Courts drop charges against Kuplen

The criminal case against a Fort Scott man who had charges against him stemming from a Bourbon County Grand Jury investigation will be dropped, according to a deputy Kansas Attorney General.

Greg Kuplen, who was charged by the Kansas AG's office with two felony counts of presenting a false claim, died May 6.

Fort Scott police couldn't discuss circumstances surrounding the death, but they ruled out foul play. He was 55.

"What the state was forced to do was dismiss the matter," said Deputy Attorney General Jon Fleenor. "We had every intention of going forward."

Kuplen had fought the charges, since they were filed last year. He had pleaded not guilty and didn't waive his right to a preliminary hearing last August in the hopes the judge would not bind him over for trial.

However, he was bound over for trial, which was set to start this week, Fleenor said.

The Bourbon County District Court, as a result of Kuplen's untimely death, is expected to informally dismiss the case. The filing that officially closes the case hasn't happened yet, Fleenor said.

Kuplen received over $11,000 from a Kansas Department of Commerce grant to fix a building he claimed was damaged during the downtown fire in 2005, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

A fire investigator with the Kansas Fire Marshal testified at the hearing that Kuplen's building, located across the street from the fire area, was not damaged by the fire.

He then submitted an invoice to the City of Fort Scott, which administered the grant, for the disbursement of grant funds for repair work supposedly done on his property, according to preliminary hearing testimony.

The person who purportedly did the work testified at the trial that he didn't do all the work on the invoice. The work that he did perform was to repair damage that wasn't caused because of the fire, according to the preliminary hearing.

Don Russell, a co-defendant in the case, was the city's economic development director in charge of administering the grant. He was charged with one felony count of presenting a false claim.

Russell waived his right to preliminary hearing and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. A status conference with the AG's office and Russell's lawyer was held Friday.

Harry E. Warren, Kuplen's lawyer, filed a motion for a change of venue. The motion touched the Bourbon County Grand Jury,which was convened in 2006 to consider evidence of both private and public alleged wrongdoing arising from actions by city officials and others in financial matters.

The grand jury was started because of a petition signed by hundreds of registered voters, many of whom could be potential jurors in the defendant's case, according to the motion.

The petition drive was started by "a group of community activists in Fort Scott who made numerous public allegations against the defendant and others which potentially have had the effect of poisoning many of the minds of those who could be summoned as potential jurors," Warren wrote.

The motion went on to say that Kuplen was well known in Fort Scott and a significant number have "strong feelings about the defendant or about what they think they know about the defendant."