WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita Business Journal has named Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered attorney Jon McConnell among its 40 Under 40 honorees for 2013. Roughly 300 individuals were nominated for this year’s honor, according to Wichita Business Journal Publisher John Ek. The selection committee reviews professional achievements as well as community involvement. “We are extremely…
Authorities say it’s still unclear whether charges will be filed against a teen who discarded her newborn in the trash earlier this year. Local criminal defense lawyer Dan Monnat said while it’s possible charges could be filed against the teen mother or others, “any would suffer from the autopsy’s failure to determine whether the infant was born alive…. Babies and children are fragile and might just as easily be the victims of freak accidents as intentional wrongdoing.”
It’s been nearly four months since the arrest of a former Wichita Police Sergeant accused of child sex crimes, but there has yet to be a case filed against him. A number of things are likely hindering the case, says Dan Monnat.
“The accusation was not made until almost 12 years after it supposedly happened. That will seriously hinder law enforcement officers in tracking down and interviewing other possible witnesses… Memories fade, particularly with children,” Monnat said…
While a member of Wichita State’s Final Four Team is being investigated for an alleged sexual assault, Dan Monnat offered legal commentary on the case for KAKE News.
“This has not been elevated to a criminal charge and the accused is presumed innocent. The State has to prove the alleged victim was incapable of consenting because of alcohol or drugs and that the victim’s lack of consent was apparent to the accused….”
Former Garden Plain football coach Todd Puetz, who was facing a possible sentence of five years in prison for electronic solicitation of a minor, has avoided jail time by reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Puetz pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of patronizing a prostitute and was given a 30-day suspended sentence by District…
“The greatest gift that we can give each other as human beings is understanding,” said defense attorney Dan Monnat. “Todd Puetz and his family are very grateful to these courageous jurors….” A Sedgwick County jury found the former high school football coach not guilty on two of the three counts against him….
An article by Dan Monnat and Paige Nichols has been cited in a new opinion by the Kansas Supreme Court.
Justice Lee A. Johnson, writing for the Court in State of Kansas v. Lawson, referred to Monnat and Nichols’ work in The Loneliness of the Kansas Constitution, published in September 2010 by the Journal of the Kansas Association for Justice, while discussing the Kansas Supreme Court’s authority to construe the Kansas constitution as more protective of individual rights than the federal constitution.
“I am pleased and honored that our article appears to have assisted the Court in its consideration of this important constitutional issue, and hope that our work will continue to be useful to the Court in the future,” said Monnat.
“Monnat told the jury that before he was arrested, police had never considered Puetz to be a potential child sex molester. Despite all the publicity surrounding the case, Monnat said, no teenage girls have come forward to say that Puetz behaved improperly around them…”
“Did you electronically solicit anyone you believed to be less than 16 years of age?” defense lawyer Dan Monnat asked as former Garden Plain football coach Todd Puetz told a Sedgwick County jury that he wasn’t looking for sex …
“Todd only intended to help them by giving them what money he had,” Dan Monnat said during his opening statement in the trial of a former football coach charged with electronic solicitation…. “The evidence will show that Todd is a flawed human being, but he is not a flawed human being who is guilty of the child sex crimes he’s accused of here today. Todd Puetz never had any interest in underage girls….”
