‘It is extremely rare’: KC lawyers shocked ex-detective guilty in killing is out on bond
READ MORE
Eric DeValkenaere conviction
In 2021, KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere was convicted in the fatal shooting of Cameron Lamb. It was the first time a Kansas City police officer was found guilty in the killing of a Black man.
Expand All
When a judge this week determined a former Kansas City police detective could remain free on bond while he appeals his manslaughter conviction, it came as a surprise to local defense attorneys.
The action is so uncommon, some said, that they wouldn’t have even thought to ask for it.
“It is extremely rare,” John Picerno said. “There’s no question about that.”
Those lawyers could remember only a few cases: One was in the 1990s for a convicted murderer who then fled and was found a decade later in Mississippi, Picerno recalled.
But attorneys do not typically ask judges to let their clients remain outside prison walls amid appeals. And some lawyers said they believe that a defendant of color or without financial means would be unlikely to get the same result.
On Tuesday, though, Judge J. Dale Youngs granted that request from Eric DeValkenaere, the 43-year-old former detective who Youngs convicted in November of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the Dec. 3, 2019, shooting death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. It was the first time a KCPD officer was convicted in the killing of a Black man.
The ruling meant DeValkenaere will remain free even after he is sentenced March 4.
His attorneys have not yet filed his appeal, which could take a year or two to resolve. If his appeal fails, he would then have to serve the prison sentence Youngs imposes.
DeValkenaere faces up to four years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge and a minimum of three years on the armed criminal action charge.
The judge’s decision Tuesday was unusual and surprising, but not unheard of, local lawyers told The Star.
Kevin Baldwin, an attorney who practices in Jackson County and the Northland, said it’s not common for a convicted person to remain free when they have not yet appealed. A person of color or a poor defendant would not be granted such a request, he said.
“I would like for someone to show me any African-American defendant who has been convicted by a jury of a similar crime who has been given that same latitude,” Baldwin said. “I don’t think that you’re going to be able to find one.”
The 2020 protests in Kansas City, Baldwin said, occurred because police officers are not held accountable and are given preferential treatment for their bad actions. That, he said, is “exactly” what happened Tuesday.
Rick Johnson, another criminal defense attorney, also described the judge’s decision as “atypical.” Bonds are normally increased or revoked after a defendant is convicted because they become a flight risk, he said.
“These types of convictions of police officers are new,” Johnson added. “This is all new territory for us.”
Lawyer Willis Toney, a former prosecutor in Jackson County, said emotions and the political climate would suggest DeValkenaere should be incarcerated. But he said an unbiased application of the bail statute supports Youngs’ granting of DeValkenaere’s request.
Youngs’ one-page order granting DeValkenaere’s motion said he considered the arguments presented, but it did not provide a detailed explanation for his ruling.
DeValkenaere was not considered a flight risk and had no prior criminal convictions, his lawyers said. And, unlike some other defendants, he had the money to pay his bond and to hire attorneys to appeal his conviction.
Toney recalled one case in which a lawyer was accused of killing his law partner and remained out of jail pending his appeal. He noted that the man, like DeValkenaere, was white.
“Minority defendants do not normally meet all the criteria for the appeal bond,” Toney said. “That is why it rarely happens for them.”
Attorney Arimeta DuPree said while many people may not be “satisfied” with the judge’s decision, he followed rules put in place by higher courts. DuPree has made the same request for clients before, though they have not been granted.
“When a rule is followed and then it is favorable to a defendant, regardless of who that defendant is, there will be individuals who are not satisfied or who are not happy,” she said. “But the rules are the rules.”
Youngs, Jackson County Circuit Court’s presiding judge, in January said granting DeValkenaere’s motion would be “unprecedented for me.” He could not remember allowing a convicted defendant to remain free amid an appeal during his 13 years on the bench.
Activists and leaders of local social justice organizations saw the judge’s move as holding a former police officer to a lesser standard than other convicted defendants.
Sheryl Ferguson, a community activist and vocal critic of KCPD, noted that Youngs, not a jury, found DeValkenaere guilty.
“So the judge is saying he doesn’t believe his ruling?” she asked.
Lamb’s mother, Laurie Bey, said she felt like she kept “getting slapped in the face.”
“It’s just not right,” she told The Star on Tuesday.
In their motion, DeValkenaere’s attorneys argued he is not a flight risk and does not pose a threat to the community. They said he has complied with his bond since he posted it in June 2020 and has appeared at every hearing.
DeValkenaere — who, before he was convicted, had been employed with the Kansas City Police Department since 1999 — would be employed with Perfect Turf, a landscaping and lawn maintenance company in North Kansas City, if his request was granted, his lawyers wrote last month. They also said he has lived in the same Kansas City home with his wife and three children since 2008.
Jackson County prosecutors opposed the motion, calling DeValkenaere’s request “extraordinary.” They noted he no longer enjoyed the presumption of innocence and said he should not be “rewarded with a special status because of his former employment.”
“He should not be treated more favorably or less favorably than similarly situated convicted persons,” they wrote.
Since he was convicted, DeValkenaere has remained free on a $30,000 bond, which was set after he was initially charged.
At trial, prosecutors argued DeValkenaere did not have consent to be on the property when he killed Lamb, who was shot as he backed his pickup truck into the garage of his home at 4154 College Ave. They also alleged the crime scene was staged and evidence was planted.
Picerno, one of the defense attorneys not connected to the case, said the shooting presented the somewhat unique legal issue of whether DeValkenaere had a right to be on the property. He said the judge might have considered that the Missouri Court of Appeals could disagree with his reasoning on the law.
DeValkenaere’s attorneys also asserted that he would face inherent danger as a former cop in prison, but Picerno said that was not a reason to grant his appeal bond request.
He noted that other officers who have killed citizens across the country — including Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis in a case that set off national protests — will appeal while incarcerated.
“They don’t get to stay out until their appeal is held,” Picerno said.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 12:52 PM.
