“AN INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE"
PART TWO
It Just Can't Happen Right?
Narrator:
Disclaimer: This story is NOT fiction. I was going to change the names to protect the innocent but then I thought, WHY? Ken Middleton is innocent of murdering his wife Kathy but that didn’t stop a jury of his peers from handing down a guilty verdict along with a life sentence in prison plus 200 years.
FADE IN:EXT. May 26,2005 KANSAS CITY MONUMENTS, FOUNTAINS, PARKS, THE COURT HOUSE —DAY
CUT TO:
INT. JACKSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE UNKNOWN FLOOR, COURTROOM, BACK JUDGE’S CHAMBERS, KANSAS CITY - LATE AFTERNOON
The place smells old and beat down from the years and from tears. One feels guilty just standing there inside the building but safe inside the Judge’s chambers. The short lady standing in front of the mirror, adjusting her robe, has an enormous amount of grey on her head. The room is quiet and still but eerily one can sense the sadness that bellows from the location.
Bailiff
It’s show time Judge Messina
TIME KENNETH MIDDLETON HAS SERVED SO FAR: 14 YEARS THREE MONTHS 5 DAYS
CUT TO: PEANUT GALLERY SOMEWHERE
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa - stop right there! Did you say he has been behind bars over 15 years and he didn’t do it? Was he or wasn’t he found guilty? Yes? That’s enough for me partner, if the Commonwealth of Missouri says he’s guilty – he’s guilty!
Narrator: But 365 plus days ago that conviction was vacated as was his life plus 200 years sentence. So you could say that he was guilty then he wasn’t? But in about five minutes from that narration he’ll be back to guilty.
Judge Edith Messina announces to the vacant courtroom, her decision on the case before her, Ken’s claim of abandonment during his post-conviction, a 29.15 proceeding. A proceeding that he wins, Messina agrees that he was abandoned and she grants Middleton his new trial 14 years after he was convicted. The Judge vacates the conviction and sentence. The next day Ken applies with the state to have his bond reinstated and he is getting ready to go home. But the state says – nope. The Prosecutor who offered him his freedom has appealed Judge Messina ruling based off the Standards of Review. He claims that Middleton shouldn’t get a new trial because Messina made a mistake taking a look at the case. Until it is sorted out, Middleton will have to wait in prison. Nearly 13 months.
That there Prosecutor of Jackson County, Mike D. Sanders just received 27 months in Federal Prison for crimes he committed while holding office in Jackson County Missouri. The sentence was handed down on September 19, 2018, he reports to jail on November 5, 2018. Supposedly he was begging the Judge, (this is false, pumped up for radio) an apparent friend of his to give him less time than the 27 months. It’s rumored that he screamed, “There’s no way I can do that amount of time Jimmy, I mean Your Honor, 27 months is a life sentence, didn’t Mary talk to Georgia, she said it was handled, the house arrest…Please Jimmy, Your Honor I mean…You owe me you son of a bitch…”
The Defense Lawyer Representing Sanders, 2018, former Appellate Judge, the Honorable Ronald Holliger, the guy that agrees and sides with Sanders’ appeal, regarding the new trial granted to Middleton in 2005, and the one who reinstates Middleton’s original conviction and sentence. Life, Plus 200 - Hear me loud: The judge who took away Ken’s new trial, a trial granted by the original trial judge, Honorable Edith Messina, (I’M REALLY YELLING AT YOU NOW) is now Mike D. Sanders lawyer. Judge Ron Holliger ruled in favor of Sanders appeal, not siding with the Judge that knew this case best, the Judge that more less admitted she made a mistake 14 years earlier. Ken Middleton can’t catch a break, so it seems.
Let’s rewind and go back to Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Pat Peters, Doctor Death, and who was also part-time Disc Jockey. I wonder if Peters, shortened Doctor Death and possibly went by “DD the DJ” - PROBABLY NOT.
Lets visualize the night of February 12, 1990, the day when everything dropped for Mr. Middleton. Pat Peters pulls up to the scene in a, let’s say, E190 Mercedes. His tunes are popping. It’s a new rock band with a different sound: Pearl Jam. Peters, Patrick has a different sort of look than maybe yesterday, he’s looking a little, mmm, grungy?
1. Peters arrives in the City of Blue Springs, to the Middleton home, let’s guess – 5:00 pm. Peters knows the lay of the land well, he grew up there.
2. His father, The Honorable William J. Peters raised young Patrick in a community within the Blue Springs City called Lake Tapawingo.
3. The Honorable William J. Peters is newly retired from the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri. He also lives there in Blue Springs, Mo.
4. Instead of getting out of law completely the Judge has taken up as Special Counsel for a local law firm in Blue Springs called Cochran, Oswald, McDonald, Graham & Roam PC.
5. A partner in the law firm of Cochran Oswald McDonald Graham & Roam – Robert McDonald is the Blue Springs City Attorney
6. The Blue Springs Police Department is represented by Cochran, Oswald, McDonald, Graham & Roam PC.
7. Robert McDonald is also the Judge at Lake Tapawingo, a position he’ll hold onto for 46 years when he retires in 2018.
8. Sgt. Rogers who handled the GSR Test for the BSPD, tests that were altered with white out, lost or that disappeared, and headed the investigation becomes Alderman at Tapawingo then becomes the Chief of Police in a year or two. He rose to the top less than 2 years after the Middleton shooting. Hmmm, home of the Assistant Prosecutor, multiple judges, attorneys, and policeman. A friend indeed or in need?
If you're not getting a small taste of what’s about to happen to Mr. Middleton from a Assistant Prosecuting Attorney (APA) who is back in his old stomping grounds. An APA who has a father that is a retired Judge and who also happens to live in Blue Springs and who works at a law firm that could possibly handle a civil law suit if his son, the prosecutor, discovers that Ken And Kathy have money. If his son calls him quickly enough. This was going to be bad for Ken and no one could have predicted the deep-seated ties that the Peters family had in the community along with all the other Judges and attorneys who also called The City of Blue Springs home.
I have to stop right here. But if I was to tell you that Ken ends up on trial in Judge William J. Peters old court room where there is a photo of him starring down, would you believe me? If I told you that his defense attorney Robert G. Duncan represented a portion of the alleged Mafia Family in Kansas City in the 70's and 80's would you believe it? Or that his attorney also was about to be indicted for charges that could take his much needed concentration away from Ken? So much so he didn't make an opening statement, call an expert witness, nor object throughout the trial? It gets bad, real bad.
9. And if we go back to the opening of this Act or chapter, Ken is offered his immediate release in 2005, he just has to sign the Alford Plea in front of him, it says, more less, he isn’t not guilty and he can’t sue the State, County, City or anyone tied to the case: No thanks he says – Ken Middleton’s decision spoke volumes, I am not guilty, I am innocent of these charges, and I’ve been incarcerated for too many years to let you Jokers go off without someone answering to the wrongful conviction and incarceration. It’s coming up on 28 years in February since he’s had a gulp of fresh air as a free man. Ken Middleton was in his 40’s when he went in and today in his 70’s. 28 years of his life that’ll never be refunded. 27 DOWN, LIFE PLUS 200
Read The Entire Story Here By Clicking Link:
https://maquijas.blogspot.com/2018/12/27-down-life-plus-200.html
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