It is rare to see a court forcefully and thoroughly shame a prosecutor; even in instances of egregious misconduct, courts often avoid naming the lawyers responsible, silently observing an unspoken code that has long shielded prosecutors from meaningful scrutiny. However, the Kansas Supreme Court delivered a doozy of an opinion late last week, reversing the murder convictions of Dana Chandler because of widespread prosecutorial misconduct in the case. The prosecutor, who tried Chandler while she was an ADA with the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office, is Jacqueline (Jacqie) Spradling. Not only did she mislead the jurors during the trial, but she also defended her actions before the Kansas Supreme Court’s justices in 2016 at oral argument. Unwilling to acknowledge the extent and gravity of her wrongdoing, Spradling made a mess of the case, and the belated efforts of the state’s solicitor general’s office to salvage the convictions were too little, too late.
In 2012, the State tried Dana Chandler for the killings of her ex-husband, Mike Sisco, and his fiancée, Karen Harkness. There was no physical evidence linking Chandler to the crime. The prosecution’s entire case relied on—as the state supreme court put it—“limited circumstantial evidence.” To bolster the chances of winning a conviction, Spradling made a striking number of improper comments during her opening and closing arguments. One of them in particular was both false and damaging to Chandler’s defense: Spradling “falsely told the jury that Dana L. Chandler had violated a nonexistent protection from abuse order in her divorce case.”
Writing for the entire court, Justice Dan Biles penned an incisive and powerful opinion. It opened:
In a criminal prosecution, the State’s obligation is to ensure its case is vigorously, but properly, championed to bring about a just conviction—not merely a win. Prosecutors are the State’s instrument in fulfilling this duty. When they fail, our system fails, and the safeguards protecting the constitutional right to a fair trial strain to the breaking point. That is what happened in this case. To its credit, the State belatedly concedes one serious prosecutorial error, although there were more. We reverse Dana L. Chandler’s premediated first-degree murder convictions. We remand this case to the district court for further proceedings.
The serious error was the one about the “protection from abuse order” that Spradling emphasized in her closing statement although it simply did not exist. But, perturbed by a record chock full of the prosecutor’s unsubstantiated and false claims, improper comments, and disregard for trial court orders, the justices “address[ed] several” instances of Spradling’s misconduct to ensure that they do not “reoccur.”
While the full opinion is well worth reading, here we will highlight the Court’s analysis of the most serious instance of misconduct. In short, Spradling sought to make Chandler look dangerous, and referred to a court order that never existed to advance that perception.
All agree there is no protection from abuse order in the trial record. Yet, during closing argument, prosecutor Jacqueline Spradling told the jury:
“How else do we know the defendant is guilty? Mike got a protection from abuse, a court order. He applied and said, hey, Judge, please order this woman to stay away from me and the Judge agreed. And in 1998, meaning one year after he filed for the divorce, he was continuing to have problems with the defendant not leaving him alone. So he got a court order saying she has to stay away. The protection from abuse order did not stop the defendant, though.” (Emphases added.)
These misstatements conveyed serious adverse impressions to the jury. They improperly declared that a judge independently reviewed Chandler’s behavior and concluded she was dangerous enough to justify a court order for Mike’s protection.
Remarkably, when confronted with the claim of misconduct on direct appeal, Spradling refused to acknowledge that she had done something improper. The court’s opinion explains how her position shifted from outright misrepresentations in the brief to a misguided effort to downplay her wrongdoing at argument. The video of the initial oral argument reveals that the justices were not pleased with what happened at trial and were further displeased with how Spradling—who was the advocate at argument—responded to their questions. (From this point in the video and through the following 15 minutes, the justices hammer on several instances of prosecutorial misconduct that later made their way into the final opinion. They also explained that the lack of physical evidence and the State’s reliance on “inference on inference” made the misconduct especially problematic. At one point, a justice explained the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence, which somehow seemed to elude Spradling, an experienced prosecutor.)
