A county prosecutor in northeastern Kansas says she lacks the time and the resources to try what she calls “the biggest sexual assault case in the history of the State of Kansas.” Jackson County Attorney Shawna Miller has requested a special prosecutor.
The Holton Recorder reports Miller has asked a former Shawnee County deputy district attorney to handle the prosecution of Holton resident Jacob Ewing.
The newspaper reports Miller recently asked the Jackson County Commission for $20,000 in county funds for the services of Jacqie Spradling as special prosecutor.
Ewing faces six sex-related criminal cases in Jackson County District Court. He has pleaded not guilty to a total of 19 counts in alleged attacks on five women and a teenage girl. The first trial in the case is set to begin in March.
Spradling is a former chief deputy district attorney with the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office, where she had worked from 2008 until resigning last October. She also worked at the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office for 15 years, from 1992 to 2007.