‘Dimwit D.A.’ Update
Sara McNellis says a Johnson County magistrate judge threw out her case on August 20 after Jason Covington, the assistant district attorney representing her, failed to perform two crucial steps for criminal cases. McNellis says Covington forgot to ask McNellis' to state her name and to prove that the crime occurred in Johnson County – two basic steps required under law.
“He forgot to ask me my name at the beginning of my statement,” McNellis says. “So the whole entire case was dismissed, and there was no way that I could reopen it, supposedly.”
In June, The Pitch reported on multiple botched cases by assistant district attorneys hired by Kline.
McNellis says a conflict the day of the trial caused assistant district attorney Gabrielle Rhodes to dump the case on Covington. When Covington worked on the case, he had only a temporary law license. He was recently admitted to the Kansas Bar and was sworn in as a lawyer last Friday.
Rhodes and Covington have been full-time assistant district attorneys since the spring.
The domestic violence incident occurred on June 21 at McNellis’ apartment, where she said she was attacked by an ex-boyfriend. “He tried to take my phone away from me, and it turned into him, basically at that point, beating the crap out of me,” McNellis claims, “punching me in the face, strangling me, throwing me in a closet.”
Now, McNellis claims that the District Attorney’s Office won’t return her phone calls.
Brian Burgess, spokesman for the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office, didn’t respond to phone calls or e-mail messages from The Pitch.
To read McNellis’ blogs about the case, check out her MySpace page titled Victims Rights in JOCO. -- Justin Kendall
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