • Marshall’s campaign has refused to release the document.
  • In his ruling, Alvord found that a “factual basis” existed for the reckless driving charge and decreed that Marshall was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  • The order also removed references to Marshall’s suspended jail sentence.
  • McInerney, the former prosecutor, said Kansas law allows the court to amend criminal judgments for clerical errors, mistakes and omissions, but that its use in this case extends beyond normal usage.
  • “Procedure to address a clerical error is designed for situations where a 1 should have been a 2. It’s not to replace a whole charge,” McInerney said.

Kansas City Star: ‘Great irregularities.’ Kobach calls on Marshall to release affidavit in 2008 case
By Bryan Lowry

Key Points: 

  • Kris Kobach has called on Rep. Roger Marshall to release the probable cause affidavit in a 2008 criminal case in which Marshall’s conviction for reckless driving was later reduced to a lesser charge.
  • “There were great irregularities in how this case was handled, all in an apparent effort to conceal from the public what Roger Marshall did. I call on Marshall to release the probable cause affidavit. Voters need to know what happened,” Kobach said in a Sunday email to The Star before posting the same comment on Twitter.
  • Kobach’s effort to pressure Marshall follows The Star’s reporting on the personal connection between Marshall and the Barton County assistant prosecutor who handled the case. Carey Fleske, the prosecutor, is the son of Marshall’s business partner and neighbor.
  • The Star had asked Marshall’s campaign to release a sealed affidavit in the case before publishing its story Sunday. Marshall as the defendant has the power to release the affidavit that supported the initial charges.

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