Continuances noted in major Jackson County court cases

A Netawaka resident convicted in February on a rape charge in­volving a minor continues to wait to hear a ruling on a motion to have his no-contest plea on the charge withdrawn, it was reported on Fri­day in Jackson County District Court.

Scott Buchheit, 36, who had filed the motion to withdraw his plea on the rape charge two days after entering the plea in February, will now wait until at least Friday, May 27 to hear a ruling on his mo­tion to set aside the plea.

Jackson County District Court Judge Norbert Marek rescheduled the hearing, originally set for Fri­day morning, because defense at­torney John R. Kurth of Atchison had not yet received a transcript of the February plea hearing. Ac­cording to court documents, a court order for the transcript was filed on March 24.

Buchheit had filed the motion to withdraw his no contest plea to the rape charge, which stemmed from alleged sexual activities between between August of 2008 and Janu­ary of 2015 involving a girl who is now 17 years old and was filed minutes before a jury trial on that and other charges was set to begin in February. He was arrested on the charges in February of 2015.

He had filed the motion to with­draw the plea two days after the plea deal was accepted, citing “ineffective counsel” from his former defense attorney, J. Richard Lake of Holton, and stating that he was “under psycho­logical pressure” to make the deal.

Marek granted Lake’s motion to withdraw as Buchheit’s attorney in March and appointed Kurth — the third de­fense attorney to represent Buchheit in the case, after Lake and Russell Roe of Onaga — soon afterward.

In his motion to withdraw the plea, Buchheit said he was “pres­sured into taking this plea when there was no supporting evidence against him,” adding that Jackson County Attorney Shawna Miller had “placed her case on a well-documented liar,” referring to the girl. Buchheit also asserted that his plea was the result of prosecu­torial misconduct, judicial malfea­sance, ineffective defense counsel and “fraud committed within this case.”

In the motion, he asserted that Miller “had a direct conflict of in­terest in this matter” since she had represented Buchheit’s ex-wife, Crystal M. Buchheit Correll, in the Buchheits’ divorce proceeding in 2011, that the “complaining wit­ness” is “a known liar” and that Miller did not produce any physical evidence that he had committed acts described in the criminal case.

In the state’s response to Buchheit’s motion, Miller asserted that Buchheit’s “assertions are without merit” and that the state provided all necessary evidence in­volved in the case to the defense. She also denied Buchheit’s claims of “prosecutorial misconduct” in the case.

In other Jackson County District Court news:

• A preliminary hearing for Pedro Juarez-Alonzo, 27, of Holton, who has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, rape and five other charges in connec­tion with an alleged Feb. 8 incident in Holton, was rescheduled for Thursday, May 12.

Juarez-Alonzo, who is currently being held on $200,000 bond at the Jackson County Detention Center, was arrested shortly after the al­leged Feb. 8 incident, which re­portedly involved an attempted strangulation. The victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries, it was reported.

Juarez-Alonzo has also been charged with aggravated battery, two counts of criminal threat, ag­gravated endangering a child and domestic battery in connection with the incident. Lake, representing Juarez-Alonzo, requested continu­ance of the hearing prior to its original date of Thursday.

• Marek on Thursday also con­tinued a preliminary hearing for George E. Fleshman, 64, of Holton, who is facing second-degree mur­der charges stemming from the October death of his wife. Flesh­man’s hearing was reset for Wednesday, June 8.

Fleshman was arrested March 8 at his home in connection with the death of his wife, Elizabeth J. Fleshman, 62. Fleshman told 911 dispatchers he had found her unre­sponsive at their home, and she was taken to Holton Community Hos­pital, then to St. Francis Hospital in Topeka, where she later died.

Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse said his office opened an in­vestigation into Elizabeth Flesh­man’s death due to what it consid­ered suspicious cir­cumstances. An autopsy report concluded that she may have died due to a trauma to her spleen, prompting the sheriff’s office to arrest Flesh­man, it was re­ported. He remains at the Jackson County Detention Center on $200,000 bond.