Wyandotte police officials oppose DA’s proposal to study possible innocence cases

Police agencies in Wyandotte County are opposing a proposal by the District Attorney’s Office to study possible innocence cases.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree recently sought funding from the Unified Government Board of County Commissioners for the creation of a Conviction Integrity Unit. The Unit would research claims of innocence, prosecutorial misconduct and law enforcement error. Dupree said his office has preliminarily identified 19 cases warranting additional review.

But in response to Dupree’s proposal, Kansas City, Kan., Police Chief Terry Zeigler, Wyandotte County Sheriff Donald Ash and two representatives with the Fraternal Order of Police wrote a letter opposing the Unit, calling it a “clear deviation from the criminal justice system’s handling of manifest injustice claims” under Kansas law.

The letter also claimed that “mishandling” of such cases would have adverse economic consequences considering Kansas lawmakers recently passed a bill to compensate the wrongfully convicted. They also wrote the safety of their communities may be put at risk.

They submitted the letter to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.

Dupree’s office issued a letter in rebuttal on Tuesday. The letter states the Unit would adhere to Kansas law in its review of cases.

The letter also addressed concerns raised by the law enforcement officials that law school interns “with no experience” would review some cases.

Dupree wrote that some interns would be provisionally approved to practice law in the state, and they are supervised by a team of lawyers. Their role would be to perform preliminary research. Cases that warrant a deeper look would then be transferred to the Unit.

Working in partnership with the Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence and the Innocence Project Clinic at UMKC allowed Dupree to request less money — $162,000 — from the Commission, he wrote.

The Commission has committed to funding the Unit, Dupree wrote.

The law enforcement officials also called into question the release of Lamonte McIntyre, who was wrongly convicted of double murder and spent decades in prison.

Zeigler, Ash and Fraternal Order of Police lodge presidents Scott Kirkpatrick and Max Sybrant wrote that the District Attorney’s Office did not effectively fight against McIntyre’s release.

“The District Attorney’s Office failed to fulfill its role as an advocate for the homicide victim(s) and the State in this case,” they wrote.

But Zeigler, in a text to The Star, said he hasn’t “reviewed the evidence” in McIntyre’s case.

Zeigler was more concerned, he said, with Dupree’s process in reviewing the case.

Dupree wrote that while reviewing McIntyre’s case, his staff spoke before McIntyre’s hearing with multiple witnesses who recanted their testimony and with members of the victims’ families, who called for McIntyre’s release.

The evidence was severely lacking in McIntyre’s conviction, The Star has reported and a Wyandotte County judge agreed, ruling manifest injustice had occurred. Following the ruling, McIntyre was freed last fall.

Roger Golubski, the detective who worked the McIntyre case for the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, and other investigators issued no search warrants, arrested McIntyre after 19 minutes of interviews, did not conduct a thorough forensic investigation, did not interview key subjects and never discovered a link between McIntyre and the victims, according to testimony at McIntyre’s innocence hearing last year. No gun was ever recovered.

Golubski preyed on black women, some of them prostitutes, using his access to illegal drugs and the power of his badge to exploit them, multiple people have alleged in sworn testimony, as reported previously by The Star.

A relative of the victims and a witness, Josephine Quinn, said in an affidavit that she told the prosecutor during the trial, Terra Morehead, that McIntyre was the wrong man.

Morehead told her, according to Quinn’s affidavit, that “it was too late for her to do anything, that the jury was deliberating. It was in the hands of the jury.”

Niko Quinn, another witness, has long said she lied during McIntyre’s trial by naming him as the perpetrator. She later said she was pressured to do so. Morehead threatened to take away her children, she said in an affidavit, if she didn’t cooperate.

Morehead has not commented on those allegations.

Addressing the law enforcement officials’ stance against economic losses for the state in researching potential innocent inmates, Dupree wrote that the pursuit of justice must outweigh concerns of cost.

“Ensuring justice for the citizens of Wyandotte County through the (Conviction Integrity Unit) must be paramount,” he wrote.