Defendant stood trial three times, served three years in prison before case crumbled
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas attorney general and a Shawnee County judge approved a wrongful-conviction settlement of more than $200,000 for a man who stood trial three times for a series of criminal sexual offenses before a jury acquitted him of two charges and failed to reach a verdict on the final charge.
On Tuesday, an attorney for the state informed the governor and legislators that Anthony Bowers was entitled to compensation of $182,650 for three years served in prison on an overturned conviction for rape. The settlement included about $25,000 for legal fees.
Robert Hutchison, deputy attorney general in Kansas, said the State Finance Council had to be informed of the decision previously approved in Shawnee County District Court. The payment didn’t require an endorsement by members of the State Finance Council, which included Gov. Laura Kelly, Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins.
State law mandated Attorney General Kris Kobach process petitions filed by people convinced they were owed compensation for wrongful convictions. Each petition must be considered by the state court, which in this case fell to Judge Teresa Watson.
“We wrestled with this for a long time because this isn’t the kind of offense for which we like to see compensation paid out,” Hutchison said.
Three trials & prison
In Jackson County, Hutchison said, Bowers was acquitted by a jury of rape, aggravated sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child during his first trial.
At a second trial in 2016, he was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to three consecutive life terms with a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison.
The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed his convictions because prosecution witness Jill Shehi-Chapman testified at trial about subject matter that fell into the category of expert testimony. The appellate court objected to Shehi-Chapman testifying as to her opinions regarding the general behavior of perpetrators of sexual abuse when she was not certified as an expert witness in the Bowers case.
“And, thereby, prejudicing the verdicts he received,” Hutchison said.
At the third trial, a jury acquitted Bowers of rape and aggravated sodomy and was hung on the aggravated indecent liberties charge.
The prosecutor in Jackson County declined to retry Bowers a fourth time on the aggravated indecent liberties issue because of the Court of Appeals opinion, elapsed time from the alleged offense in 2014 and “consistency issues” involving the evidence, Hutchison said.
Candy, soft drinks
Meanwhile, the State Finance Council voted to release $10 million to the Kansas Department for Children and Families to cover state expenditures during the remainder of the current fiscal year.
The council likewise agreed to transfer $1.8 million to DCF following compliance with a legislative directive to seek approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a plan to deny recipients of SNAP the option of using the federal funds to buy candy or soft drinks.
The state agency submitted the request to the USDA, but withdrew that application when the governor vetoed the budget measure tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Republican-led Legislature overturned Kelly’s veto of the soda and candy prohibition, which prompted DCF to resubmit the request to USDA to limit food stamp expenditures in Kansas.
Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, a Wichita Republican, asked the DCF secretary if there was any plan to withdraw the request a second time.
DCF Secretary Laura Howard apologized for the start-and-stop process regarding the SNAP limitation enacted by the Legislature. She said the proposal to USDA wouldn’t be dropped a second time.
“I’ll take responsibility for what happened earlier,” Howard said. “That was really an administrative error on my staff’s part.”