Shawnee mayor appears in Johnson County court in felony perjury case
Shawnee Mayor Michelle Distler made her first appearance in Johnson County court Tuesday afternoon on a felony perjury charge.
She appeared briefly at the virtual hearing with attorney Robin Fowler, who is representing her, to acknowledge receipt of the criminal complaint and agree to a new court date. Distler’s next hearing will take place at 9 a.m. Jan. 11 in Johnson County District Court, Judge Dan Vokins ordered.
Court records online indicate that Distler has applied for diversion, which means the charges could eventually be dropped if prosecutors agree and she completes a diversion program.
Distler, 47, was released on a $2,500 bond from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in early December. The perjury charge stems from a March incident in which the mayor allegedly filed an open meetings act complaint with the Kansas attorney general.
But rather than signing her own name on the complaint, she used someone else’s identity, under penalty of perjury, investigators claim. That person informed Shawnee police of the incident after receiving an email saying he filed an online complaint, which he had not done.
While court documents have redacted the name, the person is widely believed to be Shawnee blogger Ray Erlichman.
An investigator with the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office obtained an IP address associated with the complaint, which led them to Distler, according to court documents. Police searched Distler’s home in June and seized an iPad she said was involved in the incident.
In a July interview, Distler said that she believed the open meetings act was violated after an email chain formed with four City Council members. The Kansas Open Meetings Act, or KOMA, is a law meant to ensure the public can watch elected officials discuss most city business openly.
Still, it is unclear why Distler filed the KOMA complaint under someone else’s name. And Distler has so far declined to respond to requests for comment.
Emails obtained by The Star through a Kansas Open Records Act request show that the email chain formed after a former Shawnee resident was upset about the mayor’s refusal to break a tie vote for the City Council president. Mike Egan, who now lives in Missouri’s Ozarks but still regularly emails Shawnee officials, sent a March 5 email to Distler, four council members and other City Hall watchers.
Egan’s email criticized Distler for not breaking a 4-4 tie to choose a council president last January. Distler said at the time that she didn’t want to cast the deciding vote because she worried “it would make the Council appear even more divisive.”
When two council members responded, Distler forwarded the email chain to Shawnee city attorney Ellis Rainey, wondering if the communication violated the open meetings act.
“There are 4 councilmembers on this chain of emails discussing council president and 2 of them have commented,” she wrote at 3:48 p.m. March 7, matching a description of the email in an affidavit supporting criminal charges against Distler. “Isn’t THIS a KOMA violation?”
After Distler was charged with perjury, a criminal complaint listed more than 30 names as witnesses to the incident. Many of those apparent witnesses were copied on Egan’s email.
The Star submitted an open records request with the Kansas Attorney General’s office to obtain the KOMA complaint filed by Distler. But the office denied the request under an exception that exempts records related to ongoing criminal investigations.
Distler has served as mayor of Shawnee since 2015 and was reelected to a second term in November 2019. She previously served on the City Council.
The Star’s Steve Vockrodt contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 3:31 PM.
