VALLEY CENTER, Kan. — The Valley Center police department says it will be wrapping up its investigation into the Valley Center boys’ varsity baseball team in about a week.
Police Chief Lloyd Newman told KAKE News the investigators have basically gathered all they can and should be finalizing their findings soon. He says the department is working on getting a presentation scheduled with the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, but it will be about a month before they’re able to meet and the office could possibly set charges.
Dan Monnat, a defense attorney at Monnat & Spurrier, says it might seem like there’s a delay in the process, but this is because the district and city attorney’s offices get hundreds of cases each year that they have to go through and not all cases have the same timeline.
“The case being investigated that poses the greatest danger to the public has to be investigated and charged first,” said Monnat.
Monnat explains there’s no rush for the DA to possibly make charges because there’s no threat to the public and the Valley Center Police Department said there’s no one in custody.
“If a person is imprisoned, then the investigation and charging has to be concluded that much more quickly because you may be incarcerating an innocent person,” said Monnat.
Newman and Monnat say for a case with no threat to the public this timeline isn’t bad or unusual. Especially since there’s a major backlog in the criminal justice system nationwide.
“It cannot be underestimated how backlogged and taxed our national and local criminal justice systems are because of the backlog from the pandemic,” said Monnat. He said low staffing is another reason there’s backlog.
The Valley Center Police Department said it will be wrapping up its investigation into this in about a week.
Last month it said it was investigating the Valley Center boys’ varsity baseball team after getting a report about animal cruelty. Police said a chicken was killed on the baseball field before the team left for an away game.
See the full story at KAKE.com