By DAN MARGOLIES

Leavenworth Detention Center sits about 35 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, just off the town’s main drag – a nondescript stretch of fast-food shops, strip shopping malls and mom-and-pop businesses.

The prison is a sprawling complex of squat white buildings ringed by chain-link fencing topped by razor wire. People charged with federal crimes who can’t make bail are held here.

The prison can hold more than 1,100 detainees, male and female alike. Lawyers regularly meet with them there to review their cases. 

Those conversations are supposed to be private. But ever since the disclosure two years ago that the owner and operator of the prison, CoreCivic, had video- and audio-taped attorney-client meetings, the prison has been the center of a raging controversy. 

And this week, in what’s shaping up as a blockbuster court hearing, evidence may be produced about whether and to what extent federal prosecutors viewed or listened in on those recordings. 

In a move with little precedent, the Federal Public Defender has subpoenaed more than a dozen prosecutors and employees of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to testify about whether they accessed any of the recordings. Melody Brannon, head of the Federal Public Defender Office in Kansas, says without the assurance of confidentiality, her office can’t do its job.  

“It’s critical to the system that an attorney and client can speak in confidence so that we can best represent our clients, so that they can confide in us and let us know the essential facts and concerns that they have,” Brannon says. “That enables us to make the right decisions and how to proceed in the case. If we don’t have that confidentiality, it cripples the job of the defense attorney in representing our clients.”

So serious is the breach of confidentiality seen that scores of inmates who say their communications with their lawyers were taped are seeking to have their convictions overturned.

Brannon has been leading the charge to get to the bottom of what happened. 

“We requested (CoreCivic) to not record calls to our (phone) numbers,” she says. “So anytime someone inside was calling, those were not supposed to be recorded. And yet we found for a two-year period that those calls were recorded.”

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson appointed a special master to investigate not just the extent of the recordings but whether any of them had been turned over to federal prosecutors. The scope of the investigation by the special master, Cleveland attorney David R. Cohen, was limited to the case in which the recordings first came to light. But Cohen quickly discovered that hundreds of attorney-client meetings at Leavenworth had been videotaped.

“The idea that the United States Attorney’s office had access to attorney-defense counsel meeting with their clients was a big deal,” Cohen, the special master, says. “And so I was appointed by the judge to determine really what was going on and the extent to which that might have occurred.”

It’s not clear at this point to what extent the U.S. Attorney’s Office may have accessed the video recordings. One of the reasons that remains murky is that a hard drive in the U.S. Attorney’s Office containing the recordings was mysteriously wiped clean – even after the judge had ordered the office to preserve it as evidence.

Since Cohen’s appointment, separate class action lawsuits brought by lawyers and detainees claim to have uncovered evidence that more than 1,300 phone calls between public defenders and inmates at CCA were improperly recorded over a two-year period. Beyond that, they claim, nearly 19,000 inmate phone calls to 567 attorneys on a list compiled by Cohen had also been recorded over a period of several years.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office initially cooperated with Cohen’s investigation. But last fall, it abruptly stopped cooperating – which prompted Brannon to file a motion to hold it in contempt.

A hearing on the motion got underway in May, but it was recessed after the newly appointed U.S. Attorney, former Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister, indicated he was willing to work out an agreement to reduce the sentences of inmates whose communications with their attorneys were recorded. Two months later, however, McAllister’s boss at the Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, nixed the proposal, saying that blanket reductions of inmates’ sentences were out of the question.

As a result, the hearing is set to resume this week. In a move with little precedent, the Federal Public Defender has subpoenaed more than a dozen prosecutors to testify about whether they accessed any of the recordings.

Pam Metzger, director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University and an expert on the Sixth Amendment, says the mere possibility that prosecutors obtained attorney-client recordings “would be jaw-droppingly, dumbfoundingly shocking.”

“It would demonstrate an absolute failure not simply of the adversary system, but of due process,” she says. “It would demonstrate the most profoundly unethical disregard not only for the rule of law but for the United States Constitution.”

CoreCivic says it does not comment on pending litigation. But in court filings, it says detainees knew their calls might be recorded – even though attorney-client phone calls were supposed to be off limits. And that still doesn’t explain how or why the recordings may have been turned over to prosecutors.

“The victims here are poor people charged with crimes who were confronted by the power of the state, who were locked in cells and who were dependent on other people – lawyers – to provide them with communication,” says Metzger, who has consulted on the case. “And if they are not entitled to trust that their lawyers are telling them the truth when their lawyers say ‘It’s okay, we can talk,’ then how in the world can they expect any kind of justice in this system?”

It’s not clear what would happen if Judge Robinson finds federal prosecutors in contempt. But Metzger thinks Rosenstein’s decision to blow up the proposed agreement may be even more problematic for prosecutors.

