Category: Courts

Kansas Supreme Court issues full opinions on legislative, congressional redistricting cases

Justices outline details of decisions affirming constitutionality of maps

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas Supreme Court released full opinions Tuesday of decisions affirming constitutionality of new congressional and legislative district maps for use in the 2022 elections that concluded reliance on partisanship to gerrymander district boundaries wasn’t prohibited.

Justice Caleb Stegall, writing for the majority in the congressional mapping case, said absence of standards in the Kansas Constitution or in Kansas statute limiting the Legislature’s use of political factors when crafting boundaries left the Supreme Court without a basis to reject work of state lawmakers.

“We can discern no judicially manageable standards by which to judge a claim that the Legislature relied too heavily on the otherwise lawful factor of partisanship when drawing district lines,” Stegall said in the 105-page opinion on the congressional map. “As such, the question presented is a political question and is nonjusticiable, at least until such a time as the Legislature or the people of Kansas choose to codify such a standard into law.”

In May, the Supreme Court released a notice reversing Wyandotte County District Court Judge Bill Klapper. He had found unconstitutional the congressional map splitting racially diverse Wyandotte County between the 2nd and 3rd Districts and moving liberal-leaning Lawrence to the rural 1st District.

The state’s highest court let stand the “Ad Astra 2” congressional map drafted by Republican legislators and adopted over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.

That GOP map contained in Senate Bill 355 was designed to undermine reelection prospects of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the lone Democrat in the state’s federal delegation.

The Supreme Court also affirmed last month constitutionality of the map outlining districts of the Kansas House and Kansas Senate. In the subsequent analysis Tuesday, Stegall wrote in a 15-page opinion the Legislature’s recasting of the 125 House and 40 Senate districts was “not a perfect plan,” because no “district reapportionment plan ever is.”

He said contents of Senate Bill 563, which applied 2020 Census figures to the remapping task, did comply with the Kansas Constitution.

“The Legislature used the procedure required by the Kansas Constitution to pass the bill,” said Stegall, an appointee of GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. “The legislative maps contained in Sub. SB 563 also satisfy the constitutional requirement of one person, one vote; they are not discriminatory; they satisfy the requirements of the Voting Rights Act; and they raise no additional constitutional concerns.”

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See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/21/kansas-supreme-court-issues-full-opinions-on-legislative-congressional-redistricting-cases/

39 defendants indicted in metro-wide drug bust

Twenty Mexican nationals are among 39 defendants indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a $4.7 million conspiracy to distribute more than 335 kilograms of methamphetamine and 22 kilograms of heroin over the past two years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Western Missouri.

“This operation took a significant amount of illegal drugs off the street, and disrupted a large Mexican drug-trafficking organization in the Kansas City metropolitan area,” said U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. “State, local, and federal law enforcement agencies worked together in this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation to bring drug traffickers to justice and protect our community from the violence and other harms that result from the flow of illegal drugs.”

On June 8, 2022, Homeland Security Investigations led an operation that involved 140 officers and agents from 14 state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. The takedown resulted in the arrests of 31 defendants charged in the indictment as well as three additional felony state arrests. Three of the federal defendants were already in custody at the time of the takedown and five of the federal defendants remain fugitives from justice.

On the day of the takedown, officers executed 16 search warrants and seized 84.4 kilograms of methamphetamine, 4.5 kilograms of heroin, 10.4 kilograms of fentanyl, 7.6 kilograms of cocaine, 10.5 kilograms of marijuana, 687 Xanax pills, 3.1 kilograms of unknown pills, a quantity of bulk cash, five firearms, a 3D printer with manufactured ghost gun parts, and a liquid methamphetamine conversion lab.

“This indictment represents HSI and our law enforcement partners’ dedication to removing deadly narcotics from our community,” said Special Agent in Charge of the Kansas City area of responsibility Katherine Greer. “We stand alongside our community leaders, stakeholders and the public, to continue our work toward a safer community without the significant dangers associated with these illegal substances.”
The 91-count indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 1, 2022. The indictment was unsealed and made public following the arrests and initial court appearances of the defendants.

The federal indictment charges Jose Jesus Sanchez-Mendez, also known as “Michoacano,” 41, Jesus Morales-Garcia, also known as “Don Jesus,” 43, Luis Eduardo Pineda-Zarao, 26, Juan Bernardo Galeana-Aguilar, 45, Baltazar Flores-Norzagaray, also known as “Sinaloa,” 50, Rafael Perez-Esquivel, 51, Jose Eliazar Valle-Rivera, 39, Uziel Morales-Baltazar, 31, Erick Fernando Martinez Contreras, also known as “Alex,” 34, Joel Enrique Roman, also known as “Pelon,” 44, Miguel Angel Juarez-Lopez, also known as “Chapo,” 47, Jonathan Zuniga-Villafuerte, 30, Sergio Armando Valencia-Ochoa, 36, Juan Humberto Lemus-Mejia, 24, Yuliana Del Carmen Perez Ciprian, 38, Trinidad Torres-Meza, 41, Miriam Veronica Bustos-Martinez, 37, and Liliana Valencia-Mendoza, 40, addresses unknown and all citizens of Mexico; Flor Gonzalez-Celestine, 52, a citizen of Mexico residing in Kansas City, Missouri; and Jose Bernabe Zamora-Cardenas, also known as “Mufa,” 52, a citizen of Mexico residing in Kansas City, Kansas.

