Month: December 2014

Supreme Court to hold swearing-in for Stegall Dec. 5

Judge Caleb Stegall
Judge Caleb Stegall

The Kansas Supreme Court will meet in special session at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, to swear in Judge Caleb Stegall to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the departure of Justice Nancy Moritz to serve on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Chief Justice Lawton R. Nuss will preside at the ceremony.

Stegall will be presented to the Supreme Court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask and U.S. District Court Judge Eric Melgren.

The public may watch a live webcast of the ceremony by following the Watch Supreme Court Live! link in the right-hand column of the Kansas Judicial Branch website at www.kscourts.org.

Following his nomination by the Supreme Court Nominating Commission, Stegall was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Sam Brownback on August 29. Stegall currently is a member of the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Stegall earned his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law, where he served on the Kansas Law Review; was awarded the William L. Burdick Prize, given to the top student in his or her class; and graduated Order of the Coif.

Upon his admission to the bar in 2000, Stegall served as a law clerk to Judge Deanell R. Tacha, chief judge of the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He then joined the Topeka office of the Foulston Siefkin law firm, where he practiced in the areas of commercial, tort and appellate litigation.

In 2005, he formed the law firm Stegall and Associates in Perry, Kan., which he managed until joining the Brownback administration in 2011. Recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top firms in Kansas, Stegall and Associates specialized in complex constitutional and commercial litigation.

During this period, Stegall handled a variety of highly visible matters of significant public concern, including successfully representing a number of American missionaries who were charged with serious crimes in Haiti following that country’s devastating earthquake in 2010. For his work on behalf of the missionaries, Stegall was awarded the Kansas Bar Association’s 2010 Pro Bono Certificate.

Additionally, from 2009 to 2011, Stegall served as the elected county attorney of Jefferson County, Kan. As the lead prosecutor and chief law enforcement official of Jefferson County, Stegall oversaw a full-time staff that managed a yearly caseload of hundreds of felonies and misdemeanors. Stegall personally handled the most serious of these, including prosecuting cases of murder, rape, crimes against children, drug manufacture and distribution, and white collar financial crimes.

Stegall grew up in the Douglas County, Kan., area. His father is a retired community corrections chief of Douglas County, and his mother retired as a science teacher at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan..

Stegall and his wife, Ann, have been married for 20 years. They have five children—Simon, Jacob, Ethan, Theodore and Quentin. They are members of Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lawrence.

KCKCC faculty member releases memoir

Bookcover2
by Kelly Rogge
A Kansas City Kansas Community College faculty member has released his memoir, depicting his time as a Biafran child soldier who rises to become an American-educated professor.

“Dear God, Never Again: Memoirs of a Different Child Soldier,” is written by Ewa Unoke, associate professor of political science. pre-law, and peace studies and director of the Henry M. Louis Center for Global Transitional Justice. Unoke holds a doctorate degree. Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, the book was written by Unoke after several people suggested the idea.

“My life is an example that child soldiers, street gangsters and kidnapped children like the Bring Back Our Girls victims in Nigeria, can be saved, educated and reintegrated into society as useful citizens,” Unoke said on a recent speaking engagements at Park University and Washington High School in Kansas City, Kan.

“I was also kidnaped during my youth by the same northern Muslims, but I survived. However, despite life’s many turning moments, another life is still possible even when past injustices refuse to lie down quietly and rest,” he said.

Unoke has shared his story numerous times including in 2005 at KCKCC’s Intercultural Center. Titled, “From Africa to America: a Brief Personal Journey,” the talk focused on his journey from child soldier to college professor and was one of the first times he spoke about his past publicly.

Then in 2009, Radhika Coomaraswanmy, then the United Nations under-secretary for children in armed conflicts, made a similar request while visiting the Dole Institute at the University of Kansas. Since then, Unoke has been invited by high schools and colleges throughout the United States to speak to students including those in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Pa., Chicago, Ill. and San Francisco, Calif. as well as locally in communities in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

A book launching and signing event is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the Intercultural Center on the KCKCC main campus, 7250 State Ave. The public is invited to attend. Public schools and colleges can now buy the book directly from the publisher or contact Unoke to share his inspirational story with their students.

In addition, Tate Publishing has scheduled Unoke to speak in local libraries, bookstores and on radio and television programs locally and nationally in the coming weeks and months.

For more information about “Dear God, Never Again: Memoirs of a Different Child Soldier,” contact Professor Ewa Unoke at [email protected] or by calling 913-563-8586.

Book excerpt:
“My students and friends in the United States ask me:
• As a former child soldier, did you amputate people’s hands and legs?
• As commander of BOFF, what atrocities did you commit?
• Is it true Biafran children were deliberately starved to death?
• Like the Nigerian jihadists, did you kill or kidnap school girls during the war?
• Can you tell us your childhood pains and pleasures?
My response usually is, “Wait until you read my memoirs.”

Former builder’s release from prison revoked

A federal judge has found former Kansas City area builder F. Jeffrey Miller violated the terms of his release from federal prison after hearing evidence Miller was involved in a new real estate scam, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Monday.

In a 16-page order dated Nov. 26, U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson cited evidence that Miller lied to his probation officer about his involvement in a company called Tri-States Holding, LLC. She cited “substantial evidence about the fraudulent practices and transactions” by the company.

Miller, 53, will remain in custody awaiting sentencing. Miller was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and criminal contempt. In August 2012, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He began supervised release Jan. 10, 2014.

During sentencing hearings, prosecutors submitted evidence that Miller began planning the new business while he was in prison. The business claimed to buy, refurbish and sell houses. In fact, Judge Robinson said in her order, the business was engaged in a “contract for deed scam.”

The company purchased more than 40 houses at Jackson County, Mo., tax sales and then advertised the houses for sale to low-income people in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo. The company advertised home ownership for just $500 down, sweat equity of no more than $2,000 in the form of cosmetic repairs including painting and clean up, and then monthly payments of $399. The buyers signed contracts for purchase prices in the $35,000 range.

Prosecutors presented evidence the company failed to complete promised repairs, performing shoddy repairs or virtually no repairs at all and then harassed and threatened buyers who ceased to make payments.

Judge Robinson ruled Miller violated four conditions of his supervised release by:
• Controlling the new company even though he was prohibited from working in any capacity involving authority in financial matters.
• Telling his probation officer that that he was a mere laborer at the new company when in fact he controlled the company.
• Making false monthly reports to the probation office that he was not committing any federal crimes.
• Making threats of bodily harm to a woman who purchased a house from the new company.

Miller is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 15 in U.S. District Court in Topeka.

In an earlier case, Miller, whose address then was listed as Stanley, Kan., was tried and convicted in a case involving a mortgage fraud scheme. At that time, he was operating a company named Star Land Development.