She points out that 95 percent of all federal criminal cases are resolved through guilty pleas. But if prosecutors don’t have the authority to reach such agreements, she says, then it calls into question much of the basis on which the criminal justice system rests.

“I don’t know how any federal district court can ever expect to do business in an honest, predictable and fair manner with the lawyers it sees every day – and that’s without regard to whether the lawyers in any particular case misbehaved,” she says. “If  they in fact do not have the authority they believe they have to enter into these plea agreements, then the whole system is thrown into chaos.” 

The recording scandal has already thrown the system into chaos. The Federal Public Defender has filed motions on behalf of 60 inmates whose calls with their attorneys were recorded, seeking to have their convictions overturned outright. And it’s planning to file at least 60 more motions in the weeks to come, says Brannon, of the Federal Public Defender’s Office.

“We’ve asked for an individual evidentiary hearing in each,” she says. “We have asked for the actual conviction to be overturned and the government barred from retrying the case. Alternatively, we’ve asked for reductions in their sentences.”

Cohen, who has been appointed a special master in nearly 30 cases over the last 15 years, says he’s never been involved in a case quite like this one.

At bottom, he says, the case is about trust between the defense bar and prosecutors, which – at least in Kansas – has taken a huge hit in the wake of the recordings scandal.

“It’s something we’re working very hard to reinstate,” he says.

This week’s hearing could well determine if that happens.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State regulators will hear from gas customers this week about a proposed 10 percent rate hike.

State officials say Kansas Gas Service’s rate proposal would add an estimated $5.60 a month to the average gas bill. The Kansas Corporation Commission will hear from the public Thursday in Topeka before deciding whether to grant the request.

KGS, a division of Oklahoma natural gas giant ONEOK, says that four main factors are driving its request. They included increased employee wages and more efficient appliances that are reducing consumption.

Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward says he’s suspicious of the need for an increase because it’s been less than two years since rates last went up. Ordinarily, rate cases are requested by companies every four to five years.

SALINA —Hairball is back and ready to rock you at 7:30 p.m. on October 13 in Tony’s Pizza Events Center.

Hairball is a shamelessly fun tribute to all the great hair metal bands of the ’70s and ’80s. The unique show features multiple singers, costume changes, pyrotechnics, and tons of songs that the audience knows by heart. As you rock along with them you’ll witness dead-on recreations of KISS, Twisted Sister, Journey, Queen, Prince, Mötley Crüe, AC/DC, and many, many more!

Opening for Hairball is Salina’s own local rock band Paramount. Known for their high-energy sing-alongs of epic ’80s anthems, Paramount is guaranteed to get the crowd fired up.

A social ‘Appy Hour will be held prior to the show, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Tickets are available through the Tony’s Pizza Events Center Box Office, online, and by calling 888-826-SHOW (7469). Reserved seating is $17 and $27. The standing only Party Pit is just $37. Groups of 10 or more call 785-826-7200 for discounts. Tickets for the ‘Appy Hour are $20. Get more info at www.tonyspizzaeventscenter.com .

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged child abuse and murder.

Just after 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, police responded to a possible child abuse call at Wesley Hospital, 550 N. Hillside in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. Upon arrival, Officers contacted a 20-year-old mother and a two-month-old boy with serious injuries to his face and leg.

The mother reported that she left the boy in the care of his father 20-year-old Thomas Harper. The boy was asleep when the mother left and upon her return, the boy had sustained multiple injuries.

Officers located Harper at his home, and he was taken into custody without incident.

Just before 11:30p.m. Harper was booked on requested charges four counts of aggravated battery, child abuse and attempted first-degree murder, according to Davidson.

The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office later this week.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas welfare officials have barred a group home operator’s employee who is accused of sexual misconduct from working in locations where children are present.

Kansas Department for Children and Families spokeswoman Taylor Forrest says the agency was disappointed that The Villages declined a recommendation to fire the worker. Welfare officials announced the new employment conditions for him last month.

The worker was the human resources manager, but it’s unclear if that is still his role with the Topeka-based organization.

In 1989, the Boy Scouts of America and Seaman High School cut ties with the employee after an accusation that he made sexual advances toward an exchange student.

The Villages’ executive director, Sylvia Crawford, says the organization is in full compliance with all applicable personnel regulations.

Columbia, MO — The Josh Hawley for U.S. Senate Campaign released a statement Tuesday from U.S. Senator Pat Roberts calling on Senator Claire McCaskill to remove Roberts’ quote from her new campaign ad entitled “Independence.”  Hawley is challenging incumbent McCaskill in a very close race for the U.S.  senate.