After the first oral argument, the court permitted Ms. Chandler to enlist a new lawyer, and the parties supplied additional briefing. The court then scheduled a second oral argument; the video of the prosecutor’s part begins here. In this round of briefing and argument, a representative from the solicitor general’s office (who appears to have previously worked with Spradling in Shawnee County) tried to walk the State’s position back to something more reasonable given the frustration the justices demonstrated at the first argument. It was clear that things were not going well when—after Jodi Litfin explained that she modified the State’s position after watching the video of the first argument—Justice Biles asked why the concession of error was based on the previous oral argument rather than the record on appeal (check out 24:13 in the video). Lawyers will recognize this as an especially brutal and telling moment.
Simply put, the writing was on the wall. Justice Biles noted that Spradling’s misdirection “seem[ed] to be a pretty big deal.” He went on to say that “anybody in law school” would have known to avoid the level of speculation in which Spradling engaged during her opening argument. Perhaps he best summed it up when he said, at 41:16, “this kind of stuff just jumps off the page.” In his opinion, Justice Biles described the State’s concession of error this way: “while laudable, [it] was a long time coming—even though we would expect the State never to shield something so obviously indefensible.” Driving it home, he wrote, “[t]his court cannot understand why so much energy had to be expended by all concerned to get us to the State’s belated admission about something that never existed in the trial record.”
That latter question—why prosecutors expend seemingly bottomless resources on defending what is indefensible conduct—is one we ask regularly at The Open File. It is especially distressing in a case like this one. Chandler’s case was a cold case; she was charged some ten years after the murders in question. The State put on what Justice Biles called a “data dump” prosecution, with 10 days of testimony, over 80 witnesses, and around 900 exhibits of purely circumstantial evidence. Now, the District Attorney, Mike Kagay, must decide whether to try Chandler again. While he does that, he has already distanced himself from the misconduct, putting out a press release that makes clear that Chad Taylor was the DA when the first trial took place.
Spradling, who left Shawnee County’s office in 2016, is still getting plenty of work. She was recently appointed to be a special prosecutor, and she is serving as an assistant district attorney in another county. It remains to be seen whether she will face any professional discipline in light of the Kansas Supreme Court’s opinion. One of the candidates who ran for District Attorney in 2016 actually filed ethical complaints against Spradling for her conduct in Chandler. Those complaints appear to be pending. According to one article about the Chandler case, Spradling has been informally disciplined before, although it is unclear whether that arose from her misconduct in this matter. Perhaps the disciplinary body will be reenergized by a decision that eliminates any doubt that Spradling ran afoul of the rules. It certainly should be.
The fact that Ms. Spradling has not been disbarred and put in prison for her crimes against the Court and Ms. Chandler is disturbing. The prosecutor in my husband’s case is equally guilty of intentionally deceiving the jury during his trial. In pre-trial depositions, Assistant State Attorney Erin Corcoran Daly realized the accuser and “outcry witness” were lying, but instead of dropping the charges, she entered into plea negotiations, offering him probation rather than a life sentence (if convicted). He refused and continued to maintain his innocence. Ms. Daly then fabricated and entered knowingly false evidence and testimony, lied in her Opening Statement, and intentionally did not show the exhibits to the witnesses or jury, so her “elaborate scheme” (her words) wouldn’t be discovered. We have presented the evidence of her crime to her boss, State Attorney Brad King, his boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Governor Rick Scott, and The Florida Bar. All are refusing to even investigate and as of this date, Ms. Daly has not been punished. As far as I’m concerned, these public servants have no integrity and are not deserving of our respect or our vote.
Agreed.
However…I would call your attention to Article VI, Clauses 2 & 3, of the Constitution of the United States. Violations of Clause 3, constitutes Treason of Oath.
