Month: July 2016

Capital murder charge filed against man in KCK police captain’s shooting death

Jamaal Lewis
Jamaal Lewis

DaQon Sipple
DaQon Sipple

Capt. Robert Melton
Capt. Robert Melton

Capital murder charges were filed against Jamaal R. Lewis,20, of Kansas City, Kan., today in connection with the July 19 shooting death of Kansas City, Kan., Capt. Robert David Melton.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome A. Gorman announced the charges today at a news conference.

Lewis is in the Wyandotte County Jail on a $10 million bond, Gorman said.

A second Kansas City, Kan., resident, DaQon J. Sipple, 18, was charged with a count of aggravated assault, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and criminal discharge of a weapon at an unoccupied dwelling, arising from an incident that happened at Juniper Gardens near 2nd and Edgerton in Kansas City, Kan., Gorman said.

Sipple is in jail and a $100,000 bond has been set, he said.

The two will make their first appearance in Wyandotte County District Court, Division 13, at 10:30 a.m. Friday, said Bill Burns, Wyandotte County court administrator.

The prosecution believes that Sipple fired shots at Juniper Gardens dwelling, and Lewis was the driver of the car, Gorman said. The two fled from there with a third person in the car.

They went to 15th and Rowland Avenue, where individuals fled from the car and Officer Eric Jones arrested Sipple there, he said. Sipple was charged with an additional count of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer on Officer Jones, he said.

Lewis fled and went to the area of 22nd and Georgia, where he was spotted by officers, including Capt. Melton, Gorman said.

Capt. Melton gave pursuit, and Lewis fired shots at Melton resulting in his death, Gorman said. Lewis is charged with a single count of capital murder, which carries the penalties of either death or life without parole, he said.

Lewis had run through the woods, with a number of officers saturating the area, Gorman said. He came through the woods and came up to about 19th and Stewart, came out of the woods, and was taken into custody, he said. At the time, he did not have a gun on him, but a gun has been recovered and is thought to be the weapon, he added. Tests still have to be done on the gun, he added.

At this time, the district attorney’s office is not deciding whether to seek the death penalty, and that decision will be made later, he said. There will be a discussion with the family on their wishes, he added.

Sipple is not being charged with murder because he left the car earlier, about 19 minutes before the encounter with Capt. Melton, and there is no evidence that Sipple was involved in planning the death.

While there is a third person in the case, who is a person of interest that police are interested in speaking with, the district attorney said he cannot say that charges would be filed against that person, based on what they know happened at each of those locations.

Gorman said the third person at this time is believed to have taken no active role in the case, fired no weapon and did not drive the car. At this point, there is no evidence to charge the third person, but police would like to talk to him, he added.

Two different firearms were used in this incident, Gorman said.

The shell casings from handguns used at Juniper Gardens were 9 mm shell casings, and the shell casings used to kill Capt. Melton were from a .40-caliber weapon, Gorman said.

When Officer Jones took Sipple into custody, Sipple had a weapon on him that prosecutors believe was the same one used at Juniper Gardens, Gorman said.

“He (Officer Jones) felt in fear of his life,” Gorman said.

Apparently there had been an ongoing dispute involving Lewis, Sipple and other persons at Juniper Gardens, he said.

Police have found no past criminal actions on the part of Lewis, Gorman said.

He said Sipple has past minor juvenile charges including theft, battery on a school employee and disorderly conduct.

The .40-caliber gun Lewis had was purchased in May 2016 at a store, Gorman said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating, he said.

Capital murder cases, such as Capt. Melton’s and Detective Brad Lancaster’s case, take up much time for the district attorney’s office, he said.

Kansas City, Kan., Police Department spokesman Amber Thomas said other law enforcement agencies from as far away as Wichita, Omaha and New York are coming in to help the Kansas City, Kan., police officers to attend the funeral services for Capt. Melton on Friday and Saturday.

Capt. Melton had been in charge of the department’s ceremonial honor guard, and created many of the guidelines that were used in Detective Lancaster’s funeral in May, Officer Thomas said.

She said the police department appreciates the outpouring of support from the public during the last few days. People have brought food, water, cards and notes in support of the department.

The visitation for Capt. Melton will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 22, at the Reardon Civic Center, 520 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan.

The funeral service will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 23, at Children’s Mercy Park, home of Sporting KC, 1 Sporting Way, Kansas City, Kan. Parking will be at the Kansas Speedway. Burial will be afterward at the Leavenworth National Cemetery.

Officer Thomas advised residents to be patient and allow a lot of time as the services may be crowded.

