McPHERSON, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a former police chief convicted of 15 counts of sexually molesting three girls. Forty-two-year-old Michael Akins Jr. was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to two life terms. He was police chief in the central Kansas town of Inman when he was charged. The Supreme Court reversed…
Citing prosecutorial misconduct, the Kansas Supreme Court has reversed 15 convictions and two consecutive life sentences of ex-Inman, Kansas, police chief Mike Akins Jr. “Mr. Akins is confident that he will be found not guilty at any new trial,” said his lawyer, Dan Monnat. The Akins’ decision was Monnat’s “fourth reversal of a life sentence for sex offenses under Jessica’s Law…”
The Kansas Supreme Court reversed a former Inman police chief’s convictions on sexual abuse charges Friday, and a new trial was ordered…. In the appeal, Akins attorney, Dan Monnat, alleged the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case… made several errors that denied Akins a fair trial, saying the prosecutor “posed as her own unsworn psuedo-psychological expert….”
LAWRENCE, Kansas – Freedom of speech. It’s in the First Amendment. Some say it’s been dampened in Kansas. Says KSN Legal Analyst Dan Monnat: “The issue involved in the Board of Regents policy here, brings up exactly the question that has not been decided by the United States Supreme Court. That is, whether the rule restricting speech of public employees applies in academic freedom and scholarship.”
WICHITA, Kansas – A drug abuse assessment form may become one of the factors that determines which welfare recipients will have to take a drug test to receive benefits. But how the test is administered may mean a person could be giving up Constitutional rights just to feed her or his family, says KSN Legal Expert Dan Monnat…
Wichita defense lawyer Dan Monnat says entrapment involves two elements: law enforcement inducing someone to commit a crime, and the person having no predisposition to commit the crime….“The defense of entrapment reflects the sound public policy that it is unconscionable for government officers to ensnare the innocent and law-abiding into the commission of crime,” Monnat said. Entrapment exists when the criminal idea originates with government agents instead of the accused and when the accused is persuaded by the officers to commit the crime, he said.
WICHITA, Kan. — Terry Lee Loewen made national news when he tried to blow up his car on the tarmac at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport. Court papers show Loewen reached out to people he thought were Al Qaida….But those people were really FBI agents. Attorneys say entrapment defense likely on tap for Loewen. “For there to be entrapment, two ingredients are necessary,” said Dan Monnat, KSNW Legal Analyst. “One, government inducement. Two, no predisposition by the accused to commit the crime…”
Though not representing alleged terrorist Terry Lee Loewen, Dan Monnat’s prominence as a Kansas defense attorney has made him a sought-after source for news media covering the case. In this AP story distributed worldwide, Monnat says the 21-page criminal complaint against Loewen doesn’t contain enough information to find his guilt or evidence of FBI entrapment. But he questioned the FBI’s tactics.
“I wanted to lend whatever boldness and artistic talent I had to those less able to stand up and fight for themselves. Whether you justify that by the Tao, the Sermon on the Mount or the United States Constitution, that’s a good thing to do. All power and authority need someone to question it…”
For the ninth consecutive year, Dan Monnat has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Kansas and Missouri by the magazine, “Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers – 2013.” Only 5 percent of all attorneys in Missouri and Kansas are included in Super Lawyers, making selection to the Top 100 the most elite of this exclusive legal group.
