By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly and legislators on a bipartisan state council reviewed without objection a $50,000 settlement for wrongful conviction of a Wichita man sentenced to prison for possession of a nine-inch folding knife the district court concluded met the legal definition of a weapon.
The State Finance Council, which includes top leadership of the Senate and House, also voted to approve settlements Tuesday of two other legal conflicts. Information about the amount of tax dollars used to settle those claims and details of what prompted the claims weren’t disclosed by council members.
In the wrongful conviction case, Larry L. Lucas was stopped in 2018 by a Wichita police officer for a traffic infraction. He was arrested on an outstanding bench warrant. Officers found a folding knife in his truck. Due to a 2010 drug conviction, Lucas was charged with criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Lucas was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. His conviction on the knife charge in Sedgwick County District Court was upheld by the Kansas Court of Appeals, but the attorney general’s office said those rulings were nullified by the Kansas Supreme Court. The state’s highest court ruled the 2014 state law applicable to the knife case was too vague to be applied.
Lucas, who had been convicted of three dozen misdemeanor and felony crimes, was released from prison in 2020 and filed the claim for wrongful conviction.
He was initially awarded $100,000 by a district court judge in Wichita for time served and attorney fees. The state’s plan to challenge his right to any compensation for wrongful conviction led to negotiations with Lucas and the $50,000 settlement.
The State Finance Council, which is chaired by the governor and includes top Republican and Democratic members of the Legislature, reviewed the settlement during a meeting at the Kansas Capitol.
The council also voted to endorse financial settlement of a sex harassment, gender-based discrimination and retaliation complaint brought in federal court by a former female officer at Hutchinson Correctional Facility against male administrators of the prison. The plaintiff sued Warden Dan Schnurr, Major Clay VanHoose and Tommy Williams, who was Hutchinson’s deputy warden before promoted this year to warden at El Dorado Correctional Facility.
Erin Peppiatt, who was a captain at the Hutchinson prison before fired in 2020 by the Kansas Department of Corrections, sought relief in U.S. District Court. Court documents indicate the corrections department said Peppiatt engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a male subordinate, but Peppiatt asserted in the suit male corrections officers were allowed to fraternize with female subordinates without consequence.
In addition, court records show, Peppiatt testified that “every time she spoke with defendant (deputy warden) Williams in his office, he would stare at plaintiff’s breasts with his hand between his legs rubbing his groin.”
U.S. District Court Judge John Lungstrum issued an opinion related to a request for summary judgment by declaring: “A jury could reasonably find that such overtly sexual and offensive conduct by her supervisor could deter future discussions and thus would have affected plaintiff’s ability to do her job.”
In terms of retaliation, Peppiatt alleged two male employees at the Hutchinson prison were reprimanded for dressing a CPR dummy in a wig made from a mop and a female officer’s vest to mock her claim of discrimination at the prison.
The State Finance Council also settled without comment the case of Michael Williams for an undisclosed amount.
The council discussed the Williams and Peppiatt cases in executive session with representatives of Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office.
Council members voted in open session to approve both of the proposed settlements, but didn’t discuss the dollar amounts to be paid nor details of what sparked those claims against the state. Audio of the public portion of the council’s meeting at the Capitol was so muddled it was impossible to determine which lawmakers voted for the settlements. The governor said the votes on both were 7-0 with two members abstaining.