Kansas lawmaker’s law license suspended over conflicts of interest in murder case
WICHITA, Kan. — A Republican Kansas lawmaker who halted his re-election campaign last month after being arrested during a traffic stop has now been banned from practicing law for at least a year for mishandling conflicts of interest in a murder case.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that state Rep. Carl Maughan of Colwich violated professional standards when he represented 57-year-old Bret Blevins in a 2016 crash that killed two men. according to the Kansas City Star.
Maughan did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press on Sunday and did not respond to a phone call from the newspaper on Friday. He had previously defended his handling of the Blevins case, although Blevins is now suing Maughan over it.
The conflict of interest in the case arose because Maughan had previously represented Blevins’ girlfriend, Tammy Akers, in DUI cases and he accepted $30,000 from Akers and her husband to defend Blevins.
Akers and Blevins were the only occupants of the vehicle that struck and killed the two men in a van. Akers served as a key witness at the trial in which Maughan blamed Akers for the crash and suggested she was the driver.
The Supreme Court ruled that the conflict of interest waivers that Maughan had Blevins and Akers sign did not adequately address the situation or fully inform them of the consequences.
Ultimately, Blevins was sentenced to more than 60 years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter. But the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled four years later that he deserved a new trial because of Maughan’s conflicts of interest. He subsequently pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to more than thirteen years in prison.
Maughan announced last month that he would withdraw from the race for his seat in the House of Representatives, but his name will still be on the ballot alongside three other Republicans because he missed the deadline for withdrawal.
He faces two misdemeanor charges and two traffic violations following a traffic stop in Topeka in March. He was charged with possession of a firearm while under the influence, driving under the influence, failure to signal a lane change and failure to pass safely from a single lane. His attorney in the Topeka case did not immediately respond to an email Sunday.