Should Kansas examine its ‘stand your ground’ laws? Commissioners clash over audit

A year after 17-year-old Cedric Lofton died in custody, Sedgwick County commissioners remain divided over whether to seek an audit of the state self-defense laws used to justify not charging county employees who fatally restrained the teen.

Commissioners clashed Wednesday over whether to follow through on a recommendation from a juvenile justice task force to look into whether the “stand your ground laws” cited by District Attorney Marc Bennett were being appropriately applied. Under these laws, people who are threatened aren’t required to retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves.

Lofton was held down by five corrections employees for nearly 45 minutes as they struggled to handcuff him after Wichita police chose not to transport him to the hospital for treatment.

The task force was charged with recommending changes to address the systemic failures that led to the Black teen being restrained on the concrete floor of a county facility while in the throes of a mental health crisis.

“Without the stand your ground law, we have potentially people who are truly victims of, say, domestic violence, that will potentially be charged with very long, difficult, felony-type crimes,” said Commissioner Jim Howell, who opposes adding the state audit to the county’s legislative priorities.

Howell said Lofton, whose foster father called 911 on Sept. 24, 2021 requesting mental health treatment, never should have been taken the Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center.

“The presumption behind this thing here is that people in JIAC murdered Cedric Lofton,” Howell said. “That’s the narrative. And they got away with it because of the stand your ground law.

“The fact that this is on this list from the task force, in my opinion, is not an appropriate goal in our legislative platform. I wholeheartedly disagree with it being on here.”

“I think it’s absolutely a necessity,” Commissioner Lacey Cruse responded. “This is a post-audit to examine the implications. This isn’t to repeal it. This is to determine what it means. How are they standing their ground when he’s on his stomach, handcuffed in a cell? How is that standing your ground? I think that’s what we’re talking about here.”

Cruse said the proposed review, which would be conducted by the nonpartisan audit arm of the Kansas Legislature, would examine whether the law has been properly applied in cases of police killings and in-custody deaths.

“This child died in our custody, and something needs to be done to examine the case in which our district attorney decided he wasn’t going to press charges,” Cruse said.

Commissioner Sarah Lopez said she’d need more information before agreeing to request a state audit.

“I agree that we need to look into this maybe a little bit more before it goes on our final platform,” Lopez said.

“It’s got to be more than one case. We can’t base it all off of just one incident. We’d have to look at, as a total, what this does. What it does in our community.”

Chair David Dennis said he’s not ready to make it a legislative priority until he has a chance to speak with Bennett about the implications of a post-audit.

Since assuming office in 2012, Bennett has declined to pursue charges against officers involved in 16 of 19 police killings, citing “stand your ground laws.”

Civil rights attorneys representing Lofton’s family have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit blaming the teen’s death on inaction and indifference by Wichita and Sedgwick County leadership.

All defendents named in the suit, including the five county employees who restrained Lofton, have filed motions to dismiss.

“None of the defendants, individuals or institutions have shown even the faintest sign or expression of responsibility, remorse or compassion for the event or family’s loss or the loss of this child’s life at their hands,” attorney Steven Hart told The Eagle last week.