Kansas deputy charged with murder in the death of a man in custody

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas sheriff’s deputy was charged Thursday with murder in the death of a jail inmate who sustained broken ribs after his back was kneeled on after he was wheeled from the infirmary to his cell, according to an autopsy report.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said deputy Richard Fatherley has been charged with second-degree murder and an alternative count of involuntary manslaughter in the July 5 death of 50-year-old Charles Adair at the county’s detention center in Kansas City, Kansas. Adair had been arrested one day earlier on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations.

Dupree provided no details on how the man died, but the autopsy said Adair was being removed from his wheelchair when he got into an altercation with jail staff. According to the autopsy, the altercation ended with one officer kneeling on Adair’s back. In addition to the rib fractures, Adair also sustained a sternal fracture, the autopsy report said.

While Dupree declined to say whether Fatherley was the one who knelt, he also said no one else would be charged.

The autopsy listed Adair’s manner of death as homicide and his cause of death as complications from “mechanical asphyxia,” a condition in which breathing is obstructed. Also contributing to Adair’s death was cardiovascular disease and cirrhosis, the autopsy found.

“Our family is still heartbroken over the loss of my brother,” the man’s brother, Anthony Adair, said in a statement released through the group Justice for Wyandotte. “While we are grateful to see that charges have been filed, it is important for us to be able to see the camera footage of Charles’ final moment.”

The sheriff’s office declined a records request from The Associated Press seeking video of what happened. Asked about video during a news conference, Dupree said that all information in the case would be reviewed by a judge at the preliminary hearing and then would be made available in court.

Fatherley, who was assigned to the detention center but was not a certified law enforcement officer, is on paid administrative leave. He received a summons on Thursday afternoon calling for him to appear in court, but has not been booked into jail. Dupree said that’s customary for officers in the county facing charges.

“He was not a flight risk,” Dupree said. “He was, in fact, cooperative with the investigation” and is expected to continue cooperating.

Dupree added that he would file a request for an out-of-county judge to oversee the case “due to the potential conflict of interest.”

Fatherley’s attorney, James Spies, said the second-degree murder charge requires the state to prove that the defendant showed an extreme indifference to life, and, “This case simply does not meet the elements of this crime.”

He noted that the prosecutor’s alternative charge is involuntary manslaughter, which requires proof that a defendant acted with “typical” recklessness.

“We’re going to be pursuing an acquittal in this case,” Spies said. “My client acted reasonably within the scope his employment.”

No charges were filed after a similar autopsy finding in the 2021 death of Cedric Lofton, a 17-year-old who became unresponsive while restrained at a Wichita juvenile intake center. In that case, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the state’s “stand-your-ground” law prevented him from bringing any charges because staff members were protecting themselves.

Spies said Adair’s death was “a tragic accident” but was not a result of Fatherley’s actions.

Nikki Richardson, executive director of Justice for Wyandotte, countered that the autopsy report suggested that pressure had been applied to Adair using something called the shoulder pin maneuver.

“It is only supposed to be used when an officer feels their life is in danger,” Richardson said. “It is hard at this point in time with the facts to see where a jail staff or sheriff or officer would feel endangered when a person is leaving the infirmary and they’re in a wheelchair.”

Any conviction on a second-degree murder charge carries a sentence of up to 41 years in prison while a manslaughter conviction carries up to 11 years.