Amen. You should see how Jacqie Spralding charged my son and he is Bi-polar and never committed any of the charges that he is being charged with the incident in Uniontown Kansas. Why SPRADLING still has jobs in Bourbon County and Allen County. The whole system in Ft.Scott and Allen County is becoming more corrupt, due to Jacqie Spradling pushing false charges on voth of my sons in one day and I was at the location and seen Steve McKee from Frontenac Kansas point a gun towards myself and my youngest son. And he threatened to kill my son at the end of the deal and his “Buddy System” with Sheriffs Deputy Nicholas Trim came to our house and arrested my son and held him in the Bourbon County New Jail for 8 stinking days w/o Bond! The gun-slinger that was recently charged with. D.U.I and disorderly conduct. Steven Ray McKee and Deputy Trim set it all up and Jacquie Spradling wrote up all kinds of charges against my sons. She needs to be barred from improperly falsifying charges. She even sued and collected $350,000 dollars from the state of Kansas from sueing Phill Kline. She is a piece of art.
Well folks , it seems like Jacqie Spradling is like a bad penny, she keeps turning up. I was in front of her about 6 hours ago in court in Fort Scott, Kansas. She is trying to send me to prison for a pure self defense case. She literally looked at me in open court and started knee slapping laughing in my face and I was just standing there looking on. This woman is clearly disturbed and in my opinion evil. How she still has a job in ANY kind of law is beyond me. But thanks to sites like this , I know what im up against. This is one of those things that every one of her cases need to be looked at or retried. I believe she is mentally unstable. What prosecutor in open court laughs in a defendants face. I also believe the judge is her pal because she didn’t say anything. Im calling the Bar , every Fed that will listen to stop this witch hunt. I kinda know what Trump feels like. I am truly innocent and she knows it yet she is trying to send me to prison. She needs to be stopped!
Wow, joe. You know I saw the whole thing. You have committed aggravated assault on a number of people, and I saw you drew a gun on a guy for riding a bike on a sidewalk, just like you try to keep everyone from using the sidewalk in front of your property. And your victim even had sympathy for you after your lawyer told him you were repentant and started reconsidering after being told about your health…
Sounds like you will never learn and probably do need to go to prison. You’re dangerous and must be desperate. I’ll bet your victim will be really interested to hear about your strategy of lying.
Jacquie Spradling is most deffently a bad penny that keeps showing up. And she still works for the State of Kansas because they are afraid of her firm that she hired to sue the state of Kansas for $350,000 dollars. No wonder the State of Kansas is broke and Spralding keeps her job. Bourbon County is being ran by druggies from the 90’s. Do your research. I was born and raised there unril I was 14 and 1/2 years old. The whole community knows that I tell nothing but the truth so hwlp me god.
Thank you for preparing and publishing such a thorough report on Jacqie Spradling’s misconduct in the Dana Chandler case. We believe that Dana Chandler is innocent and has been framed for the murder of Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness. Additionally, law enforcement officials have refused to fully investigate additional leads regarding an alternate person of interest from within Karen’s immediate family. This individual has a propensity for violence including two prior arrests, is a weapons expert and former FFL, has twice been sanctioned by the Kansas Supreme Court (once for a billing fraud), lived less than two hours from the crime scene, had access to the home and stood to benefit financially from Karen’s death. The lead detective admitted on the stand that he did not verify this family member’s alibi or compare the mitochondrial DNA profile obtained from a Caucasian limb hair stuck to one of the shell casings from the scene to anyone other than Dana Chandler and the two victims – all of whom were excluded as the source of the mtDNA.
Spradling fits right in with the rest of the lying judicial system of ft.scott kansas:( why else do you think that she joined the ft.scott kansas judicial system. They all rule on the “Buddy System” My son and I were both threatened by Steve Mckee and backed by Ft.Scott Sheriffs Deputy Nicholas Trim. My son set in jail 8 days w/o a bond! Still having nightmares over having a chambered gun in my face for no reason! The whole system in Ft.scott Kansas needs investigated? Truth Prosecution over lies needs to stop!!!!!
How true your statements are.
I too delt with FtScott over 30 years ago. A banker, ins agent and a judge. Over a scam on rent to own property. I took it to Topeka Attorney general and an investigation started resulting in one going to jail.
That doesn’t change the fact that the buddy system there goes on.
And the fact that other officials allow it.