Sen. Roberts said, “Senator Claire McCaskill’s days of bipartisanship are long over. On critical issues over the last year, I’ve watched her vote to raise taxes on Missourians and oppose conservative judges including Judge Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.

“I’m very disappointed that she’s sided with her party’s leadership and opposed the Trump Administration against the best interests of Missouri at every turn.

“When President Trump was elected, she made it her mission to obstruct the administration’s agenda. Higher taxes. Liberal courts. That’s not what Missourians want.

“That’s why I am supporting Josh Hawley and calling on Senator McCaskill to remove my name and quote from her ad.”

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated battery and have a suspect in custody.

Just before 1a.m. Wednesday, police responded to the Traveler’s Inn in the 3800 Block of SW Topeka Boulevard in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble. A victim told police she had been stabbed by a family member following a dispute.

Additional officers and Shawnee County deputies responded to the scene and located the suspect 39-year-old Randy Williams. He was arrested without incident and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of Indecent Liberties with a Child, Sexual Battery and Aggravated Domestic Battery, according to Trimble.

Williams has a dozen previous convictions for battery, theft, robbery criminal threat and drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

HARPER COUNTY — Another earthquake shook Kansas early Wednesday. The quake at 2:36 a.m. measured a magnitude 3.5 and was centered approximately 5 miles northeast of Harper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s quake follows a series of four weekend earthquakes in Sumner County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency reported a 2.8 and a 3.0 magnitude quakes on Saturday afternoon, a 2.6 magnitude quake early Sunday and a 2.7 magnitude quake Sunday afternoon.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Wednesday morning’s quake, according to the Harper County Sheriff’s Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 225 million electronic devices across the United States will wail and buzz Wednesday afternoon as the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducts an emergency alert test.

On Wednesday, October 3rd, at about 1:20 pm CDT, there will be a national test of the Wireless Emergency Alert system. #kswx pic.twitter.com/A5SlQtOyrX

— NWS Dodge City (@NWSDodgeCity) October 2, 2018

A tone will sound at 2:18 p.m. EDT, similar to that of an Amber Alert or flood watch warning, and the subject of the alert will read: “Presidential Alert” and text will say: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

It is the first test of the national wireless emergency system by FEMA. The message will be broadcast by cell towers for 30 minutes, so it’s possible some people may get it at a different time. The alerts will sound as long as the device is turned on — even if it’s on mute or do not disturb, and it may also appear on smart watches, officials said.

A second alert on television broadcast and radio will go off at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The TV and radio alert has been tested for several years.

The system test is for a high-level “presidential” alert that would be used only in a nationwide emergency. It is being completed in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. FEMA officials said Tuesday they would share test result data on how the testing went with mobile carriers to help ensure the system works well in a true emergency.

Phones with mobile carriers that participate in the wireless emergency alert system, which sends out information on hazardous weather, or missing children, will get the alert. FEMA officials estimate it will reach about 75 percent of all mobile phones in the country, including phones on all of the major carriers.

The wireless alert system launched in 2012. While users can opt out of messages on missing children and natural disasters, they can’t opt out of the presidential alerts, which are issued at the direction of the White House and activated by FEMA.

FEMA officials said the administration can only send such an alert for national emergencies or if the public were in peril, rules outlined in a 2006 law, and they say it can’t be used for any sort of personal message from the president.

A group of New Yorkers filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York arguing they should not be compelled to receive the alerts under their right to free speech.

WICHITA– A Kansas man was sentenced to over 170-years in prison Monday for kidnapping and sexually assaulting three women, according to a media release from the Sedgwick County Attorney.

On August 22, a jury found De’Andrew Dixon, 33, Augusta, guilty of two counts of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of aggravated sodomy, one count of rape, two counts of criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of battery.

In September and October of 2017, Dixon kidnapped and sexually assaulted two women in separate incidents. Dixon also sexually assaulted a third woman in 2016. He found the women walking alone at night and would hold them at gunpoint. The women were driven to secluded locations in Wichita and sexually assaulted, according to the Sedgwick County Attorney.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A political novice who rode his profile as an outsider-adventurer to the Republican nomination in a competitive Kansas congressional district is facing scrutiny about some of the biographical details he shares with voters.

Steve Watkins’ campaign website featured a since-removed testimonial to his “heroic leadership” when a deadly earthquake shook Mount Everest during an expedition. He has acknowledged inaccurately claiming that he started a Middle East business, expanding it from three to 470 people. And there are doubts about Watkins’ self-description as a devoted, sixth-generation Kansan.

Even before Watkins won the crowded primary to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Lynn Jenkins in eastern Kansas’ 2nd District, some fellow Republicans were skeptical. One former GOP foe, state Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, called him “a charlatan, a fraud and an opportunist,” though he now won’t criticize him.

