Recent Results

Padgett not guilty in sex case

By JODIE GARCIA, Herald Staff Writer

Former city manager Weldon Padgett was acquitted late Friday afternoon on charges of rape and criminal sodomy.

After nearly seven hours of deliberations, 12 jurors returned the verdict of not guilty at Franklin County District Court.

“I’m pleased with the verdict,” Padgett said. “I’m pleased to get on with my life.”

About an hour before returning with the verdict, the jurors asked the court what would happen if they could not reach a unanimous decision.

Judge Thomas Sachse instructed the jurors to discuss whether additional time would help them resolve their differences.

Not reaching a unanimous decision would have forced a new trial.

Padgett was arrested and charged almost one year ago for the crimes alleged by a 36-year-old Ottawa woman and had resigned as Ottawa city manager before then.

The woman had accused Padgett of placing drugs in her drinks to cause her to lose consciousness so that he might have sex with her.

Franklin County Attorney Heather Jones, who prosecuted the case with Nola Wright, assistant attorney general, said hundreds of hours of preparation went into the case.

“I’m disappointed,” she said. “I don’t really know what we could have done drastically different.”

During her testimony, the woman said she began to notice bouts of memory loss and evidence of sex that she didn’t remember. She said she eventually began to relate those episodes to beverages, usually wine, given to her by her husband.

But Padgett took the stand Thursday and denied wanting an unwilling, unconscious partner.

“... it doesn’t appeal to me and it doesn’t make sense,” he said at that time.

During his closing arguments, defense lawyer Scott Toth said the case was nothing more than a marriage gone bad.

“This is a divorce case. This is not a criminal case,” he said.

He said the woman frequently forgot events and conversations. He said the jury had to believe for themselves the events happened, not just that the woman believed they did.

“How can you be sure that it happened?” Toth said.

Wright said the woman observed what was happening to her and that her friends’ and family’s testimonies corroborate her story.

Wright said it didn’t matter how drugs got into the woman’s system. The point, she said, was that the woman was incapable of giving consent and her husband had sex with her anyway.

Toth called the case “sensational” because it contained drugs, sex and computers. But that didn’t mean that the accusations were true, he said.

“This craziness, this speculation, this madness needs to stop,” he told jurors. “You need to go and let him put his life back together.”

When asked Friday after the verdict, Padgett wasn’t sure what his next steps would be.

“I have no idea,” he said.

Obscenity charges dropped against Overland Park Store

By Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star
October 10, 2007

A grand jury indictment that accused an Overland Park store of promoting obscenity was dismissed this morning in Johnson County District Court.

Attorneys for Spirit Halloween, 6824 W. 119th St., were scheduled to appear in court this afternoon on charges handed down Sept. 26 by a Johnson County grand jury. But defense attorney Tyler Garretson said the district attorney's office signed an order dismissing the case this morning.

The business, owned by the Spencer Corp., had been charged with four counts of promoting obscenity to minors for selling four costumes that allegedly were harmful to minors.

"When we got a copy of the indictment, we were as surprised as anyone," Garretson said. "So we immediately took our own steps...and removed the costumes that were complained of and put them in a separated back portion of the store. We've kind of corrected whatever the perceived problem was through our own actions and once we were able to demonstrate that to the district attorney's office they agreed to dismiss the indictment against us."

The grand jury was convened in mid-July through a citizen's petition to investigate businesses suspected of promoting obscenity. It finished its work on Oct. 2 and disbanded.

Two other businesses that were indicted for promoting obscenity are scheduled to appear in court today to make their first appearances. They are Priscilla's, located in Olathe, and Hollywood at Home in Overland Park. 

Charge dropped in massage parlor case

Johnson County prosecutors have dropped a case against an Overland Park man who had been charged with promoting prostitution.

Peng Zhang, 43, was scheduled to be tried starting Monday on a charge of maintaining or managing Lily Massage, which the complaint alleged was a house of prostitution. Instead, prosecutors dismissed the charge, a misdemeanor, on Sept. 21.

