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District Attorney continues reviewing what’s next in Chandler double-murder case
D.A. Mike Kagay joins the Red Couch
Published: Sep. 6, 2022
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Shawnee Co. District Attorney Mike Kagay says he is looking at “anything and everything” in determining the next steps in the Dana Chandler case.
(If Kagay had been ‘looking at anything and everything’ from the start, he would have never filed these charges and would have let Dana Chandler go: There is zero evidence that ties her to the crime or location, and only flimsy emotionally-manipulative testimony that suggests motive.)
Chandler is accused in the 2002 shooting deaths of her ex-husband Michael Sisco and his fiance Karen Harkness. She was convicted of murder charges in 2012, but the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2018 citing misconduct by the former prosecutor on the case.
(This was way more than just some “technicality” that they over turned Chandler’s convictions over. The prosecutor Jaqui Spradling outright LIED and mislead the jury during the trial, and she got the lead detective Richard Volle to repeat lies and mislead the jury while under oath on the stand. The most egregious of these was the assertion that there was a “Restraining Order” taken out by victim Mike Sisco against Dana Chandler, the FACTS are that no such restraining order ever existed. And Volle and Spradling were well aware of this and other fabrications they presented to the jury. Jury members that were polled after the trial said that the testimony about the restraining order was what convinced them to convict Chandler; so without THAT fabricated and made up lie, Chandler would not have been convicted. )
A second trial this month included 12 days of testimony. Last Thursday, after six days of deliberations, the jury informed the judge they were at an impasse, and she declared a mistrial. Jurors say their split was seven for conviction and five to acquit.
Kagay appeared on Tuesday’s Eye on Northeast Kansas show on WIBW-TV. He told 13′s Melissa Brunner he remains in the process of deciding whether to try the case a third time, or dismiss the charges.
(There are the careers of several politicians, as well as the credibility of the DA’s office and the Police Dept at stake here. And more importantly, they then have to contend with the fact that the real actual killer is still out there, and has been running free this whole time. The Police And DA’s office has embarrassed themselves with this case from beginning to end. How much more time and money and resources is Kagay going to waste on a case that they simply cannot win honestly?)
“We take a step back and we take a fresh look at the case,” Kagay explained. “We analyze every facet of it, just as we do when we make a charging decision when the case first comes to us.”
Though Kagay declined to go into specifics about the Chandler case, he did say his goal is to reach decision before a scheduled Sept. 29 status hearing.
On other topics, Kagay said he is excited to see two new magistrate judges joining Shawnee Co. District Court. The positions are among several the Kansas Judiciary requested lawmakers fund as already-stressed courts are dealing with massive case backlogs created by pandemic-related shutdowns.
(A problem made even worse by the fact that Kagay continued to try this case with no evidence and no truly credible witnesses and an extremely flawed prosecutions narrative about how the crime happened and why. Denying a change of venue was a desperate attempt to keep their thumb on this case, which has been manipulated and hampered from behind the scenes by members of the victims families, so of whom have social ties and connections to previous judges in this case.)
As a result, Kagay said Shawnee Co. Commissioners funded five new positions for his office to work with the new judges: two attorneys, two support staff, and a person who will be dedicated to reviewing police body camera evidence.
“It means efficiency with processing the caseload, with processing the backlog,” Kagay said. “I’d like to say we made progress. Of course, the problem is new cases arrive all the time.”
(Yes and with those new cases, Kagay and his staff are grasping old expensive and unwinnable cases like the Chandler case like it was the last beanie baby on the planet. And isnt it curious that while Kagay beats his breast and brags about how “Topeka is safer”, that is clearly not the case as he asks for more and more money and resources for his office? Which is it? If crime is going down, then why does he need the new tax money and employees?)
Kagay also addressed the growing issues surrounding fentanyl. Earlier Tuesday, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of a Wamego man for the death of another man a year earlier from a fentanyl overdose.
Kagay said his office is seeing similar cases, and it should be a warning to people of all ages, whether they are habitual drug users or someone curious to experiment.
(Yet his office is offering no real help to addicts and users, instead option for the revolving door of the prison industrial complex. Or offenders end up right back on the streets, nothing in their life fundamentally changed, no new opportunities, and yet we act surprised when they offend again? We would all like to see the DA go after the real dealers and enablers, but we would probably have to hire a new police department.)
“Fentanyl can be made so cheaply and it’s so deadly. One pill of fentanyl can take your life,” Kagay said. “Is it worth it? Is your life worth…putting something in your body that you don’t know where it came from?”
(And Kagays method of dealing with it does nothing to relieve the real problems and issues. He shows here that he really doesnt understand the issues or problems at all. He and his predacessor Chad Taylor have put a serious dent in the credibility of his office, and WIBW, who has many employees with long-time social and business connections to the victims families in the Chandler case is more than happy to try to blow smoke and puff up the DAs Office.)
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