TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court sat in judgment Friday of a prominent former Shawnee County prosecutor who built a reputation for winning difficult trials until accused of ethical breaches to secure convictions in high-profile murder and sexual assault cases subsequently reversed on appeal.
A three-attorney panel unanimously recommended in June the Supreme Court disbar Jacqie Spradling for repeatedly making false statements to juries. The state’s disciplinary board for lawyers, however, downgraded the recommended sanction to indefinite suspension of her license. The Supreme Court didn’t issue an immediate ruling.
L.J. Leatherman, the attorney for Spradling, told justices the issue was whether clear and convincing evidence existed that Spradling’s conduct in the trials involved deception and lying to the court and reached the level of professional incompetence. He said, in terms of a double-homicide case, that Spradling made honest mistakes and it would be wrong if prosecutors in Kansas had to routinely deal with a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacking.
“The mission is can we put trust and faith in Ms. Spradling?” Leatherman said. “And, did they prove that she lied to you? I don’t think it’s there. The record just does not support by clear and convincing evidence the recommendations of the panel.”
He said a standard in Kansas that transformed mistakes into negligence and the premise for disbarment meant that “none of us are safe.” He said Spradling’s stubborn personality shouldn’t be confused with malicious intent.
Serious misconduct
Matt Vogelsberg, who represented the state disciplinary board before the Supreme Court, said Spradling was found to have violated a collection of ethics rules in the way she handled the prominent murder and sex offense cases. The disciplinary office’s findings included evidence demonstrating Spradling intentionally misled the district courts, he said.
He said Spradling’s decision to resign from prosecutor jobs in Bourbon and Allen counties and to step aside from the practice of law should be considered by the Supreme Court when deciding whether to impose indefinite suspension, disbarment or some other resolution.
Spradling said under oath during the disciplinary proceeding she “denied the defendants a fair trial,” but subsequently urged the state not to punish her.
The Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys’ panel of lawyers looking at evidence in the Spradling case sought disbarment after concluding she “knowingly and intentionally” engaged in a deliberate misconduct.
Here is what the panel of Spradling’s peers concluded: “Based on the deliberative pattern of serious misconduct and the serious injury that followed, the hearing panel unanimously recommends that the respondent be disbarred. From all the evidence presented, it appears that the respondent concluded that Chandler and Ewing were guilty of the crimes charged and she adopted a ‘win-at-all-costs’ approach.”
Spradling, who earned her law license in 1992 and secured about 80 murder convictions during her career, landed before the disciplinary board as the Supreme Court overturned the 2012 double-homicide conviction of Dana Chandler in Shawnee County and the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned a 2017 guilty verdict against Jacob Ewing in a sex crime case in Jackson County. Spradling was lead prosecutor in both cases.
Chandler is awaiting retrial for first-degree murder, while Ewing accepted a plea deal to avoid another trial.
The Supreme Court justices appeared more interested in Spradling’s behavior during the Chandler case.
‘Trust your mind’
