Appeals court says councilman ousted for letting homeless pal stay at city hall must be reinstated
Corrected: A Prairie Village councilman who was removed from office because he allowed a homeless friend to stay overnight at city hall during 2012 must be reinstated, a Kansas appeals court has ruled.
A district court judge removed David Morrison from office a year ago, after the council voted to ask the Johnson County district attorney to pursue an ethics complaint. But the state Court of Appeals on Friday reversed that decision, reports the Kansas City Star. An earlier Kansas City Star story provides additional details.
Morrison has apologized for what District Judge David Hauber described last year as “breathtakingly bad judgment.” The judge noted that ouster is a “drastic action and should be involved only where the evidence is clear and convincing, and the misdeeds flagrant,” but found that standard had been met.
Lawyers for Morrison agreed he had made a mistake, but said voters should be allowed to decide whether to keep the two-term councilman in office.
“In a day and age when politicians are trying to stay in office when they do things like taking bribes and sexting and abusing women and things like that, here is a guy who did not do any of that, not even close,” attorney Brett Milbourn, who represents Morrison, told the Star last year. “All he did was, with a lapse of judgment we believe, was perform a humanitarian act for an old friend.”
It isn’t immediately clear, following the appellate ruling, whether officials will contest the decision or simply allow Morrison to take his former seat instead of the replacement council member serving the remainder of his term.
Correction
Updated on Oct. 14 to correct the name of the town to Prairie Village.
