‘Police operate above the law,’ critics say of jail time for Jackson County deputy
A day after a former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 180 days in jail for shooting a woman in the back, Kansas City attorneys and activists said it was a lenient punishment that showed special treatment for law enforcement.
The sentence was handed down to Lauren Michael, 31, Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court after she pleaded guilty in January to felony first-degree assault.
Judge Patrick Campbell sentenced Michael to six months in jail and four years probation with a six-year suspended prison sentence. The assault charge can carry up to 15 years in prison under Missouri law, and on Thursday prosecutors had asked for six years of time in prison.
Prosecutor Dion Sankar asked the judge to sentence Michael one year for each of the bullets she fired and another for being dishonest in her statements about the incident. He told the court that Michael was “absolutely unreasonable” when she shot Simek in the back.
“This was hunting,” he said.
Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, said the sentence of only 180 days behind bars “wouldn’t ordinarily happen if a citizen shot another citizen.
“In this case, that judge failed to properly serve the community’s interest,” McDonald said.
Michael’s attorney Molly Hastings did not respond to a message left Friday.
Michael was on duty as a deputy, working in Kansas City on Aug. 8, 2019, when she saw a scooter traveling in the wrong direction near 37th and Main streets. A little while later, Michael located Brittany Simek, who had been a passenger on the scooter, sitting on a stoop in the 4000 block of Oak Street.
The 27-year-old Coast Guard veteran took the stand Thursday, testifying that her hands were in the air when Michael confronted her and pulled her to the ground. When Michael used a Taser on her, Simek pushed the weapon away and began to run, she said. As she fled, she was shot.
She began running in a zigzag pattern to dodge the bullets as she was “gushing out blood,” she told the court.
One of the bullets hit Simek’s cellphone. Another bullet broke her sacrum, a bony structure connected to the pelvis, and had to be surgically removed. Simek also had four Taser probes lodged in her body.
After Simek made it back to her apartment, she was afraid to call police for help. She made a tourniquet.
“I believe I’m going to die,” she said, recalling that she made a phone call to her significant other saying she was passing away.
Simek said police then barged into her apartment and dragged her to an ambulance.
Bullet fragments remain embedded in her body and she is unable to run, Simek said. She has struggled psychologically in the aftermath.
At the time of the shooting, Michael said Simek took her Taser away from her and shocked her with it.
But investigators later cast doubt on that story. The Taser cartridges had been deployed within three seconds, which did not leave enough time for the physical altercation Michael had described, prosecutors said.
‘Offensive’
Henry Service, an attorney who helped organize protests last summer against police brutality, called the sentence “absolutely ridiculous.”
As a criminal defense lawyer, Service said his clients face much harsher punishments for nonviolent crimes.
“The police operate above the law,” Service said. “They operate as an occupying force that simply doesn’t have to follow any of the rules that normally apply to everybody else.”
Simek filed a lawsuit about three months after she was shot.
Her civil attorney Michael Yonke said they wanted Michael to be given a longer sentence, but were still satisfied with the outcome.
However, Yonke said some of the things he heard during Thursday’s nearly three-and-a-half hour hearing were disturbing.
A sentencing assessment report submitted ahead of the hearing showed Michael continued to blame Simek and attack her character, Judge Campbell said, adding that he found it “offensive.”
Yonke said the contents of the report were “absolutely disgusting.”
“Lauren Michael has learned nothing. She remains to be a danger to the community whether she’s in law enforcement of not.”
As a convicted felon, Michael is barred from being a police officer.
Yonke also said the testimony of two police officers was worrying.
When Sankar asked Kansas City police Sgt. Jonathan Rivers if it was OK to shoot someone in the back, Rivers said it “depends on the circumstances.”
Ben Kenney, a retired officer who worked for KCPD and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, said Michael went through the use-of-force continuum properly.
“It’s of great concern that no one in the law enforcement community is getting the message about what’s appropriate and safe conduct in our community based on their testimony,” Yonke said.
The trial in the Simek’s civil suit is scheduled for Oct. 25.
The shooting wasn’t the first time Michael had shot someone and then claimed the person had grabbed her weapon.
In May 2017, Michael was working off-duty security at a Raytown Walmart when she shot and killed Donald Sneed III, who was suspected of shoplifting.
In this case too, Michael claimed the suspect took her stun gun and shocked her with it.
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the sentence.
