LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Prosecutors are trying to decide how to proceed after an appellate agreed that self-incriminating statements made by a teen in a Lawrence rape investigation should be tossed, finding that the interrogation was “almost like a therapy session.”
The Kansas Court of Appeals agreed this month with a Douglas County judge who found that the high school student’s 2017 statements to police were not made “of a free and independent will” and couldn’t be used against him, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
The appellate court noted that the teen was encouraged to let out everything he’d been “holding inside” and was not initially told he was suspected of rape. His only prior contact with law enforcement had been a mentor-like relationship with a school resource officer.
Court documents say the interrogation went on for nearly four hours before one of the officers told the boy she was going to submit a report to prosecutors and suggested that “we do kinda need to tell your mom what’s going on.” The teen was later charged with 14 felonies, including eight counts of rape, and two misdemeanors.
A spokeswoman for Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson, said Thursday that Branson and his staff were still reviewing the court’s opinion.
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