Special prosecutor Branden Bell filed the charges Monday in Neosho County District Court. The complaint accuses Thuston of lying during testimony in July, when Thuston appeared as a witness in an opioid drug case that Bell also prosecuted.
Shocking testimony in that case centered on evidence that Thuston, as the county’s top prosecutor, had leaked information about police investigations to an off-the-books confidential informant who had sent him nude photos.
Thuston for years avoided consequences from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office or the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys as local law enforcement and county officials provided evidence of financial and criminal misconduct.
The sheriff’s office found that Thuston through a social media account had persuaded about 50 women to send him nude images in exchange for services through his private legal practice. They included women he also prosecuted as the county attorney.
Sheriff’s officers filed reports obtained by Kansas Reflector that accused Thuston of using confidential information for personal gain, intimidating a witness or victim, disseminating a criminal history record, theft by deception, preventing reporting of victimization, and other felonies. Those crimes were reported between 2018 and 2023.
During the same time period, county commissioners complained that Thuston couldn’t document how he was using money collected from diversion agreements, which had skyrocketed after Thuston took office in 2012. The current and former sheriff feared justice was for sale as Thuston traded high-dollar diversion payments for generous plea deals covering violent crimes, including child rape.
In 2022, a disciplinary panel decided not to punish Thuston for a conflict of interest ethics violation after reviewing letters of support from the community, including one from county health director Teresa Starr. Thuston admitted in a recorded interview with Kansas Reflector that he had written Starr’s letter, and she said Thuston threatened her to go along with it.
In April of this year, the Disciplinary Administrator’s Office issued “an informal admonition” to Thuston for telling Starr she “owed” him oral sex.
Thuston was still the county attorney in July when he was called to testify in a preliminary hearing for an opioid drug case. Police had uncovered Facebook messages from a woman who said Thuston “tells me everything cause he wants me.” She had relayed information from Thuston to her brother, a defendant in the drug case, about houses that were under police surveillance, and the name of a “nark” who was talking to police.
During combative hourlong testimony, Thuston defended his practice of meeting regularly with off-the-books confidential informants, sometimes at his home or in other discreet places, as he had done with the woman in this case. He also acknowledged that he had received nude photos from her.
At the end of his testimony, the special prosecutor asked Thuston: “Are you familiar that lying to an investigator, law enforcement officer, about a felony offense is in itself a felony?”
Thuston’s response: “It can be.”
Kansas Reflector has asked the court to release a charging affidavit to shed light on the evidence supporting the six felonies Thuston now faces — four charges of perjury and two charges of witness intimidation.
The special prosecutor’s case is separate from Kansas Attorney General’s Office investigations that resulted in two misdemeanor convictions.
In an unusual sequence of events in August, after Thuston could retire with full benefits, the AG’s office reached a plea deal with him before filing misdemeanor charges. In exchange for stepping down and pleading guilty to the two misdemeanors, the office agreed not to pursue more serious charges for other crimes it had investigated. Retired District Judge Merlin Wheeler ordered Thuston to serve 30 days in jail, followed by 12 months of supervised release.
Danedri Herbert, spokeswoman for the AG’s office, didn’t respond to an inquiry about the decision not to pursue more serious charges.
Jim Keath, who served as Neosho County sheriff for more than 20 years, welcomed the special prosecutor’s decision to charge Thuston with felony crimes. Keath left the sheriff’s office in 2020 because he was frustrated with Thuston.
“I just have to tell you, in all my years in law enforcement, there was 30-some of them, I never saw a defendant get called to the Attorney General’s Office to negotiate their deal before charges are ever filed,” Keath said. “I don’t know how you explain that. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of, and I do not understand it at all.”
Keath said the decision wasn’t about fairness or justice.
“I can’t help but think about all the victims over the years, those 50 ladies, just all the victims in general, all the different crimes that weren’t prosecuted or just thrown away for a few bucks in an account,” he added.