SHERIFF'S LAWYERS ASK FOR IMMUNITY

Attorney general answers questions about '96 probe.

Will Sheriff Dave Meneley not only appear in court when his ouster trial
resumes Tuesday but also climb into the witness' chair to testify?

In the closing moments of the trial's sixth day Tuesday, possibilities
surfaced that Meneley would testify and sheriff's Sgt. Frank Good would be
subpoenaed to testify. Each faces two counts of perjury linked to the
sheriff's department drug investigation. So far, Meneley hasn't appeared at
his ouster trial.

Margie Jean Phelps, Meneley's defense attorney, asked Shawnee County
District Judges Richard Anderson and Matthew Dowd to grant Meneley immunity
so he can testify in the civil ouster trial without being prosecuted in a
criminal case for what he might say.

Granting immunity to Meneley would be similar to a judge's throwing out a
defendant's confession because a police officer has used a weapon to coerce
the confession, an act of compulsion.

In Meneley's case, his profession, income and livelihood are being
threatened, Phelps said.

Assistant Attorney General Laurie Kahrs said there would only be compulsion
if the judges told Meneley he would be ousted if he didn't testify.

"It is his choice whether to take the witness stand," Kahrs said.

Anderson said, "On these facts, we don't feel there is compulsion to
testify." He said if Meneley or Good chose to testify, either could invoke
the Fifth Amendment.

Phelps hadn't decided Tuesday whether Meneley would testify or if she would
subpoena Good.

Earlier Tuesday, Attorney General Carla Stovall testified she didn't send
copies of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's probe into the July 1994
disappearance of cocaine from the sheriff's department to either District
Attorney Joan Hamilton or Meneley. Stovall said if asked, she would have
provided copies of the investigation, which ended in August 1996.

Stovall, whose office filed the civil ouster action against Meneley, was
subpoenaed by Meneley's attorneys.

Stovall said she gives investigation results to the prosecutor who asks for
the probe, referring to an Aug. 26, 1996, letter to Hamilton in which
Stovall said cocaine had been taken from a sheriff's department locker but
that the KBI couldn't develop a suspect. While Stovall's office didn't send
the KBI report to Meneley, it didn't make the 1996 investigation "not
available" to him, Stovall said. She said Meneley didn't ask for the report.

Anderson asked Stovall whether sheriff's Detective Daniel JaraAmillo had
been questioned during an attorney general's inquisition in 1996. Stovall
said Jaramillo told KBI investigators that Meneley told him former sheriff's
Cpl. Timothy P. Oblander had a cocaine addiction, that Oblander was treated
for it and that Oblander had taken drug evidence.

Stovall said the KBI hadn't investigated the 1996 disappearance of cocaine
evidence in three more drug cases because the sheriff's department was
looking into that disappearance. In hindsight, Stovall said, she should have
made sure Hamilton knew there was cocaine evidence missing in other drug
cases in 1996.

Stovall said she wasn't surprised Oblander, a former sheriff's narcotics
officer, confessed to taking the cocaine stolen from the sheriff's
department in 1994. During an inquisition, Oblander refused to testify and
invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and other
inquisition witnesses were less than truthful, Stovall said without
elaboration.

In other testimony:

District Judge Charles Andrews said he was shocked when he read KBI reports
that focused on sheriff's deputies he had dealt with. The KBI investigation
was "a startling revelation of facts. It was particularly disturbing because
I had been friendly with the officers involved. They had been to my house
for search warrants."

Capt. Rick Hladky, the sheriff's department's public information officer and
head of the criminal investigations unit, characterized Meneley as having a
"very assertive management style." He said the sheriff has beefed up the
special weapons and tactics team and increased its use, has restarted the
canine unit, has seen department vehicles average lower mileage than in the
past, has doubled the amount of court paperwork delivered by hiring civilian
process servers, has added resource officers to three high schools and has
investigated complaints against officers.

Is the department conducting surveillance of the attorney general's
witnesses? Kahrs asked. "Not to my knowledge," Hladky said.