Special prosecutor Jacqie Spradling disbarred

Former Shawnee County Assistant District Attorney Jacqie Spradling, who was hired by Jackson County in 2017 as a “special prosecutor” in the trials against Holton resident Jacob Ewing and was later charged with “prosecutorial misconduct” in the Ewing trials and in another high-profile Shawnee County trial, has been disbarred, it has been reported.

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday, May 20, issued a 101-page opinion disbarring Spradling based on claims that she had made false statements in court during the 2012 murder trial and resulting conviction of Dana Chandler but set aside issues raised from the Ewing trials as part of its order of disbarment.

The decision followed a unanimous recommendation to the state’s highest court last June from a three-attorney disciplinary panel that Spradling forfeit her right to practice law over her conduct in the Ewing and Chandler trials, as well as for “knowingly and intentionally” misleading juries in those trials to secure convictions.

In issuing the decision to disbar Spradling, justices based their conclusion “only on (Spradling’s) conduct in the Chandler trial” but disagreed with the disciplinary panel on claims that Spradling’s conduct in the Ewing trials was in violation of the state’s rules of professional conduct for attorneys.

“The fuller picture of the circumstances surrounding the Ewing trial, as presented by several witnesses before the hearing panel, convinces us that the panel’s findings regarding (Spradling’s) conduct in that trial are not supported by clear and convincing evidence,” the justices wrote.

In the Chandler trial, justices found that Spradling violated several rules of professional conduct, including ignoring orders of a district court, making arguments that lacked evidentiary support, intentionally lying to the state supreme court in written briefs and oral arguments and making false statements during an investigation of claims of prosecutorial misconduct.

Disciplinary actions had been brought against Spradling following the state supreme court’s overturning of the 2012 murder conviction against Chandler — who now faces retrial in Shawnee County — and the Kansas Court of Appeals’ overturning of Ewing’s 2017 conviction on charges of sexual crimes.

Ewing and his defense attorney, the late Kathleen Ambrosio, filed an appeal against Ewing’s sentence of more than 27 years in prison on charges of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and battery in one of three trials held against him in 2017, based on claims that Spradling erred in closing arguments by “misstating the evidence that was presented to the jury and inflaming the passions of the jury.”

In 2019, the state appeals court ruled that Spradling made unsubstantiated claims to the jury, among other prosecutorial errors, to secure a conviction, and ordered the case back to Jackson County District Court for retrial. Ewing’s prison sentence was reduced to 10 years in a ruling issued last June applying to all cases against him by Kansas Second District Court Judge Jeff Elder.

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