A fund has been started for Capt. Melton’s family. Donations can be made at the Greater KC Public Safety Credit Union locations, including the main branch at 2800 E. 14th St., Kansas City, Mo., 64127, or at the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department headquarters, 700 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan. 66101, Attention: Chief’s office. Checks may be made payable to the Captain Robert Melton Memorial Fund.

KU center director hoping to settle contract dispute with state

KDADS officials say questions remain about center’s management of long-standing contract for mental health training

by Jim McLean, KHI News Service

The director of a University of Kansas research center that recently lost the contract for its main body of work is open to resuming negotiations with state officials.

Rick Goscha, director of the KU Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation, said he continues to receive emails and phone calls from mental health providers across the state who want to see the center and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services work through their differences so that a long-standing training and evaluation program the center operates can continue.

“Secretary (Tim) Keck continues to say he wants to support evidence-based practices in Kansas, and we are open to discussion how we can continue our work in this area,” Goscha said in an email to the KHI News Service. “Bottom line: the focus needs to remain on improving the lives of people with serious mental illness in Kansas.”

Last-minute attempts to negotiate terms of a new $2.4 million contract broke down June 30, the day before the start of the state’s new budget year and the deadline for an agreement to be in place. KDADS wanted to restructure the contract based on concerns that some of the methods the KU center used to match faculty to the project and some of the tasks in its work plan weren’t allowable expenditures under federal Medicaid rules. But Goscha said he couldn’t agree to a proposed no-cost extension to give the two sides time to overhaul the contract.

“Their last-minute offer was not a viable option,” Goscha said. “There is no way the university would have approved a contract that basically said ‘to be determined.’”

Shock waves

News that a project started in the late 1980s to foster the use of evidence-based treatment methods at community mental health centers in Kansas was coming to an end sent shock waves through the state’s mental health provider community.

Tim DeWeese, executive director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center, said he was “shocked and disappointed.”

“Without the KU center, I’m not sure how the state plans to ensure that we continue to maintain the quality of services,” DeWeese said.

The KU center has worked for years to help several community mental health centers implement the “strengths model” of treating people with severe and persistent mental illness. Developed by Charles Rapp, former director of the KU center, the model encourages therapists to help patients understand both their illness and the strengths they can utilize in overcoming it.

In addition to “strengths” training, the center evaluates and grades community mental health centers to ensure that the model is being used correctly.

Keck moved quickly to assure directors of the community mental health centers that the state would find an alternative way to continue the training and evaluation work.

“The agency is not eliminating this element of its mental health funding, which is a critical part of our continued commitment to excellence,” Keck wrote in a letter to the directors. “This training will continue to be provided, but not necessarily under the same arrangement that the training has been provided in the past.”

KDADS explains concerns

Several mental health providers were openly critical of KDADS and the last-minute contract demands that led to a breakdown in negotiations.

Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson, said the agency had no concerns about the KU center’s work. But, declining to provide details, she said the agency had questions about how the university and the center had administered the federally funded contract.

Several days later Brad Ridley, the KDADS official charged with negotiating the contract, agreed to discuss the agency’s concerns. They boiled down to judgments about what are and aren’t allowable Medicaid expenditures, he said.

All of the money used to fund the project comes from the federal government. The university contributes facilities and faculty time of roughly equal value. The state’s job, Ridley said, is to oversee the contract to ensure that federal rules are being followed to the letter.

“Over the course of the last four years, we have made a lot of adjustments to the contracts we have,” Ridley said.

For one thing, he said, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been added as a party to several university research contracts because it is the state’s lead Medicaid agency.

“We’ve worked through these contracts to ensure that we and KDHE both are comfortable with the accountability of those Medicaid funds that are flowing through,” he said.

Differences in the way state agencies have interpreted Medicaid rules sometimes have been confusing for contractors, Ridley acknowledged. Before a recent reorganization of state agencies, the KU contract was overseen by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. When SRS became the Department for Children and Families, responsibility for the KU contract was transferred to KDADS.

Old SRS rules allowed the KU center to use Medicaid funds to pay the tuition of graduate research assistants working on the project. But Ridley says KDADS and KDHE have questions about whether that’s an allowable expense.

“We didn’t say they couldn’t do it, but we added language to the contracts that says if it ends up being an unallowable cost that the university is liable,” Ridley said.

Keck, who also participated in the interview, hedged when asked whether the contract dispute and the publicity surrounding it had effectively ended the agency’s relationship with the KU center.

“Our plan is to move forward,” he said. “That may mean a lot of different things as it unfolds.”

The most pressing task KDADS faces is to find someone that can do trainings that already have been scheduled, Keck said.

“Once we get that figured out then we’ll move on to the mid-range things and then we’ll move to the long-term issues,” he said. “That may involve an RFP (request for proposals) at some point.”

When asked whether a proposal from the KU center would be considered, Keck said, “Sure.”

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