Why so secret, Wyandotte County? Why are officials protecting non-extradition policy?
Wyandotte County has a secret policy allowing low-level felony suspects to escape prosecution if they can just get a couple states away.
I know. It sounds crazy just typing that. But it’s true. In fact, in one case, a suspect in multiple car burglaries in Kansas City, Kansas was allegedly found by his bondsman working in Texas as — get this — an in-home health aide. What could possibly go wrong?
But for some bizarre reason yet to be explained, the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office doesn’t want the suspect brought back to face justice here — not even at the bondsman’s expense. Why in the world not?
Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree’s office has acknowledged its secret extradition policy in court-related documents, but has steadfastly refused to make it public, even though the Kansas Open Records Act would seem to require it.
It’s particularly ironic, since Dupree wrote in a Star guest commentary last summer: “For far too long, the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office has functioned in secrecy.”
It’s even stranger when you consider that I was easily able to get Johnson County’s much more robust extradition policy — and Jackson County’s on the Missouri side — via email. Why so secret, Wyandotte County?
While taking care not to criticize anyone else’s policies, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says he sees no reason to keep his county’s extradition policy secret: “From our perspective, there’s no reason why we can’t make it public.”
Wyandotte County Sheriff Don Ash expresses no knowledge or even interest in the whole affair — saying the existence of the secret extradition policy, which his department is nonetheless carrying out, doesn’t “make a difference.” Really? Have you asked victims of crime if it “makes a difference” whether the perpetrators are brought to justice?
Not all suspects are worth a ton of money to go get, certainly. Officials have to draw the line somewhere, lest they bankrupt the county with travel costs for two-bit crooks. Understood.
But it would be nice to know where the line is, and what the policy is, since it directly impacts public safety.
Still, as of this writing, Wyandotte County Judge Constance Alvey has curiously protected the secret document by quashing the bondsman’s subpoena for it. The judge then suggested the bondsman request the extradition policy from the DA under the Kansas Open Records Act.
Bondsman Brian Underwood did just that. But the district attorney’s office responded that the extradition policy is an “investigative” document exempt from release under the law.
As Underwood and his lawyer James Spies have noted, that’s laughable. The document is a statement of policy, not one involved in any particular case. Adds Lawrence attorney Max Kautsch, a Kansas Open Records Act expert: “The requested policy is not an investigative record, and thus it is inappropriate for the DA’s office to deny the request on that basis.”
The result: Prosecutors, courts and deputies are sending a message that criminals can skate if they just skate far enough. You better believe the criminal element knows about it, even if the law-abiding public does not.
One other disheartening aspect of all this: I’ve examined the affidavit in the car burglary case, and it details an impressive bit of police work for a nonviolent crime. Victims of low-level non-person felonies such as car burglaries and theft of valuables from vehicles don’t often get the kind of gumshoe effort that was applied in this case: Officers responding to the report of a car break-in Feb. 9 in the 6100 block of Leavenworth Road did their own sleuthing and found two more vehicles that had been broken into. They and other officers used security footage and other evidence to arrest three suspects, one of whom is the suspect in Texas.
Now, much of that good police work appears to have been wasted by the judicial system. And for no good reason.
“I would much prefer that they were more aggressive on their extradition,” said Shane Rolf of the Kansas Bail Agents Association and Shane’s Bail Bonds in Olathe. He’s being diplomatic.
In another case, Underwood said the Wyandotte County DA’s office chose not to extradite a convicted felon in possession of a firearm from as nearby as Nebraska. And here I thought guns were supposed to be dangerous.
Wyandotte County’s cryptic decision not to seek suspects’ extradition not only jeopardizes public safety and wastes some very good police work, but in this case has also put the car burglary suspect’s bondsman in an incredibly unfair vise: The county won’t authorize Underwood to go get the suspect in Texas, but Judge Alvey has ordered him to surrender $5,000 for the suspect’s bond.
How does that work? You won’t let the bondsman go get the fugitive, but you take the bondsman’s money because the fugitive isn’t here? That’s absurd and unjust.
We won’t know just how unjust or unsafe until the policy is released.
