Kansas Court of Appeals to hear arguments in Dodge City

TOPEKA, KAN — The State of Kansas Office of Judicial Administration announced on Thursday that a three-judge panel will hear oral arguments on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Ford County Courthouse in Dodge City.

Judges Anthony Powell, G. Gordon Atcheson, and Kathryn Gardner will hear oral arguments in two cases starting at 9:30 a.m.

The Court of Appeals is a traveling court and regularly hears cases at the federal courthouses in Wichita and Kansas City, but also travels to other places across the state to make sure that the court’s work is more accessible to the public and to accommodate all  parties in appealed cases.

“Chief Judge Van Hampton invited us to hear cases in Dodge City, and we eagerly accepted,” Arnold-Burger said.

Hampton is the chief judge of the 16th Judicial District, which covers Clark, Comanche, Ford, Gray, Kiowa, and Meade counties in southwest Kansas.

The two cases that will be heard at the Ford County Courthouse are listed below.

Appeal No. 118,672:  State of Kansas v. Robert Kenton Pollman Jr.

Finney County: Pollman entered a no-contest plea to attempted possession of methamphetamine. At sentencing, the Finney County District Court used a criminal history score of C to calculate Pollman’s sentence, based primarily on a 2011 conviction the court classified as a person felony. For the first time on appeal, Pollman argues the district court misclassified the 2011 conviction. The State responds Pollman should be judicially estopped from challenging the classification of the 2011 conviction.

Appeal No. 117,404: Garetson Brothers and Foreland Real Estate LLC v. American Warrior Inc., successor in interest to Kelly and Diana Unruh and Rick Koehn

Haskell County: Garetson Brothers and Foreland Real Estate LLC own a senior water right in Haskell County. Garetson filed a petition in Haskell County District Court seeking an injunction to prevent the nearest junior water rights from impairing its senior water right. American Warrior Inc. and Koehn control the junior water rights at issue. After a trial, the district court found the junior water rights were impairing the senior water right and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting American Warrior from exercising its junior water rights. American Warrior appeals the district court’s order that it stop using its wells.