Watkins’ campaign website calls him “an accomplished athlete and explorer,” citing his 2015 attempt to be the first person to race in the Iditarod and scale Mount Everest in the same year.

In that year’s 1,000-mile dogsled race as a rookie, he finished 58th out of 78. Watkins started the race in March 2018 but didn’t finish.

His 2015 expedition on the world’s tallest mountain was cut short by an earthquake in Nepal that killed nearly 8,900 people. Watkins’ website previously quoted Everest outfitter Guy Cotter as saying he relied on Watkins’ “heroic leadership amid the chaos.” Watkins said it was in response to his calm and the moral support he offered his group of stranded climbers.

Cotter told The Associated Press that he never said it and was unaware Watkins had put the quote on his campaign website. It was removed after the AP questioned Watkins about Cotter’s comments.

“There was not really anything heroic to be able to do,” Cotter said in a phone interview from New Zealand. “We all felt quite hopeless … because we were not there, where all the injured and dying people were, through that event. We were actually up on the mountain, so there was very little we could contribute.”

Watkins said: “I captured the statement, to the best of my memory. He and I spoke frequently and often when we were up there, and he shared the sentiment.”

As for the Iditarod, four-time winner Jeff King saw Watkins’ entry this year as a stunt for his political campaign and Watkins’ self-portrayal as an adventurer as a “gigantic fallacy.”

Musher Tara Cicatello was at the back of the pack with Watkins, and both were forced to quit 11 days into the contest because they were so far behind. She said Watkins’ chief concern after being forced to withdraw was the publicity he had lined up. He was on the phone talking about speaking engagements and left the dogs that had carried him more than 700 miles in the care of people who were already overwhelmed with other dogs, she said.

“People were irritated with Steve because they were doing more work for his dogs than he was,” Cicatello said. “I don’t think he mistreated them. It just sounds like he was all about his campaign and the show of it than the actual doing of it.”

Watkins said he entered the 2018 dogsled race because he believed it could be his last chance to compete.

Recently the Kansas City Star reported that while Watkins claimed to have started a company and built it from scratch, in fact he joined an existing company as a contractor. To explain the discrepancy, Watkins said he helped create products and services for the company’s clients.

And public records show the 42-year-old Army veteran hadn’t lived in Kansas since he left high school — nearly two decades before returning to the state last year to run for Congress. During the AP interview, he acknowledged a “transient” life.

“It was exciting, and it was dangerous, challenging and meaningful,” he said.

Military records show Watkins spent five years on active duty with the Army, including six months in Afghanistan. His work as a contractor began late in 2004.

He said his priorities shifted after being injured as a contractor in Afghanistan in 2013. In a 2015 Washington Post interview, he described it as a traumatic brain injury and also said he’d been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder nearly a decade earlier. He told AP the 2013 injury was a “tipping point” that pushed him toward “a more conventional life” but would not discuss details.

Watkins said Kansas “was always home in my heart.” However, he applied 11 times between 2002 and 2015 for the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, a payment to those who have lived in the state for a full year and say they intend to remain indefinitely.

Property records show Watkins owns two condos in Alaska, purchased in 2005 and 2015, while the Topeka residence on his voter registration is rented.

Days before Watkins won the seven-candidate August primary, 40 local Republican leaders signed an open letter expressing concerns including his absence from the district. Some GOP leaders also were wary of him after three Democrats said publicly that he met with them last year about running as a Democrat — something he strongly disputes.

Many GOP doubters have since endorsed him because the stakes for the party are high. Even though President Donald Trump won the district by nearly 17 percentage points in 2016, Democrats see the seat as a prime opportunity. Watkins’ better-known Democratic opponent, attorney and former Kansas House minority leader Paul Davis, carried the district when he narrowly lost the 2014 governor’s race.

Davis has his own baggage after representing a legislative district in the liberal-for-Kansas city of Lawrence. Republicans have revived a 1998 incident in which Davis, then a 26-year-old attorney, was present during a drug raid at a strip club while visiting its owner, a client. Police did not accuse him of wrongdoing.

But in nominating Watkins, the GOP took a risk because he’s not been active politically until now, said Bob Beatty, a Washburn University of Topeka political scientist.

“The party does not know what he was doing in Alaska and in the other places he lived,” Beatty said. “It may be a good leap of faith, but it’s still a leap of faith.”

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and asking the community for information.

Just after 8a.m. Monday, police responded to a burglary call at a fast-food restaurant in the
6800 Block of East 21Street North in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. A 67-year-old employee told police an unknown suspect had thrown a claw hammer through a side, glass door to gain entry to the business.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s with an average build. A possible suspect vehicle is described as an older model white Ford Expedition. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

Police did not release details on what was taken from the business.