Special treatment from Wyandotte Co. DA Dupree for grandson of former BPU president? | Opinion
Robert Aaron Milan, the 46-year-old Wyandotte County man who according to his ex-girlfriend Alisha Murphy broke her arm on three separate occasions, has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated battery and is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.
But given Milan’s history of multiple domestic violence and drug charges and a gun charge, why did the office of District Attorney Mark Dupree offer him a plea deal that only requires him to serve probation?
He has been a registered sex offender since 1998, and was already on probation when he was charged with the aggravated battery of Murphy.
Murphy wonders if the fact that her ex is being offered probation might have something to do with the fact that Milan is the son of Dupree’s fellow KCK pastor, Robert L. Milan, and the grandson of the influential former Kansas City Board of Public Utilities president and longtime board member Robert L. Milan, Sr.
Neither Dupree nor his spokesman, Jonathan Carter, answered messages asking if the plea deal was the special treatment it looks like. Milan’s father didn’t return a message, either. But then, the person on whom responsibility for this case rests is not Pastor Milan, but DA Dupree.
Every time Murphy has called the DA’s office and asked to speak to a supervisor about her case, she says, she’s been transferred to another KCK pastor and BPU board member, Stevie Wakes, who also works for Dupree.
A $100,000 bond was originally set in the case, but if online records are correct, he seems to have been released from custody without paying anything.
On Thursday, Murphy called the victim advocate in Dupree’s office, Melanie Livengood, and recorded the call, as is legal in Kansas. During the call, Livengood told her Milan “already accepted that plea agreement, so I think that tomorrow will just be the formal part of it.”
Murphy said that given his publicly available criminal history, “he’s not presumptive probation but presumptive prison.”
“You can tell the judge how you feel,” Livengood told her, “and he will take that into consideration. But I will say, it’s very rare for a judge to set a sentence outside of what the agreement was.”
“I have his background, and there’s no way” he should be getting probation, Murphy said again. Livengood suggested that she could show up early for the sentencing hearing, and ask the assistant DA to explain it to her.
Murphy, who has also served time, on burglary charges, said she feels that the KCKPD saved her life by sending her to jail, because she was able to get clean there. At a December hearing, Milan’s attorney accused her of faking her injuries to get pain pills, though according to the medical records I’ve reviewed, Murphy’s injuries were serious.
In the victim impact statement she has filed with the court and plans to deliver in court on Friday, she wrote, “I was in agonizing pain for months. … Through it all, you showed absolutely no remorse. … Just a reminder, I am somebody” too. “I am somebody’s granddaughter, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s mother, sister, aunt, niece, cousin and friend.”
If the prosecutor or judge decides on Friday that probation is not the appropriate sentence after all, I’ll let you know.
