Fact check: Ex-KC officer Eric DeValkenaere’s fundraising plea includes false claims | Opinion

A reader from Kansas sent us a fundraising letter she was unhappily surprised to have received on July 2, from the Virginia-based Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. It asked her for a donation for former KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere, the first local officer ever held accountable in the shooting death of a Black man.

Styled as a lachrymose letter from DeValkenaere’s wife, Sarah, it reprised an earlier round of national fundraising for the former cop. Convicted of manslaughter in November of 2021, he has since then spent zero nights in jail, and never will serve a minute of his six-year sentence if Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has anything to say about it. Because, of course, all of those convicted of manslaughter are not treated the same way.

Fundraising letters are propagandistic by nature. It’s hardly surprising that the former detective’s wife would welcome support for her husband. Obviously, the hustled can respond as they see fit, even if the outfit raising funds for DeValkenaere did receive an F rating from Charity Watch in October of last year. And even if the LELDF hypocritically seeks stiffer sentences for non-cops, and none for those shooters with badges.

But with Missouri state officials so eager to ignore the verdict against this former officer, while arguing that all other verdicts were sent down from Mount Sinai, some fact-checking is still in order.

The letter from Mrs. DeValkenaere includes a photo of the couple, and tugs at every available heartstring: “I wanted to send you a picture of us with our three beautiful children, but in this current political climate, I don’t feel safe sending photos of our kids through the mail.”

Also in this current political climate, our writing about this pitch may well raise more money for DeValkenaere. But her account of her husband’s situation is not accurate.

DeValkenaere shot Cameron Lamb nine seconds after arriving in his yard without a warrant. During his trial, he admitted under oath that he could not have gotten one because he wouldn’t even have known what crime to say he was investigating.

When he arrived at his home, in violation of Lamb’s rights, all DeValkenaere knew was that a police helicopter had reported seeing Lamb speeding. Prosecutors said that Lamb could not, as DeValkenaere claimed, have been pointing a gun at his partner since when he was shot, while backing into his own garage, his left hand was on the steering wheel and with his right hand, he was using the phone.

“My husband is a hero,” the fundraising letter said, but “it didn’t matter to the prosecutor that Cameron recklessly swerved a stolen truck through city streets. It didn’t matter that he was physically violent towards his ex-girlfriend. It didn’t matter that he pointed a stolen gun directly at a law enforcement officer.”

When he pulled the trigger and fired, DeValkenaere did not know that the truck was stolen or that he’d been violent, so no, that didn’t justify the shooting. “Recklessly swerving a stolen truck through city streets” was not a reason to shoot, either.

Prosecutors argued that the gun found at the scene had been planted there, and that the scramble to stage the scene explains why Lamb was denied medical help from EMTs who were on the scene. They were allowed in only after he had bled to death.

Legally, the case came down to whether or not DeValkenaere had acted recklessly and violated Lamb’s rights. The detective waived his right to a jury trial, so it was a judge who decided that he had.

The fundraising form asking for an “urgent reply” to Sarah DeValkenaere’s plea for donations puts these words in every supporter’s mouth: “Dear Sarah, I know your head is spinning at the thought of your husband spending 6 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit — and I’m outraged that another good cop is facing prison after being wrongfully charged by a prosecutor who’s given in to the current mob rule.”

Wrongfully charged, no, and mob rule? Please.

Sarah DeValkenaere asks that supporters send her husband a morale-boosting message — or a prayer, maybe — along with their donations.

Every shooter’s family suffers for their actions, and that’s without any doubt a heavy burden. But our message is that DeValkenaere, who was neither a hero nor wrongly accused, should actually serve the sentence correctly imposed by the court.

This story was originally published July 6, 2023 at 5:02 AM.