Families hire private lawyers to help prosecute alleged killer of two WyCo deputies
The families of two Wyandotte County deputies slain in the line of duty have hired two highly regarded defense attorneys to help prosecute the man charged in the capital murder case.
Tom Bath and Tricia Bath, husband and wife law partners, have been retained as associate prosecutors to assist the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of Antoine Fielder.
But attorneys for Fielder have indicated they will oppose the Baths’ participation in the case.
Fielder, 30, is charged with fatally shooting deputies Theresa King and Patrick Rohrer last June as they were escorting him back to jail after a court hearing in a robbery case.
Though rarely done, Kansas law allows for crime victims to pay private attorneys to assist county prosecutors, who are required to recognize them as associate counsel.
The law does not specify how they would work together but says that criminal charges can’t be dismissed without input from the privately hired attorney.
Because he is charged with capital murder, Fielder faces a potential death sentence if convicted. He is being represented by lawyers from the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit.
The defense notified the judge at a recent hearing that it opposes the appointment and was given until Jan. 4 to file written objections.
The Baths were told to file their response by Jan. 7, and a hearing on the issue is scheduled for Jan. 9.
The Baths and defense attorneys said Wednesday that they could not comment.
A spokesman for Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree released a brief statement Wednesday: “Our office met with the Baths prior to them joining and we have absolutely no objections to them doing so.”
Tom Bath was an assistant district attorney in Johnson County from 1986 until he went into private practice in 1992. And Tricia Bath was an assistant Wyandotte County district attorney before she entered private practice.
Both are prominent defense attorneys, notable most recently in the ongoing involuntary manslaughter case against Schlitterbahn water park’s former director of operations.
Antoine Fielder would not be the first high-profile case where a family hired Tom Bath as a prosecutor.
He helped prosecute Thomas Murray, a professor at Kansas State University, who in 2005 was convicted in Douglas County in the 2003 killing of his former wife, Carmin Ross.
This story was originally published December 26, 2018 at 1:46 PM.
