Wyandotte County’s top prosecutor is banking on local jurors to convict a white jailer in this summer’s accidental death of a black inmate – but doesn’t trust the county’s judges to oversee it.

District Attorney Mark Dupree has filed a rare motion to disqualify all 16 of the county’s district court judges from presiding over the case of Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Fatherley in the asphyxiation death of Charles Adair July 5.

Dupree has charged Fatherley with second-degree murder/reckless or, in the alternative, involuntary manslaughter, in what even the prosecutor describes as an unintentional death – and despite the fact that a Kansas Bureau of Investigation affidavit alleges no crime.

Fatherley was helping other deputies restrain a struggling Adair, 50, while they tried to remove his handcuffs as he was bent over his cell bunk.

Records indicate Adair had a number of medical complications including “hypertensive cardiovascular disease and hepatic cirrhosis due to chronic alcoholism”; diabetes; a pacemaker; blood clots in his left arm; high cholesterol and elevated fat levels in his blood; and schizophrenia.

At least one Kansas City news outlet, PBS station KCUR, has drawn comparisons in the case to the infamous death of George Floyd, though the alleged similarities are factually inaccurate.

Dupree filed the “Motion for Change of Judge” Sept. 19. The judge assigned to the case, Aaron Roberts, quickly denied the request to recuse himself from the case. Dupree is now asking the district’s Chief Judge Robert Burns to disqualify all 16 of the county’s judges.

Dupree claims the local judges’ reliance on the sheriff’s office for courthouse security makes them biased, or at least appear biased, in favor of Fatherley.

“This case has attracted considerable media attention both locally and nationally, thereby amplifying [Dupree’s] concerns about the appearance of bias, whether or not such bias actually exists in the mind of a particular Wyandotte County Judge,” his motion argues. “The Chief Judge of this District Court should enter an order recusing all Wyandotte County District Court Judges from participating in this case.”

In calling for the local judges to step aside, Dupree’s motion cites various court rules and case precedent, but notably no evidence of any actual or perceived bias on the part of any of the judges.

The motion merely argues that the deputies’ task of providing courthouse security creates a “close, safety and security-dependent relationship between Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Deputies and all judges of this district court” and a “psychological interest in the outcome of this case …”

The motion argues that “on account of that interest, the State of Kansas cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial. Because the Judges of this county depend upon the Sheriff’s Department to provide for their own security in the courthouse, and timely transportation of inmates to and from hearings, the judges of this county will experience an inexorable pressure to rule in Mr. Fatherley’s favor to avoid disrupting the relationship between the judges of this county and the Sheriff’s Department.”

Interestingly, Dupree’s own motion concedes that case law says, “Where the allegations [of bias] are speculations only, they do not reach the threshold necessary to sustain the motion.”

In addition, three different sources tell The Heartlander Dupree’s motion to disqualify local judges in the case is either rare or unprecedented – and arguably hypocritical, since his own DA’s office relies on the same sheriff’s department for its security.

Such a motion is “very, very rare” – especially coming from a prosecutor – and is normally only pertinent when one of the judges is a witness, victim or party to a case, one Wyandotte County courthouse authority tells The Heartlander on condition of anonymity.

“You’ve got to show that there’s bias or appearance of impropriety or something like that. It doesn’t happen very often, I’ll just say that. … For the state to say no judge in Wyandotte County can hear a case is highly, highly unusual.”

The courthouse authority also notes the county’s judges have routinely presided over cases involving other sheriff’s deputies, as well as Kansas City Kansas, police and firefighters – and even members of Dupree’s own family.

“And this motion has never been filed before.”

As for feeling “inexorable pressure” to rule in Fatherley’s favor, both the courthouse authority and the deputy’s attorney James Spies tell The Heartlander it’s highly unlikely any of the judges even know him – especially considering he’s only been assigned to the jail for a year or less.

Besides, the authority said, judges “don’t see these guys. There’s no connection between jailers and appearing in court.”

“I don’t know that any of the judges would know who this guy is if he walked in the room,” Spies says of Fatherley. “I can tell you that my client, to the best of my knowledge, has never been a court transport deputy.

“I think a motion such as this is unprecedented, at least in my career. I have never seen a motion seeking to disqualify the entire Wyandotte County Court. There’s no conflict. I can’t see a conflict here.”

Also of note is the fact that Dupree wants to disqualify local judges in the case, but not local jurors – which he could have sought to do through a Motion for Change of Venue to move the case to another part of Kansas.

“My speculation would be that he wants to give up the Wyandotte County judges, but not the jurors,” Spies says.

“Why not a change of venue? Because he wouldn’t want to move it out of Wyandotte County – with a white officer and a black victim, in a county that is generally known to have a less favorable view towards law enforcement than other counties do. Of course you want to leave the case in Wyandotte County.”