The federal indictment also charges Tina Marie Cruces, 36, Lisbet Espino, 24, Frank Anthony Valdivia, 43, Melissa A. Bates, 55, and Monica L. McCubbin, 39, all of Kansas City, Missouri; Santiago Raul Mendieta-Sanchez, 41, a citizen of Honduras residing in Kansas City, Missouri, Jennifer S. Lawson, 35, of Buckner, Missouri; Felton Stone Jr., 45, Donald R. Moses, also known as “Moe,” 51, Felipe Antonio Alcala, 30, Anthony C. Hughes, 37, Maria Nancy Valdez, 32, Ignacio Barragan-Vazquez, 32, Yvonne Guzman-Carpio, also known as “Morena,” 39, Kongmhink Her, 41, addresses unknown; Marco Antonio Salazar, also known as “Tono,” 29, and Nelson Alirio Garcia-Guerra, 28, both citizens of Guatemala, addresses unknown; Arantxa Sabrina Valderrama-Barros, also known as “Sabri,” 25, a citizen of Venezuela, address unknown; and Daniel Felipe Suarez-Reinoso, 30, a citizen of Colombia, address unknown.

All of the defendants are charged with participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin from Feb. 28, 2020, to June 1, 2022, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

In addition to the drug-trafficking conspiracy, Sanchez-Mendez, Zamora-Cardenas, Valencia-Ochoa, Valencia-Mendoza and Suarez-Reinoso are charged with participating in a money-laundering conspiracy related to transporting or transferring the proceeds of the drug-trafficking conspiracy to Mexico.

Sanchez-Mendez and Morales-Garcia are also charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise related to the drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracies and other offenses alleged in the indictment. The indictment alleges Sanchez-Mendez and Morales-Garcia occupied a position of organizer, supervisor, or manager of the ongoing criminal enterprise, from which they obtained substantial income.

The federal indictment charges various defendants in various counts of distributing heroin and fentanyl, distributing methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine and heroin with the intent to distribute, possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm, money laundering, reentry by an illegal alien, and using cell phones to facilitate drug-trafficking crimes.

The indictment also contains forfeiture allegations that would require the defendants to forfeit to the government $4,718,700, which represents the proceeds of the alleged drug-trafficking conspiracy and criminal enterprise. The indictment alleges the conspiracy involved the distribution of more than 335.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, with an average street price of $300 per ounce, and more than 22.1 kilograms of heroin, with an average street price of $1,500 per ounce.

The forfeiture allegations would also require the defendants to forfeit to the government $277,440 that was seized by law enforcement officers from a vehicle driven by Suarez-Reinoso and $51,445 that was seized by law enforcement officers while executing two search warrants at Kansas City, Missouri, residences.

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Byron H. Black, Patrick C. Edwards, and Mary Kate Butterfield. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Jackson County Drug Task Force, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Independence, Mo., Police Department, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Minnesota State Patrol, the Olmsted County, Minn., Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the FBI, the Clay County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Kansas man who performed fraudulent autopsies pleads guilty to wire fraud

Shawn Lynn Parcells, 42, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 25

by Dan Margolies, KCUR and Kansas News Service

A Kansas man who held himself out as a pathologist even though he had no medical degree and duped hundreds of people into paying for autopsy services pleaded guilty on Thursday to wire fraud.

Shawn Lynn Parcells, 42, admitted that he falsely represented his credentials to a Maryland family that had contracted with him for autopsy services and sent them a fraudulent pathology report and cause of death.

Parcells faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 25.

A federal grand jury indicted Parcells in November 2020 on 10 counts of wire fraud. Parcells’ admission of guilt was not part of a plea agreement with the government and the other nine counts in the indictment remain pending. But the government is expected to dismiss those counts once Parcells is sentenced.

Parcells’ company, National Autopsy Services, charged clients thousands of dollars up front for pathology reports. At least 375 clients paid him more than $1.1 million in fees between May 2016 and May 2019, according to the indictment.

National Autopsy Services’ website claimed it had locations throughout the United States and several abroad, “giving the impression that NAS was a large business operation when in fact the defendant operated only one morgue facility and a ‘Corporate Office’ in Topeka,” the indictment stated.

At his plea hearing, Parcells’ attorney, David Magariel, related the facts underlying Parcells’ guilty plea. He said the Maryland family of James Welch, who had died in July 2016, found National Autopsy Services through an internet search. It then paid $5,000 to NAS for a pathology and toxicology report, believing that Parcells was a medical doctor and pathologist. Parcells signed the report with a listing of his qualifications, including initials falsely indicating he held a doctoral degree. No pathologists reviewed or signed off on the report.

Magariel said that while Parcells was not pleading guilty to the other counts in the indictment, “we do understand that others had a similar experience, although different as to some particularities.”

“We also agree that there were other cases in which a pathologist was listed on the report, but when interviewed, those pathologists denied involvement with cases on at least some of the reports,” Magariel said.

Last year, a Wabaunsee County jury convicted Parcells of three counts of felony theft and three misdemeanor counts of criminal desecration. He is awaiting sentencing there.

Between 1996 and 2003, Parcells worked in the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office. At his plea hearing on Thursday, Parcells told U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree that he holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in human anatomy and physiology from New York Chiropractic College. He admitted that he does not have a medical degree or doctoral degree, as he claimed.

In 2014, he appeared frequently on cable news shows as a supposed expert in the investigation into the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

A separate civil lawsuit in Shawnee County against Parcells is pending. The lawsuit, brought by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, alleges that Parcells misled at least 82 Kansas consumers who contracted with him to perform autopsies that he failed to complete in accordance with Kansas law.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of High Plains Public Radio, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR and KMUW focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-05-26/kansas-man-who-performed-fraudulent-autopsies-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud.