• Jan 02, 2013
  • KAKE TV
  • -
  • by Chris Frank

Authorities in Lyon County are investigating after a homeowner shot an intruder breaking into his home near Neosho Rapids.

The shooting has left some asking what their rights are when defending their home or property from intruders. So-called Castle Laws or Doctrine date back to old English law removing the duty of a resident to retreat before using deadly force.

“Controversial cases like this always create a great hue and cry from the public” says Wichita attorney Dan Monnat. We asked Monnat, who has spent decades inside Kansas courtrooms, to research the law on the use of force when someone in breaking into a home.

“Kansas law permits a resident to use such force as the resident believes is reasonably necessary to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry into a dwelling.” says Monnat.

Last September, a Wichita resident shot at three men he says were breaking into his southeast Wichita home, striking one of them.

“Deadly force may used by those persons in those circumstances but only if the person reasonably believes deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to the resident or another person.” according to Monnat.

He says the state law allows a resident to stand their ground with no duty to retreat and repel an aggressor’s force. However, Monnat says the law is different when defending property. He says the legislature has been careful to spell out when force and deadly force can be used.

“I would think that simply to prevent interference with private property deadly force would rarely be justified. We don’t want to go back to the wild, wild west.”

See video at KAKE

KAKE TV – By Chris Frank

  • Nov 26, 2012
  • Monnat & Spurrier

WICHITA, Kan. – “Best Law Firms” – a listing produced by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers – has ranked Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered among the Best Law Firms in this metropolitan region in four distinct categories:

  • Appellate Practice
  • Criminal Defense: Non-White-Collar
  • Criminal Defense: White-Collar – Governmental Investigations
  • Criminal Defense: White-Collar – Litigation

“Best Law Firms” is one of U.S. News & World Report’s series of consumer guides that include rankings of hospitals, colleges, graduate schools, and more.  The magazine teams with Best Lawyers, the oldest peer-review publication in the legal profession, to rank each practice area by geographic region.  In surveys, law firm clients and leading lawyers were asked what factors they considered vital for clients who hire firms, and for lawyers who choose firms to refer legal matters to.

Monnat & Spurrier was founded by defense attorney Dan Monnat and legal scholar Stan Spurrier.  The firm has five lawyers and has gained an international reputation through its defense of such high-profile clients as late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller and the unfortunate person whose home was mistakenly raided by police as being that of serial killer BTK.

In addition to Monnat and Spurrier, the firm includes three former prosecutors noted for their criminal defense work:  Trevor Riddle; Sal Intagliata; and Jon McConnell.

Click here for the rankings posted online.

  • Oct 23, 2012
  • KFDI

For the eighth consecutive year, criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat of Wichita has been named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Kansas and Missouri.

The list appears in the magazine, “Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers – 2012.” Only 5 percent of all attorneys in the two states are listed in Super Lawyers.

Monnat has practiced in Wichita for more than 35 years. A graduate of California State University, Monnat received his J.D. from Creighton University School of Law and is a graduate of Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College. He is a partner of Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered in Wichita.

Read Article on KFDI

  • Oct 22, 2012
  • Monnat & Spurrier

WICHITA, Kan. – For the eighth consecutive year, criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat, of Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered, has been named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Kansas and Missouri by the magazine, “Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers – 2012.”  Only 5 percent of all attorneys in Missouri and Kansas are listed in Super Lawyers, making selection to the Top 100 the most elite of this exclusive list.

“The Top 100 is the pre-eminent group of lawyers in the Midwest and I’m honored to be recognized among them,” Monnat said.

Monnat has practiced in Wichita for more than 35 years.  A graduate of California State University, Monnat received his J.D. from Creighton University School of Law and is a graduate of Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College.

Chosen in 2002 as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Monnat currently sits on the Kansas Association for Justice’ Board of Editors and is the Criminal Law Chair.  He has also been designated a Fellow of the Kansas Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Monnat is a Life Member and past Board Member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and is a two-term past president of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Monnat is a frequent national lecturer and editorial contributor on criminal defense topics, and has authored “Sentencing, Probation, and Collateral Consequences,” a chapter of the Kansas Bar Association’s Kansas Criminal Law Handbook, 4th edition.

  • Sep 27, 2012
  • KSN TV
  • -
  • by Craig Andres

WICHITA, Kansas – The next time you go through a “check lane” it may not be for DUI. A Wichita group wants to pull you over and give you a survey.

What’s being proposed here, however, raises I think serious constitutional questions,” says Legal Expert Dan Monnat of Wichita. Monnat says DUI check lanes have been ruled legal on the Supreme Court level. So, too, have roadblocks for matters of keeping our national borders secure. But this one, he says, may be another matter.

Fourth Amendment issues come into play. “This is not a random suspicion-less seizure of motorists for safety purposes,” says Monnat. “It’s a seizure to conduct a survey to ask motorists where they’re coming from and where they’re going and maybe why.”

The Wichita Area Metro Planning Organization says the cops will be at the stops, but only as observers to keep traffic flowing. The Organization put out a press release that reads, in part: “The primary objective of the External Station Survey is to provide detailed information regarding traffic entering and leaving the WAMPO region at key roadway locations…”

The organization says it will use the information from the surveys to monitor traffic patterns, find out how many people are riding in cars and where they are going. The group may also be taking pictures of license plates. The purpose? To send surveys in the mail to those who have driven through the “check lane” and declined to take the survey.

See video at KSN

KSN TV – By Craig Andres

  • Sep 24, 2012
  • Monnat & Spurrier

Introduction 

Lies are in the news these days — not only because this is an election year, but also because as this article goes to print the United States Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Congress can constitutionally criminalize lying about military honors. The proponents of the Stolen Valor Act have argued that such lies sow confusion about military stan­dards and undermine the integrity and public reputation of the military honors system.

While concerns about damage to a revered system may or may not be adequate to criminalize lying, they are certainly adequate to discourage lying, especially when that system is the justice system, and the liars are police officers. This article will explore the ways in which police lies are tolerated — even encouraged — within the justice system, discuss the harm that comes from those lies, and suggest actions that courts, litigators and legislators can and should take to curb those lies.

Do Police Officers Really Lie? Even in Kansas?

Police officers themselves will readily admit that they lie to suspects and the general public in the course of under­cover operations during which police take on false identities and otherwise engage in faux criminal theatrics.

These lies allow the police to secretly engage in seamy underworld conduct, from receiving lap dances at strip clubs, to soliciting illegal sex on the Internet, to manufacturing and distributing dangerous drugs.  Police also resort to fabrication as a means of inducing a suspect to confess or consent to a search.

One of the most widely cited treatises on confessions and interrogations pro­motes this category of lying as a legiti­mate police investigation tactic, stating summarily that ‘it is generally accept­able to verbally lie about evidence con­necting a suspect to a crime.’  Kansas police officers frequently use this tactic.”

Click here for full article

  • Sep 24, 2012
  • The Wichita Eagle
  • -
  • by Amy Renee Leiker
When Alexia Barnes-Heflin wrote a petition calling for the adoption of Vinny’s Law, she said she “needed to blow off some steam.”

Late last month, she saw a public Facebook post from a woman saying she’d written letters to brothers Michael and Robert Reed, both convicted of the 2009 murder of Barnes-Heflin’s brother, Vincent Barnes.

The woman wrote she was “tryin to come up with some money” — $200 — to buy one of the Reeds a personal TV.

“I thought prison was for punishment,” Barnes-Heflin said, recalling her shock. “I didn’t know that they could sit around in their cell and watch TV.”

Now via a  Change.org petition named in memory of her brother, the 28-year-old Wichita woman is asking Kansas legislators and the Department of Corrections to let victims and their families decide whether to restrict an inmate’s access to personal electronics. She started the petition Aug. 29.

“I know that being able to control these luxuries will not bring our loved ones back or make us forget what happened,” Barnes-Heflin said, reading from her petition. “However, in my mind, we should have some type of control over our perpetrators.”

Others, however, say the petition, as it is written, would violate inmates’ rights and oversteps a government-controlled function: incarceration.

“Prisoners have First Amendment rights to access information that is not contrary to prison security or objectives,” Wichita criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat said. “A law can’t delegate administration of those first amendment freedoms to the discretion of victims’ families.”

Witness to murder

For Barnes-Heflin, the petition calling for Vinny’s Law is based in tragedy: She witnessed the murder of her brother, 33-year-old Vincent “Vinny” Barnes, who was shot after a trio of men came looking for cocaine at his west Wichita apartment on May 15, 2009.

Robert Reed, who discharged the gun, is serving more than 19 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in Vincent Barnes’ death, according to Eagle news reports.

A jury convicted Michael Reed of first-degree murder for aiding and abetting in the killing. He faces a life sentence.

The third man, Jeremy Trout, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless murder. He was sentenced to 11 years for his role in Barnes’ death.

Barnes-Heflin and her parents, Bill and Nina Barnes, said they didn’t know prisoners could have TVs in their cells until they saw the Facebook post. “We thought maybe they would’ve had it where the general population,” Bill Barnes said, “like a big living area, where they could watch it.”

But under KDOC guidelines, inmates do have the right to buy and keep personal property using contributions from family and friends or earnings from jobs, KDOC spokesman Jeremy Barclay said.

And the list stretches beyond toiletries and playing cards.

Prisoners can buy clothing, snack foods and small appliances like hot pots and fans at onsite stores called canteens. For entertainment, there’s dominoes, chess, paint-by-number art, among other games and projects.

There also are typewriters, AM/FM radios, tape players and alarm clocks. A 4G Mp3 player sells for $54.09; 8G devices are $75.73.

A 13-inch, color flatscreen TV, which, like other items, has a clear casing to discourage contraband, costs $163.30.

Music, earbuds and coaxial cables to hook up to cable TV are available at some facilities and self-funded by inmates. They cost extra.

Cellphones and personal computers, however, are banned, Barclay said.

It’s the personal electronics — especially TVs, the family says — that Barnes-Heflin’s petition targets. She wants the KDOC to let victims and their families decide whether an inmate should have access to the audio and visual equipment.

Her father, Bill Barnes, agrees.

“You know we got people out here who are homeless and everything else, and having hard times, and here’s people who have committed crimes and they’re in jail getting TVs,” he said.

“It just doesn’t seem right. They’re in there to be punished. I know you can’t put them in a box and seal them. But you have to draw a line somewhere.”

But the KDOC says not all of its 9,474 inmates have electronics because ownership is a limited privilege, governed by a longstanding incentive program in place at its eight Kansas prisons and four satellite facilities.

Barclay stressed that the primary purpose “is not entertainment,” despite widespread public belief.

“It is merely a management tool to promote security and safety to our officers … and our inmates,” he said, adding that idle time increases the chance of rebellions and riots, aggression toward guards and fights among prisoners.

Granting or taking away the right to own gadgets is one way to manage behavior.

“There’s very little that is precious to an inmate as the limited amount of property that they have,” he said, noting while that tacking additional time onto an inmate’s sentence or levying fines is possible, it is ineffective.

“When you are talking about inmate property, you are talking about immediacy.”

Barclay declined to say whether the men convicted of Vincent Barnes’ murder owned personal electronics.

Others agree inmates should retain their rights to personal electronics. Earlier this month, someone started a  counter-petition, also on Change.org, to stop Vinny’s Law.

‘They could reflect’

Barnes-Heflin said she wants to gather at least 1,000 signatures. Then she and her parents plan to take the petition to legislators and the KDOC.

By Monday afternoon, 188 supporters had signed online.

“As a family that was impacted, it almost seems unfair that they are worried about not having a TV in their cell and our son is gone,” Bill Barnes said. “The only time we get to see him is in the cemetery when we visit his grave.”

Barnes-Heflin added that her petition is a matter of preserving victims’ rights.

“We can’t control that they shot him,” she said. “I know (the petition) is not going to bring back my brother. (But) if it makes them that much more miserable, t hen they could reflect on what lifelong pain and suffering they’ve caused victims and their loved ones.”

Read Article on Kansas.com

The Wichita Eagle – By Amy Renee Leiker

  • Aug 27, 2012
  • Monnat & Spurrier

For the 25th consecutive year, Dan Monnat, of Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered, is being included in The Best Lawyers in America®.  For this 2013 edition, Monnat is listed in the fields of criminal defense; white-collar criminal defense; and appellate defense.  Selection is based on a confidential, nationwide peer survey that rates attorneys on professional competency, legal scholarship, pro bono service, and achievement.

“For a quarter of a century, it has been my great privilege to be included among this esteemed group of lawyers,” Monnat said.  “Their unwavering dedication to the profession upholds the Constitution and ensures that American justice stands strong,” Monnat said.

Monnat has practiced in Wichita for more than 36 years.  A graduate of California State University, Monnat received his J.D. from Creighton University School of Law and is a graduate of Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College.

A frequent national lecturer and editorial contributor on criminal defense topics, Monnat is the author of “Sentencing, Probation, and Collateral Consequences,” a chapter of the Kansas Bar Association’s Kansas Criminal Law Handbook, 4th edition.  Appointed by then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Monnat served on the Kansas Sentencing Commission from 2007 – 2012.

Chosen in 2002 as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Monnat currently sits on the Kansas Association of Justice’ Board of Editors and is the Criminal Law Chair.  He has also been designated a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Litigation Counsel of America and the Kansas Bar Foundation.

Monnat served as a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors from 1996 – 2004, and is a two-term past president of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

  • Aug 24, 2012
  • KSN TV
  • -
  • by Craig Andres

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned the capital murder conviction and ordered a new trial for the man sentenced to death for killing a Greenwood County sheriff in 2005. The unanimous ruling on Friday sends back the case of Scott D. Cheever, who was convicted in October 2007 for the shooting death of Sheriff Matt Samuels when the officer was serving a warrant at a rural home where meth was made.

“I think about my dad every day,” says Heath Samuels, Matt’s son. “I’ll never forget him. And basically, going through another court trial just brings back the memories of that day.”

Heath says his dad was also his hero. And the death of his father is something he’d just as soon forget. But the justices of the Supreme Court in Kansas ruled this week that Cheever’s constitutional rights were violated when a psychiatrist disclosed Cheever’s psychological records during the trial without his consent. The testimony was based on Cheever’s evaluations when the case was in federal court before it was remanded to state court.

Cheever’s conviction for manufacturing of methamphetamines and criminal possession of a firearm were upheld. So there will be another trial. Lawyers following the Supreme Court ruling say they are not surprised to see the Kansas high court taking a second look at the conviction.

“So far the Kansas courts have reviewed seven capital convictions, and reversed seven capital convictions,” says Legal Analyst and Wichita attorney Dan Monnat. “Mr. Cheever was originally asked by the court to talk when it was thought he would be going after a mental defense. But he never made a mental defense. That clearly violated Mr. Cheever’s 5th amendment right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself….”

Cheever said after his arrest, he was too high on Meth to know what he was doing. That’s a claim that was taken seriously by federal prosecutors who first handled the case. And the Feds asked for a mental evaluation. But the case was turned over to the state for prosecution where Cheever was tried and convicted of capital Murder. That’s where the state Supreme Court comes into play.

A mental evaluation done at the request of federal authorities was handed off to the Kansas prosecutors for the trial. And attorneys now arguing Cheever’s case say that mental evaluation was offered at trial, against Cheever’s will. Thus, the 5th amendment violation ruling from the state Supreme Court. Heath Samuels says he still has faith in the justice system. He just wants to remember his dad while he was alive, not the day he died.

“Basically, I’d like to be able to forget about the day that he was killed and just forget about the guy that killed him and just remember the good times that I spent with him.”

See video at KSN

KSN TV – By Craig Andres

  • Aug 23, 2012
  • KAKE TV
  • -
  • by Jared Cerullo

The man who was once in line to become the potentate of the Wichita Midian Shrine Temple could face a trial on rape and child sex charges.  Jodie Mosier was in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing.  He’s charged with rape and aggravated indecent liberties with a child against his own step daughter and step granddaughter.

The Sedgwick County District Attorney charged Mosier with the crimes after his family told police of the allegations in March of this year.  However, Mosier’s defense attorney, Dan Monnat, claims the allegations are patently false. “These allegations dating back months or years were manufactured as a result of the anger that arose as a response to the disintegration of the marriage between Jodie Mosier and Tammy Mosier,” Monnat said.

Monnat added that the allegations didn’t surface until the next day after Jodie Mosier filed for divorce earlier this year. “The 13 year-old granddaughter was privy to information about the disintegration of her grandpa and grandma’s marriage,” Monnat said, “and privy to her grandmother and mother’s bitterness about the disintegration of that marriage and the divorce that was filed.”

Judge Jeff Syrios heard from both the young girl and her mother.  The defense also alleges that both of the victims were — and still are — angry, and wanted to attack Mosier and seek vengeance for his infidelity by taking a mistress to Las Vegas. “The acts were never mentioned until they were angrily brought up the day after the divorce was filed on March 21st, 2012,” said Monnat.

Mosier was in line to become the potentate of the Wichita Midian Shrine Temple in 2013, but an office manager confirms he will not take that post. The defense said it plans to call its own witnesses to the stand, which is fairly unusual for a preliminary hearing.  The judge will hear from those witnesses at a later date.  Meanwhile, Mosier remains free on bond.  The judge will eventually determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with a trial.

See video at KAKE

KAKE TV – By Jared Cerullo