District Attorney spokesman Brian Burgess said today that prosecutors "didn't want to go forward with the case we had." Defense attorney Scott Toth said his client was innocent.

Zhang was one of six people charged May 12 in Johnson County District Court with alleged involvement in a prostitution ring. The charges were announced a day after federal prosecutors in Kansas City announced sex trafficking charges against four other people.

The federal prosecutors alleged those four were part of an operation that brought Chinese women to Johnson County to work as prostitutes.

Man Released from Prison Six Years Early after GWT Successfully Argues Application of Ex Post Facto laws

On January 23rd, 2007, Joseph E. Czechan was released from prison after serving nearly six years in the Kansas Department of Corrections.  In October of 2001, Czechan was convicted at trial of two counts of child abuse and ordered to serve the maximum sentence of 136 months (GWT did not represent the client at the time of trial).  In late 2006, Mr. Czechan contacted Garretson, Webb & Toth, LLC, in an effort to have this sentence declared unlawful.  Mr. Czechan's attorney, Tyler Garretson, filed multiple motions challenging the legality of the original sentence on multiple fronts.  The argument that won the day was the application of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  

The State of Kansas had filed a Motion for Departure prior to the time of Mr. Czechan's trial, arguing that he had a fiduciary relationship with the victims of the offense.  Upon conviction, the separate issue of a fiduciary relationship was submitted to the jury which concluded that the aggravating factor was present.  At sentencing, the sentencing court imposed the maximum sentence for each count, doubled each of the sentences as a result of the aggravating factor, and ordered the two convictions to run consecutively (on top of) one another for a controlling prison sentence of 136 months, more than 11 years.

On appeal, Mr. Czechan's case was reversed as a result of earlier decisions of the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Apprendi, and the Kansas Supreme Court in State v. Gould.  (citations omitted).  Mr. Czechan hired the Firm for his re-sentencing on remand.  The State once again sought to convene a jury under the modification to the sentencing statute enacted subsequent to Mr. Czechan's arrest, conviction and sentencing.  The Johnson County District Court Judge assigned to this case agreed with the motions filed in this case and ruled that further efforts to depart against Mr. Czechan would violate his constitutional rights against application of a law that did not exist at the time of the commission of the offense.  Mr. Czechan's sentence was cut in half, from 136 to 68 months, resulting in his immediate release from prison.

Today, Mr. Czechan has returned to his family in Kansas City, Kansas who are thrilled to have their son back home.

Case Dismissed After Invocation of Rarely Used Legal Doctrine

In late April, the attorneys at Garretson, Webb & Toth successfully argued at trial for the dismissal of a charge filed against a juvenile client.  Christian Webb made the argument by motion at the close of the State's case.  The client was acquitted and cannot be retried.

The defense centered upon the doctrine of corpus delecti.  The doctrine is rarely cited, but it is good example that no child's case is the same and every case must be examined from every angle.  Despite the client's admission, the Court agreed that the absence of additional evidence merited an acquittal.

Every child client's case will be handled by Garretson, Webb & Toth in the unique manner required to maximize the chance of a favorable result.

Because it is your child, your child's lawyer is from the firm of Garretson, Webb & Toth.  

MyChildsLawyer.com

Over .08?  Not Guilty!

K.S.A. 8-1567 specifically defines Driving Under the Influence as driving while "the alcohol concentration in the person's blood or breath, as measured within two hours of the time of operating or attempting to operate a vehicle, is .08 or more." (emphasis added).  A jury in Douglas County, Kansas District Court disagreed.

Through the use of an expert brought in by the attorneys of Garretson, Webb & Toth, LLC, the defense was able to demonstrate the possibility that the results of the breath test from the Intoxilizer 5000, showing our client to be above .08, could have sufficient error within the sample, creating the possibility that the client's breath alcohol level could have been less than .08.  Our client was found not guilty of DUI after short deliberations.  He was convicted of failing to signal and paid a nominal fine as we exited the courthouse