Arguments heard on disbarment recommendation for Ewing prosecutor

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday, Feb. 4 heard oral arguments on whether the former Shawnee County prosecutor who served as a special prosecutor for the Jacob Ewing trials in 2017 should lose her license to practice law.

At issue was a recommendation from the Office of Disciplinary Administration that Jacqie Spradling, who was hired by Jackson County to serve as special prosecutor over the Ewing trials, “be indefinitely suspended from the practice of law” over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Ewing case and another case in Shawnee County.

The court did not act immediately following Friday’s hearing, saying it would take the ODA’s recommendation to disbar Spradling under advisement. No timeline has been set on when the court would issue a ruling on the recommendation.

Spradling has been accused of misleading the jury during one of the Ewing trials by making comments during closing arguments that were allegedly unsupported by evidence. The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed Ewing’s convictions in 2018 and sent the matter back to Jackson County District Court for retrial.

Much of Friday’s hearing focused on Spradling’s conduct during the 2012 trial and conviction of Dana Chandler, in which the ODA said she misled a jury to believe that Chandler violated a protective order reportedly filed by one of her alleged victims in a 2002 double homicide in Topeka.

The protective order was later found to be non-existent, even though Spradling continued to assert that it was until walking that assertion back during a disciplinary hearing on the matter. The Kansas Supreme Court reversed Chandler’s convictions and remanded the case to Shawnee County District Court for retrial.

ODA attorney Matt Vogelsberg reminded justices that after a five-day hearing in December 2020, his office issued a June 2021 report concluding that Spradling had violated prosecutorial rules regarding competence, “meritorious claims and contentions,” making false statements in court and “engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

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