After years of unsatisfactory
prosecutions of assaults on police officers in Kansas
City the KCFOP took on the task of passing new law
to address police assaults on our members and law
enforcement officers throughout the State of Missouri.
The final catalyst for this endeavor was an assault
in 2000 on then Officer Garry
Eastwood who was severely bitten when
he attempted a domestic violence arrest in the East
Patrol Division. The suspect was prosecuted under
the 2nd degree Class B felony assault on a law enforcement
officer statute and found guilty. Prosecution of the
assault was based not on the severity of the injury
sustained but under the premise that when the suspect
used his teeth in the assault, the use of his teeth
to bite Officer Eastwood invoked the dangerous instrument
element of the felony assault statute. The suspect
was convicted but the judge, fearing challenge of
the use of the statute, reduced the charge to a misdemeanor
and the suspect was released with time already served.
For years police officers in Kansas
City have been ill-served under existing law that
has no felony provision for assaults committed on
law enforcement officers not perpetrated with a deadly
weapon or resulting in serious physical injury. Prosecutions
under the pre-2004 law left much interpretation to
the severity of injury sustained by a police officer
that would prompt a felony prosecution.
The long effort to change this deficient
law began in 2002 when Brent Marchant approached then Representative Cathy Jolly to assist in carrying this legislation. Representative
Jolly is a former Jackson County Prosecutor and recognized
the need for this protection for police officers in
Missouri. The language of the bill was inspired by
existing language in Illinois law and was carried
by Representative Jolly in 2002 and again in 2003
in an effort to educate legislators not familiar with
the criminal justice system of the need for this new
law. This effort was effectively sidelined in 2003
when the KCFOP threw much of it's legislative effort
and attention to passing changes to the 1st degree
assault on a law enforcement officer statute, reclassifying
it to a 'dangerous felony' after a suspect, who was
convicted of a 1996 attack in which he severely wounded
then Kansas City Police Officers Blehm and McCollum
in a botched murder attempt, was found to be eligible
for early parole and release. The KCFOP, working in
conjunction with the Missouri FOP in this effort,
was successful in the effort to change the 1st degree
assault on a police officer statute and changed the
classification of these assaults to a dangerous felony
for sentencing purposes (2003 Senate Bill 5). During
this change the Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer
statute was broadened to include firefighters and
emergency services workers.
In 2004 the KCFOP
Police and Emergency Services Worker Assault legislation
enhancing the penalties for 2nd degree assaults was
again introduced in the the Missouri House of Representatives
as HB1585 - This time Representative Jason Brown recognizing the need for this critical legislation,
came to the KCFOP's aid. The KCFOP spent many days
in Jefferson City during the 2004 session, receiving
a tremendous effort from bill sponsor Jason Brown.
The effort resulted in this critical legislation gaining
bipartisan support. The bill passed the House and
the Senate nearly unanimously as amended into HB1055.
HB 1055 sponsor Representative Marc Bruns of Jefferson
City collaborated with Representative Brown in this
effort. This assault legislation was promoted in 2004 exclusively by the KCFOP and our friends in the legislature and will have a tremendous impact on law enforcement
officers and emergency services workers statewide. |
