TOPEKA — A former court reporter in Wyandotte County District Court was sanctioned by the Kansas Supreme Court for failing to cooperate with an investigation into allegations that she tried to get $2,000 from a former boyfriend in a blackmail scheme.
The justices followed a recommendation of the State Board of Examiners of Court Reporters to strip Jessica Belcher of her certification to work in Kansas as a court reporter. She became a certified court reporter in Kansas in 2003, but two formal complaints were filed against her in 2019.
The Supreme Court raised in the opinion a question about whether it was appropriate to proceed with ethics cases against court reporters based on allegations of a criminal offense rather than in response to a conviction.
Attorney Todd Thompson, who participated in the investigation of Belcher, said evidence showed she attempted to blackmail a former boyfriend, who was a law enforcement officer. She demanded $2,000 or she would “out him to everyone” on Facebook, the justices’ opinion said.
Thompson introduced into the record a series of texts sent by Belcher to the unnamed individual: “You can make this difficult all you want, but please know I’m outing you if I don’t get the money. I have pictures, emails, everything. If you want me to keep my mouth closed, pay up.”
In a separate incident in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Thompson said evidence showed Belcher verbally and physically assaulted individuals at a shelter.
He informed the justices that Belcher declined to cooperate with disciplinary board investigators. Belcher did make several telephone calls to his office, he said.
“She was very abusive as the facts in these cases reflect,” Thompson said.
Belcher didn’t appear nor have an attorney represent her at the September 2023 oral argument of her case before the Supreme Court in Topeka. She filed no response to the disciplinary complaints against her.
“Her complete lack of participation in any part of these disciplinary proceedings constitutes clear and convincing evidence of a violation,” the Supreme Court’s opinion said.
While the state’s highest court affirmed Belcher broke rules by not cooperating with the ethics review, the justices didn’t act upon the alleged felony or misdemeanor offenses. The Supreme Court opinion says Belcher “seems” to have committed crimes of misdemeanor harassment by telecommunications device, felony blackmail and, if it had transpired in Kansas, either misdemeanor or felony battery.
In reference to due process concerns, the opinion says, some members of the Supreme Court asserted the only way to confirm a criminal allegation would be through a court proceeding concluding with a conviction.
“Disciplinary proceedings based merely on charges that a court reporter committed a crime, without a subsequent conviction, must be careful not to presume guilt,” the opinion said. “Since resolution of this question would not change the discipline here, we will not address this issue and leave it unresolved for now.”
