BY MIKE GILMORE
& ANDREW MURPHY
news@gbtribune.com
Editor’s note: This article updates the Great Bend Tribune’s previous reporting on the Katie Hales case. The KBI investigation began Sept. 7, 2023. Background on the Tribune’s original December 2023 reporting is included below.
A former Intensive Supervision Officer with Central Kansas Community Corrections is facing nearly 100 fraud charges stemming from a 2-1/2-year Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe into actions committed during her tenure.
Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett, named special prosecutor in 2023 for the case by former 20th District Chief Judge Steve Johnson, confirmed Tuesday evening that Katie N. Hales surrendered to authorities at the Rice County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday afternoon.
Following a first appearance in Rice County District Court she was released on her own recognizance. She faces 42 counts of various fraud charges in Rice County.
McNett confirmed Hales was expected to turn herself in to the Barton County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday morning to face 51 counts on similar charges for crimes allegedly committed during her time as an ISO in Barton County. Hales was booked in to the Barton County Jail Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. and was released at 11:27 a.m. on her own recognizance with bond set at $10,000 if she fails to appear in court.
Charges in Rice County include forgery (14 counts), making false information (14 counts) and interference with judicial process (14 counts). Hales faces 17 counts of each in Barton County. While the original KBI investigation launched in September 2023 alleged identity theft, wire fraud and forged signatures, those specific charges do not appear in the either complaint. Hales left CKCC employment on Oct. 6, 2023, at the end of a maternity leave. When contacted previously, Hales said she had quit on her own volition and had no comment regarding the KBI investigation.
The KBI noted that because the alleged crimes occurred in separate jurisdictions, charges were filed in both counties.
Background
The Great Bend Tribune first reported on the case in December 2023, after a motion filed in Barton County District Court surfaced details of the KBI investigation, which had begun Sept. 7, 2023. The motion, filed Nov. 9, alleged that Hales had a history of presenting false testimony and had been under suspicion of forging signatures, identity theft and wire fraud since 2018.
The motion asserted that Hales participated in an illegal search and seizure of a CKCC client’s home, and sought that evidence obtained from that search be considered fruit of the poisonous tree and excluded from court proceedings. According to the motion, Hales’ statements during cross-examination were described as “wildly different” from those she gave during direct examination, in which she spent an hour and a half on the witness stand.
The motion also alleged that testimony Hales gave in a separate evidentiary hearing on March 27, 2023, involving another defendant, was false — and that her colleague Tyler Lehmkuhl recognized it as such in real time. According to the motion, Lehmkuhl told Levi Morris, then Barton County Attorney and now a district judge, during the hearing that Hales’ statements were a lie. Morris advised Lehmkuhl to inform his supervisor, Amy Boxberger, which he did. Lehmkuhl also informed former Barton County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. The motion states that no action was taken during the hearing, and the defendant’s probation was subsequently revoked — resulting in 12 months added to a 12-year prison sentence based on Hales’ testimony.
Defense attorney Audra Asher noted at the time that the motion to suppress had since been withdrawn in the course of the defendant’s legal proceedings, but emphasized that the withdrawal did not diminish the significance of its contents. “Withdrawal of the motion is not a reflection of the validity and seriousness of the information it contains,” Asher said. “It remains a public document available for public view.”
Investigation and departures
KBI Communications Director Melissa Underwood confirmed the investigation into the former CKCC employee began Sept. 7, 2023, at the request of then-CKCC Director Amy Boxberger.
Boxberger and Lehmkuhl were both terminated on or around Nov. 21, 2023. Barton County later approved settlement agreements with both — $113,000 for Boxberger and $57,000 for Lehmkuhl, with the county responsible for $25,000 and $10,000 respectively and EMC Insurance covering the remainder. The county stated it did not admit liability or wrongdoing in approving the settlements.
