Jurors can’t reach verdict in Kansas trial of former rural prosecutor
Linus Thuston, right, is led from the Neosho County courtroom in Erie on Sept. 4, 2024, after being sentenced to jail time for misdemeanor financial crimes. Thuston was on trial this week for felony perjury and misdemeanor witness intimidation charges, but jurors couldn't reach a verdict in the case. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
ERIE — The trial of former Neosho County prosecutor Linus Thuston ended this week when jurors couldn’t agree on whether he had lied under oath about meeting secretly with off-the-books confidential informants.
Thuston faced felony charges of perjury and misdemeanor charges of witness intimidation in the case. Branden Bell, a Lawrence attorney, did not disclose if he would seek a retrial. Bell didn’t return a phone call from Kansas Reflector.
The trial began Monday with jury selection in Erie, a town in Neosho County with a population of about 1,000 people. A handful of prospective jurors reacted in surprise when they learned Thuston would be the defendant.
Many of the prospective jurors said they knew Thuston personally. They had socialized with him, knew his son, lived next to him, taught him in high school, or had family members who had either received legal services from or been prosecuted by Thuston.
A woman said she harbored ill feelings because Thuston had refused to prosecute her abusive husband. The judge excused her from service and told her she was welcome to stay or leave.
“I don’t want to be in the same room,” she said as she headed to the door.
A man said he held a grudge because Thuston had called his wife “the worst teacher he ever had.” He was also free to go.
But most jurors asserted their ability to make a decision based solely on the facts presented in court, setting aside their personal experience or what they had read in news coverage.
Bell, the special prosecutor, asked if they knew someone who thinks they can talk their way out of anything.
“This case,” he said in opening arguments, “is about trying to lie your way out of trouble.”
Thuston is from Neosho County and has practiced law in the area for more than 30 years. He held the elected position of county attorney from 1996-2000 and again from 2012-2024. He retired last year, shortly before pleading guilty to minor financial crimes.
For years, he was surrounded by controversy. There were concerns about his willingness to hand out diversions for serious crimes, including in child sex cases, and a lack of accounting for how he used the diversion money. The sheriff reported that Thuston sexually extorted about 50 women into providing nude photos in exchange for legal services through his private practice. Thuston also prosecuted about a third of the women, the sheriff said. In 2022 and 2024, Thuston received minor disciplinary action from a state panel for ethics violations involving a conflict of interest and telling a woman she owed him oral sex.
None of those concerns resulted in criminal charges.
Instead, it was his testimony in a drug case last summer that landed him in legal trouble.
The trouble, as Bell put it, began on July 25, 2023, when Thuston went alone to meet a woman in her car. The woman then began sharing information with others about police activity and pending drug busts. Police believed Thuston had shared the confidential information with her.
Thuston offered a different explanation under oath.
“When the defendant is asked, ‘What is going on with you and this woman in this car, and then information starts getting out about confidential investigative information,’ the defendant claims, ‘I was meeting this woman as a confidential informant,’ ” Bell said.
Under scrutiny from attorneys, Thuston claimed to frequently meet with off-the-books confidential informants. When pressed, he identified several men he had met with alone to gather information. He claimed information from two of the men led to the arrest and conviction of a drug dealer.
“That’s not the end of the story, though,” Bell said.
He said Thuston “tried to get ahead of it.” He said Thuston called two of the men he had named and tried to convince them they had been an informant. Alarmed, one of the men called the sheriff’s office, which then opened an investigation.
“Honestly, if the defendant hadn’t made those phone calls, we probably wouldn’t be here,” Bell said.
According to a charging affidavit, which was made public over Thuston’s objections after Kansas Reflector petitioned the court for its release, all of the men Thuston named while under oath denied ever being an informant for Thuston.
“The defendant had a choice, and intentionally chose to lie,” Bell said.
Robert Myers, a defense attorney from Columbus, represented Thuston in this week’s trial. Myers asked the jury pool to consider whether they had ever had a conversation with someone — such as a spouse — who maybe remembered things a little bit differently than they did.
Myers offered a one-minute response to Bell’s opening remarks.
“You need to listen to the details of those witnesses and what’s actually said, not how it’s interpreted, not how I perceived it, but what actually transpired,” Myers said.
Michael Hole, who lives in Chanute, testified Monday that Thuston falsely identified him as an informant.
Hole lived next-door to a suspected drug dealer. He said Thuston approached him during an Easter egg hunt and asked if he would testify against his neighbor.
“I told him, not no, but f*** no,” Hole said.
Hole said Thuston had sent him to prison about 25 years ago, and that he doesn’t talk to cops.
“I said, ‘Dude, I’m not going to testify. I don’t give a f***,” Hole said.
The jury of six men and six women were unable to reach a verdict, according to a court document filed Thursday.