Month: May 2016

Suspended lawyer sentenced

Don Charles Ball, 65, last known to reside in Parkville, Mo., on Friday, April 29, was sentenced in Wyandotte County District Court on his convictions for mistreatment of a dependent adult and for issuing a worthless check.

The court ordered a sentence of 32 months on the conviction for mistreatment of a dependent adult, and a sentence of 12 months on the conviction for delivering a worthless check. Those sentences were ordered to be served concurrently. Ball may avoid imprisonment if he successfully completes 36 months of intensive probation. His probation order specifically requires him to receive certain counseling, and to pay $38,293.46 in restitution, and to serve 60 days of shock time in the Wyandotte County jail commencing immediately. Ball was taken into custody in the courtroom.

Ball, a practicing attorney in Kansas City, Kan., for many years, was lawyer to a conservatorship for a man who had suffered a brain injury and who resided in an assisted living facility. In that capacity, the district court had ordered Ball to hold approximately $40,000 of the disabled man’s money in trust, and not to expend the same except upon approval of the court.

When it came time to spend down the disabled man’s assets the court ordered Ball to transfer the asset to the assisted living facility to be used for the disabled man. That transfer was not forthcoming, and after months of Ball’s failure to turn the money over, the assisted living facility went to court to compel Ball to act. The court again ordered Ball to turn the asset over, but he failed to do so. The court then held Ball in contempt. Ultimately, Ball delivered a check made out on his business account, not his trust account, in the amount of $32,296.46 to the court. When that check was deposited, it was returned for insufficient funds in the account. After being notified of the bank’s rejection of the check, Ball failed to fund the account.

The district attorney then charged Ball with one count of delivering a worthless check, a severity level 7 nonperson, felony; and with one count of mistreatment of a dependent adult, a severity level 5 person felony.

With formal charges having been filed in Wyandotte County, the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, the authority in Kansas that polices lawyer licenses, sought an order of temporary suspension of Ball’s license to practice law. The disciplinary administrator combined this case along with another in its motion to suspend Ball’s license. The Kansas Supreme Court, in special session on June 18, 2013, convened a hearing on the disciplinary administrator’s motion. An audio recording of the hearing is available at http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/supreme-court/archive/archived-arguments-June-2013.asp. The Supreme Court did temporarily suspend Ball’s license, and it remains suspended to this day.

In the Wyandotte County criminal case Ball waived his right to a jury trial, and in December 2015, the case was tried to the court. He was found guilty of both counts. A presentence investigation report was prepared by court services. Ball was found to have no previous criminal history. The Kansas sentencing guidelines for the counts of conviction and Ball’s criminal history score presumed that the standard sentence for mistreatment of a dependent adult to be 32 months to be served in prison, and the standard sentence for delivering a worthless check in an amount over $25,000 to be 12 months in prison. Additionally, with respect to the conviction for mistreatment of a dependent adult, by a person with Ball’s criminal history score, an optional non-prison sentence is possible upon the finding of certain facts if made by the court.

At the sentencing hearing on Friday, the state emphasized the vulnerability of the dependent adult and the betrayal of trust as compelling reasons to require Ball to serve his sentence in prison.

Ball, through his attorney, made a plea for probation based upon a career of legal service and the findings in an evaluation, as well as his previously unblemished criminal record.

The case was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Brancart.

Driver injured in car-deer crash

A Kansas City, Kan., woman was injured after a crash with a deer at 6:45 a.m. Friday, April 29, on I-70 near the 57th Street exit in Kansas City, Kan.

The driver was eastbound on I-70 and struck a deer, according to the Kansas Turnpike Authority trooper’s report.

The impact caused the Nissan Altima’s hood to come up and cover the windshield, the trooper’s report stated. Then the Altima veered to the left and struck the median barrier wall, according to the report.

The driver, a 37-year-old Kansas City, Kan., woman, was injured and taken to a hospital, according to the report.

No. 6 Barton to play No. 3 KCKCC in playoff opener Saturday in KCK

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Despite being swept at No. 1 ranked Neosho County last Saturday, Kansas City Kansas Community College will be the Jayhawk East’s No. 3 seeded team in Region VI playoff action Saturday.

