State defends dismissal of wrongful imprisonment case of woman whose murder conviction was overturned | News, Sports, Jobs

Photograph: Contributed

Carrody Buchhorn

A lawsuit is currently ongoing seeking at least $400,000 in damages from the state of Kansas for false imprisonment resulting from a 2016 overturned conviction in a case involving the death of a baby.

A Douglas County District Court judge on Wednesday heard the first round of arguments on whether to dismiss Carrody Buchhorn’s false imprisonment lawsuit against the state of Kansas. Buchhorn was charged and convicted in 2018 in the death of 9-month-old Oliver Ortiz, who was staying at the Eudora day care center where Buchhorn worked.

However, Buchhorn’s conviction was overturned by the Kansas Court of Appeals in August 2021 because Buchhorn’s trial attorneys were deemed ineffective. Although the case could be retried, in January 2023 the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office announced that prosecution of the case had been halted after a forensic pathologist hired by the office concluded that Ortiz died of a natural disease rather than child abuse.

On Wednesday, Buchhorn’s new attorneys argued that the finding should be sufficient for the false imprisonment case to proceed. Attorney Marc Templeton said not only did the state fail to present evidence that Buchhorn was responsible for Ortiz’s death, but the state presented evidence to the contrary.

But a lawyer for the state of Kansas disagreed. Deputy Attorney General Shon Qualseth is seeking dismissal of the case after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that to uphold Kansas’ false imprisonment law, the convicted person must prove innocence “in fact or fact.”

Qualseth argued that Buchhorn’s conviction was overturned not because of Buchhorn’s innocence but because of ineffective assistance of counsel after Buchhorn’s trial attorneys failed to adequately review a series of autopsy results. Without proof of actual innocence, he said, Buchhorn is not eligible for compensation.

But Templeton said the DA’s office has already proven Buchhorn’s innocence. He said the state has lost all possible cause to charge Buchhorn with a crime if the prosecution chooses to abandon testimony regarding the original autopsy results in 2023. Templeton said District Attorney Suzanne Valdez went a step further and issued a press release saying the state’s new medical examiner who reviewed the case had concluded Ortiz died of natural causes.

Speaking on behalf of the state, Qualseth said there was other evidence that could be used in court, while Buchhorn’s lawyers argued that such evidence had already been rejected by the court.

Douglas County District Court Judge James McCabria scheduled additional arguments on the matter for Dec. 6 and did not issue a decision Wednesday. He said the Kansas Supreme Court’s recent decision should be taken into consideration, but testimony from the prosecutor’s office and forensic pathologist should also be taken into account.

The wrongful conviction lawsuit was filed by Buchhorn in 2023. He is seeking nearly $400,000 in damages plus attorney fees for the more than five years he spent in some form of prison.