A special prosecutor in Cherokee County, Kansas, has filed a motion to drop criminal charges against several Galena officials, including the mayor, over a land purchase, according to a report late Thursday by KSN / KODE-TV.
According to the report, the prosecutor filed the motion after it was determined the city officials didn’t violate the law.
A judge still will have to approve to motion, but that seems almost certain. If the prosecutor has no faith in his case, the judge will have little reason or incentive to deny the motion.
The station got a brief reaction from the mayor:
We reached Galena Mayor Dale Oglesby by phone this evening, and he said, “we knew we hadn’t done anything wrong, and it feels like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”
Oglesby and one city councilor filed motions in early September to dismiss the charges. Oglesby alleged the grand jury process that delivered the indictment was “an instance of governmental abuse.” The grand jury was formed after several local residents opposed a new landfill north of nearby Riverton, Kansas. The charges, however, had nothing to do with the landfill.
The seven officials were accused of misusing public funds by buying property in 2013 to settle a lawsuit against companies owned by Brian Jordan, a business partner of Oglesby. If convicted, they would have faced from 31 months to 11 years in prison.
When the indictment initially was announced in June, I said:
City councils also own a lot of leeway in settling lawsuits, and finding improprieties in such deals often are difficult. Just because residents don’t like a city settling a lawsuit doesn’t make it illegal.
Given these factors, it wouldn’t be surprising if the indictment doesn’t stick when a judge hears to the evidence during the presumably eventual preliminary hearing.
Criminal charges usually mean the prosecutor has the goods on the defendants. But, with this one, I hold doubts.
The special prosecutor also shouldn’t have bothered with the charges until he or she made certain actual illegalities occurred.
Oglesby shepherded a revitalization of Galena’s Route 66 district that included streetscaping and resurfacing that helped draw new businesses to its once-depressed downtown. Jordan and partner Roger Hines of Galena Liberty Hall LLC own Cars on the Route, Galena’s Murder Bordello and at least a half dozen other properties or tracts on Route 66 in the city.
UPDATE 9/19/2015: The Joplin Globe filed a follow-up story late Friday.
The current special prosecutor in the case, Jennifer Brunetti, essentially threw her predecessor under the bus:
“I think they were without proper guidance,” Brunetti said of the grand jury. “I would have handled the grand jury differently.”
John Gutierrez, the Baxter Springs attorney who advised the grand jury, did not respond to a phone call or an email from the Globe.
Brunetti said there was “significant and justifiable concern” by the grand jury about how the city of Galena conducted business. Mayor Dale Oglesby challenged that statement:
Oglesby said he wasn’t sure to what “significant and justifiable” concerns Brunetti could be referring.
“Anyone is welcome to peruse our records,” Oglesby said. “We don’t have anything to hide in the city of Galena.”
A hearing on whether to dismiss the charges is Oct. 5.
(Image of downtown Galena in 2012 by Kansas Tourism via Flickr)
This is great news for Galena and Rt. 66 !!!!!!!!!