KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eric DeValkenaere’s attorneys argued in a court filing Wednesday that the former Kansas City, Missouri, police detective, who was convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter for shooting and killing Cameron Lamb, is protected from prosecution by federal law.
The brief, which is in reply to an amicus brief filed by the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office a week earlier, argues that DeValkenaere had standing under the Fourth Amendment to stop Lamb for traffic violations observed by fellow KCPD officers.
The four-page brief also takes issue with the prosecutor’s assertion about the possibility that Lamb — who was shot to death Dec. 3, 2019, at his residence in the 4100 block of College Avenue — was unarmed.
“It is irresponsible for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office to misinform the courts and mislead the public into thinking Detective DeValkenaere shot an unarmed man and was in a conspiracy to plant evidence,” according to the Appellant’s Reply to Amicus Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
The brief does not address testimony presented at trial from Lamb’s roommate, Roberta Merritt. During DeValkenaere’s four-day bench trial in November 2021, she said Lamb didn’t take his gun when he left the house that morning and that she saw it on the stairs in the garage after he left.
Police later said the gun was found on the floor in the garage during a search after Lamb was killed and that the truck rolled backwards to the back of the subterranean garage.
DeValkenaere’s partner, Troy Schwalm, who entered the property before DeValkenaere arrived, testified that he saw Lamb’s right hand on the steering wheel and Lamb also made a phone call shortly before being shot.
The call went to voicemail and the recording captured the aftermath of the shooting.
The appellant’s brief, prepared by DeValkenaere’s attorney Jonathan Laurans, takes the most favorable view for the former officer with respect to the Fourth Amendment, concluding that the conviction should be reversed or, at the very least, DeValkenaere should be granted a new trial.
But it did not address other key issues regarding the KCPD officers’ actions that day.
KCPD policy prevents undercover officers, which Schwalm and DeValkenaere were, from engaging in active pursuits.
Departmental policy also prohibits officers from engaging in pursuits over traffic charges alone.
It also glosses over the fact that tracking by the KCPD helicopter unit by itself cannot be considered an active pursuit.
Guided by the helicopter and with no KCPD units actively following Lamb’s truck, Schwalm and DeValkenaere confronted Lamb in the backyard of his residence.
Laurans’ brief assumes that there was an active pursuit, but DeValkenaere’s attorneys did not raise the “hot-pursuit doctrine” as a defense at trial as the appellant’s brief assets.
Based on definitions outlined by KCPD policy and court precedent, there was no active pursuit, which could have created exigent circumstances to enter the property and detain Lamb.
Instead, Schwalm and DeValkenaere entered the property without a warrant and without permission from the property owners. DeValkenaere also admitted to knocking over a makeshift fence to reach the backyard, all of which Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs ruled at trial violated the constitution.
Youngs found DeValkenaere guilty of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, sentencing him to six years in prison.
He also allowed DeValkenaere to remain free on bond during the appeal, which Laurans filed in October 2022.
The case has taken some unusual turns in recent weeks.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which handles felony appeals in the state, was admonished to produce a reply to DeValkenaere’s appeal after being granted six extensions in seven months.
While awaiting that filing, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker sent a letter to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson asking him not to preemptively pardon DeValkenaere.
The governor has said he hasn’t considered a pardon.
Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Chief Judge Gary Witt later allowed Baker’s office, which prosecuted DeValkenaere, to file the amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief
Shortly after that, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed the state’s response, but rather than defend DeValkenaere’s conviction, it asked for it to be reversed and remanded back to Jackson County Circuit Court.
Missouri Court of Appeals Western District can consider the briefs from Jackson County, Bailey’s office and DeValkenaere’s attorneys in issuing an opinion, but there’s no timetable for when a ruling may come.
A grand jury indicted DeValkenaere in June 2020, seven months after Lamb was killed. The family has sued DeValkenaere and the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners for wrongful death.
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