Robert Stephan, former longtime Kansas attorney general, dies at 89
Former Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan, a Wichita native of Lebanese descent who held office for 16 years and championed victims’ rights but also dealt with legal troubles of his own, has died. He was 89.
Stephan died overnight, his brother Don Stephan said Tuesday morning.
Stephan, a Republican, entered the Kansas attorney general’s office in 1979, where he remained until 1995, leaving an imprint on the office that still remains.
Over four terms, Stephan emphasized consumer protection and helped develop a victims’ rights amendment to the Kansas Constitution. Stephan said during a 2020 interview for the Kansas Oral History Project that he felt it was his responsibility “to go after people that I thought were thieves and taking advantage of Kansas citizens.”
Voters approved the victims’ right amendment in 1992, which guarantees victims the right to be informed of, and present at, public hearings during the criminal justice process. It also guarantees victims the right to be heard at sentencing.
“Well, it just seemed so unfair to me that the victims of crime were treated differently than anyone else under the law. They were there. They were hurt. They needed proper judicial action,” Stephan said in the interview.
In the 1980s, Stephan also challenged the Posse Comitatus militia movement in western Kansas. The Posse Comitatus movement held extreme far-right, anti-government beliefs that were frequently racist and antisemitic. Stephan worked to shut down a Dodge City radio station that was broadcasting racist content and suggested a link existed between the movement and the station.
But Stephan’s time in office was also marred by legal difficulties, which helped thwart a potential candidacy for governor.
A federal grand jury indicted Stephan in 1992, accusing him of perjury. The charge related to a lawsuit filed against Stephan in the 1980s by a former clerk, who accused Stephan of sexually harassing her. Stephan secretly settled the lawsuit, but later disclosed that he had raised $24,000 toward a payment. The former clerk then sued Stephan again, alleging breach of contract.
The grand jury alleged Stephan lied when he testified in his own defense in the second lawsuit. Stephan was acquitted in 1995, but his political career in elected office ended that year when his fourth term came to an end.
Born Jan. 16, 1933, and raised in Wichita, he earned bachelor and law degrees from Washburn University in Topeka in the 1950s. Stephan originally made a mark in Wichita, where he worked as a municipal court judge and later as a district court judge, before his election as attorney general.
Don Stephan recounted how he and his brother sometimes faced trouble in their childhoods because of their Lebanese background.
“Growing up in Wichita, at that time, there was a lot of prejudice. As young kids in grade school, junior high, we were often called names and we’d get into fights,” Don Stephan said. “Someone would make a dirty remark and we’d end up fighting for our rights as Americans. That was something that we lived through and fortunately, today, I think a lot of that has gone by the wayside.”
Author and columnist Mike Matson, who conducted the oral history project interview with Stephan, described in a 2020 column in The Manhattan Mercury how Stephan’s father, who was born in Lebanon, had been an abusive alcoholic “whose wrath fell on young Bob and his mother.”
After leaving office, Stephan lived in Lenexa, where he worked as a corporate legal consultant. In April, Stephan endorsed Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, for reelection — a nod the Kelly campaigned frequently mentioned to illustrate bipartisan support.
“He wasn’t very well pleased with the way the Republican Party had changed,” Don Stephan said.
Outgoing Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kelly’s Republican opponent last year, said he was saddened to learn of Stephan’s death.
“Bob served in a different era, but his 16-year tenure left a lasting mark on our office – particularly his contributions to crime victim rights and to consumer protection,” Schmidt said.
Alexis Simmons, who works as the communications director for Kansas House Democrats and is Stephan’s great niece, said Stephan would carry around a small notepad and write down the names of people he had met.
Simmons called Stephan an “impactful person.” She said she regularly encounters people who remembered the former attorney general.
“I meet people all the time who worked for him and they say he was the most vivacious, vibrant, friendly person,” Simmons said.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 12:43 PM.