The third place finisher in the East, the Blue Devils will host the Jayhawk West’s No. 6 team, Barton County, in a best-of-three series for the right to advance to the 8-team regional tournament at Wichita May 13-17. The first game will start at 1 p.m. with a second game to follow with a third game if necessary on Sunday afternoon. All games are 9-inning contests.

With 5-3 and 20-8 wins over KCKCC Saturday, Neosho (28-8) won the Jayhawk East by three games over Cowley (25-11) while KCKCC and Johnson County tied for third at 22-13. However, KCKCC received the higher seed by winning three of four games in their head-to-head series.

The Blue Devils rebounded from the Neosho losses Sunday with 14-1 and 7-6 home wins over North Arkansas and will close out non-conference play Tuesday when they host Maple Woods in a single 9-inning game at 2 p.m.

Blue Devils coach Matt Goldbeck gave several of his regulars the day off against North Ark Sunday, especially in the nightcap and the move paid off handsomely. Ty Bradshaw was 5-for-6 in the two games including three in the opener. Caleb Gray also had three hits in the opener including a 2-run triple while regulars Chase Redick, Albert Woodard and Travis Stroup each had a pair.

The first five hitters in the Blue Devil lineup had extra base hits in the 14-1 opener. After back-to-back triples by Redick and Woodard, Stroup and Ryan Fisher ripped back-to-back home runs. Zach Mahoney followed with a double and scored on Gray’s 2-run triple before Bradshaw and Woodard singled in runs in the 8-0 start.

The Blue Devils added five more runs in the third on consecutive singles by Levi Froud, Gray, Bradshaw and Redick and sacrifice flies by Woodard and Fisher sandwiched around a Stroup double. Singles by Malone Smith, Gray and Bradshaw in the fourth made a winner out of Colton Kenagy, who allowed just two hits and one run over four innings before Gunnar Vestal pitched a scoreless fifth.

Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Blue Devils scored six runs on six hits in the 8-7 nightcap win. Loading the bases without a hit, the Blue Devils scored three runs on a sacrifice fly by Ryne McDonald, a ground ball by Gray and a Bradshaw single; then re-loaded the bases on two walks to set up a 2-run double to right by Conor Behrens for a 6-5 lead. Easton Fortuna then added what proved to be the winning run, stealing home as Behrens was caught in a rundown. Daulton Smith, Behrens and Bradshaw each had two hits for KCKCC, which was outhit 11-7. However, Ross Perez came in the fourth inning and gave up just four hits and one run to get the win.

One bad inning was the difference in KCKCC’s 5-3 loss in Saturday’s opener at Neosho. Tied 1-1, the Panthers scored one run on two singles and a wild pitch and loaded the bases on two walks by Jake Purl. That brought on relief ace Avery Fliger (7-1), who gave up a bases-clearing double to Ryan Tolliver before retiring eight of the final nine hitters he faced.

KCKCC had an 8-6 edge in hits with Stroup and Eli Lovell each contributing two hits while Drew Holtgrieve doubled and drove in two runs. Singles by Stroup and Lovell and Holtgrieve’s two-out double tied the game 1-1 in the fourth. Singles by Albert Woodard and Chase Redick scored the Blue Devils’ second run in the fifth and the final run came in the sixth on singles by Lovell and Ryan Fisher and Holtgrieve’s sacrifice fly.

Pounding seven home runs and 25 hits, Neosho scored in every inning in the 20-8 nightcap. Brylie Ware and Blake Tomasino each had a pair of round-trippers against four KCKCC hurlers.

Ryan Fisher and Behrens each homered for KCKCC while Chase Redick had three singles and Albert Woodard a pair in an 11-hit KCKCC attack. Trailing 4-0, the Blue Devils scored twice on a double by Lovell and Fisher’s 2-run homer to right and then pulled even 6-6 in the third. Behrens started the fourth with a home run and singles by Stroup, Holtgrieve and Woodard added three more runs.

Neosho went back in front 7-6 in the third but KCKCC again pulled even in the fourth when Redick singled, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Lovell’s ground only to have the Panthers score four times in the bottom of the inning, three more in the fifth on consecutive home runs by Ware, Ryan Tolliver and Evan Bourn and then end it in the seventh with a 5-run outburst, the final three coming on Ware’s second homer.