MENELEY MOTION TARGETS MEDIA COVERAGE OF TRIAL

Attorneys defending Dave Meneley have asked the district judge hearing the
former sherrif's trial to warn reporters to "moderate" their coverage of
the case.

Meneley, who was ousted as sheriff in February and defeated for the
Republican candidacy for that office in the Aug. 1 primary election, is to
be tried starting Aug. 21. He is charged with committing two counts of
perjury while he was Shawnee County sheriff in 1999.

Included in the request filed Aug. 8 by Meneley's attorneys, Margie J.
Phelps and Jonathan B. Phelps, is a 10-page questionnaire of suggested
queries to prospective jurors who will hear the Meneley trial.

Meneley is the second former member of the sheriff's department to be tried
on charges of perjury linked to the sheriff's department drug scandal,
which started in 1994 with the disappearance of cocaine evidence stolen
from the department.

The perjury charges stem from Meneley's testimony in 1999 that he didn't
know Timothy P. Oblander, a former deputy and narcotics investigator, was
addicted to cocaine. Oblander has testified repeatedly that he had a
cocaine addiction and used cocaine he took either from drugs confiscated
while he worked as a narcotics officer or from aids used to train sheriff's
department drug-sniffing dogs.

In his request, Meneley is asking Labette County District Judge Robert
Fleming, who was assigned to hear the trial, to "urge the (news) media --
in particular The Topeka Capital-Journal -- to moderate its own actions,
and in particular its editorials, in the period before and during the
trial, to avoid prejudice to defendant that cannot be cured."

Meneley also is asking Fleming to use the suggested questionnaire, to ask
jurors "on a regular basis" about publicity to ensure jurors aren't "unduly
influenced by the publicity" during the trial and to allow defense
attorneys "considerable leeway" when they question people during jury
selection.

In the Aug. 8 filing, Meneley attorneys wrote that "(Fleming) has the
authority, discretion, and obligation to protect (Meneley's) right to a
fair trial in any lawful manner. While it may be unorthodox to ask a court
to ask a newspaper to be circumspect, the law does not prohibit such a
thing, and certainly no harm can befall if this option is considered. It is
certainly the least restrictive option open to the court in terms of
controlling the publicity."

Attached to the Aug. 8 filing are six editorials and copies of
Capital-Journal news stories about Meneley's loss of his law enforcement
license, the surfacing of two witnesses in the Meneley trial, stories about
Sheriff Dick Barta's three-to-one defeat of Meneley during the primary
election and voting patterns during the primary, and about a lawsuit
against Shawnee County by two deputies.

As of Monday, Fleming hasn't contacted The Capital-Journal about coverage
of the Meneley case, no rulings have been issued based on the Meneley
filing and there aren't any hearings scheduled for this week linked to the
upcoming trial. Deputy Frank Good was subpoenaed by prosecutors Aug. 8 to
testify during Meneley's trial. Good was charged with perjury for
testifying on two occasions that he didn't know Oblander had used illegal
drugs while a deputy. In April, a jury acquitted Good of two counts of perjury.

Oblander resigned as a sheriff's corporal on Feb. 26, 1999, and issued a
letter on March 1, 1999, admitting having a cocaine addiction while a
deputy. Good, a sheriff's sergeant, was fired on April 20, 2000, and
Meneley was ousted Feb. 24, 2000, after a panel of two district judges
concluded Meneley had committed perjury on two occasions and concealment on
one occasion.