KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The judge in former Kansas City, Missouri, Police Det. Eric DeValkenaere’s appeal of his conviction in the shooting death of Cameron Lamb allowed the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to file an amicus brief Friday in the long-delayed case.
DeValkenaere’s attorney, Jonathan Laurans, filed a motion in opposition to the prosecutor’s request for permission to file an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief in the case.
Laurans argued that county prosecutors in Missouri are prohibited from arguing felony appeals, an authority DeValkenaere’s attorney claimed to be granted solely to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, according to a brief filed Wednesday.
DeValkenaere was convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action after a four-day bench trial in November 2021 for the Dec. 3, 2019, shooting of Lamb as he backed a truck into the garage of his residence in the 4100 block of College Avenue.
Shortly after his sentencing in March 2022, DeValkenaere’s attorneys filed a notice of appeal, putting the case in the hands of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
The formal appeal was filed in November 2022, but the Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has yet to respond — instead requesting and receiving six motions for an extension to file their response in the last seven months.
Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Chief Judge Gary Witt, who had previously warned in early May that no more extensions would be permitted, granted Bailey’s office one final extension until June 26 to file a response.
Concerned over reports to her office that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson may pardon DeValkenaere even with the appeal still pending, Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker took the unusual step Tuesday of sending Parson a letter urging him to reconsider a pardon.
After Witt granted her office’s request Friday to file an amicus brief in the case, Baker filed a 58-page brief in support of DeValkenaere’s conviction — effectively doing the work Bailey’s has so far refused to perform.
DeValkenaere’s attorney argued that Baker’s brief is a respondent’s brief and not an amicus brief.
Laurans contended “it is not the Attorney General’s duty to “defend the conviction’” if Bailey’s office doesn’t believe the conviction was lawful, hinting at the politically charged undertones swirling around the first conviction of a KCPD police officer for killing a Black man in the city’s history.
The brief from Baker’s office notes that: “For the first time in memory, Amicus does not know whether the Attorney General will defend the judgment obtained by the State in the trial court.”
It further asks the court to consider the conviction under “the theory upon which this case was tried.”
The prosecutor’s brief rehashes evidence in the case and argues that “the evidence proved that Appellant shot an unarmed man in that man’s own garage,” including alleged contradictory statements from officers related to a gun found inside the garage and alleged false statements made over the police radio about the events that led up to DeValkenaere killing Lamb.
The brief then rebuts the arguments raised in DeValkenaere’s initial appeal.
The trial court found that actions taken by DeValkenaere and Schwalm were “escalating a situation that previously had deescalated” in finding that the officers acted as the “initial aggressors” before Lamb’s death.
“In short, a reasonable person or police officer would not have rushed into the backyard of this residence with guns drawn and would have known that they were not allowed to use force in that circumstance,” the prosecutor’s brief concluded. “As the trial court found, that conduct was a gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would have exercised in the situation.”
A KCPD helicopter guided DeValkenaere and his partner, then-Det. Troy Schwalm, to the house in December 2019 after undercover officers witnessed a series of alleged traffic infractions, but police never initiated an active pursuit.
Without a warrant, without probable cause there a crime was occurring and without permission from the property owner, Schwalm and DeValkenaere, who knocked over a makeshift fence to reach the backyard, went onto the property and behind the house.
DeValkenaere said he saw Lamb point a gun at Schwalm before opening fire and killing Lamb, though that fact was disputed at trial.
A Jackson County grand jury indicted DeValkenaere in June 2020.
Ultimately, Jackson County Presiding Circuit Judge J. Dale Youngs ruled that DeValkenaere had violated the Missouri constitution and acted as the “initial aggressor” in convicting DeValkenare.
Youngs later sentenced DeValkenaere to six years in prison, but allowed him to remain free on bond during the appeal.
Lamb’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against DeValkenaere and the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners related to the deadly shooting.
Lamb would have turned 30 on Wednesday.
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