JUDGE TO RULE ON POLICE CASE

Judge Rebecca Pilshaw is expected to announce today if she sees a pattern
of rights violations by Wichita police officers.

After several days of testimony, a judge expects to disclose today whether
she sees a pattern of rights violations by four Wichita police officers.

The broader question for District Judge Rebecca Pilshaw is whether the
officers committed illegal arrests, searches and seizures in up to 15 cases
over the past two years. In a hearing last week, Pilshaw said she found one
of the searches to be illegal.

The narrower question for Pilshaw is whether to suppress evidence obtained
in a search being used against Terry Marck, charged with making
methamphetamine.

In what has become a trial over police conduct and how the Police
Department polices itself, both sides will get 45 minutes for final
arguments today.

Marck's lawyer, Kurt Kerns, contends that the four officers -- Sgt. John
Bannister and officers Kevin Goebel, Andre Parker and Michael Thode --
illegally searched Marck's home and, in up to 14 other cases, violated
others' rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The four officers, most of whom are still based in a west-side crime-
fighting unit, served suspensions with pay this spring, but were reinstated
after a police internal investigation found only minor policy violations.

That finding is at odds with a city legal staff memo that found serious
violations. The 15-page memo arose after one of the officers' former
supervisors, Lt. Tom Spencer, reported allegations of constitutional
violations in 10 cases handled by the officers. Spencer has testified that
he has suffered retaliation for raising the allegations.

Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Mike Jennings asked Thode why concern
for officer safety is sometimes partial justification for a search. Kerns
has argued that police sometimes concoct officer-safety concerns as excuses
to search.

Thode, a 12-year veteran, noted that several years ago a burglary suspect
shot him in the shoulder.

"I've been spit on. I've been hit. I've been threatened," Thode said.

Another of the accused officers, Goebel, testified that he did not threaten
Curtis Sindorf in a search that was one of the cases of alleged misconduct.
Sindorf has testified that he let officers search his apartment because
Goebel threatened to tell his employer and landlord that he sold drugs,
which Sindorf says was untrue.

Another issue, Pilshaw has said, is how police handled criticism of their
actions. Thursday, Bannister, another accused officer, denied saying that
he thought an assistant city prosecutor didn't know how to do her job and
denied becoming angry with an assistant district attorney.