Indictment: Former Highway Patrol Trooper Used Excessive Force

U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Kansas
28 June 2017
[Non-automotive content removed.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOPEKA, KAN. - A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging a former Kansas Highway Patrol trooper with violating an individual’s civil rights by using excessive force.

The indictment was announced by Thomas E. Wheeler, II, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Tom Beall, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas and Darrin E. Jones, Special Agent in Charge of the Kansas City Field Office of the FBI.

The indictment alleges that James Carson, 43, Independence, Kan., while acting under color of law as a trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol, used excessive force amounting to punishment against a victim identified in court records as R.T. The indictment further alleges that Carson’s use of excessive force resulted in bodily injury to R.T. The crime is alleged to have occurred June 25, 2013, in Labette County, Kan.

If convicted on the civil rights charge, Carson faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag and Trial Attorney Rose Gibson of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting.

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.