The mother of a child – who a Cowley County jury ruled was molested by a family friend – says the state supreme court made a mistake in overturning his conviction.
As NewsCow reported Sept. 12, a convicted sex offender, 41-year-old Loarn Earl Fitzgerald II, was released from a Kansas Dept. of Corrections facility after his most recent conviction was overturned due to a filing error by the state following an appeal from defense attorneys.
In June 2014, Fitzgerald was convicted by a jury of aggravated criminal sodomy involving a child under 14. A month later he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
But now he’s a free man.
“Not only did my child get molested, but she also got victimized by the Kansas Court of Appeals over one number — one number — as a technicality,” said the mother of the victim, Katie Leonard, in a phone interview this week.
Fitzgerald appealed the conviction and his attorneys argued he had been convicted under the wrong statute. Basically, Fitzgerald’s conviction and subsequent life sentence were overturned on a technicality.
Both an appeals court and the supreme court ruled the conviction reversible due to insufficient evidence. Former county attorney and now Cowley County Judge Chris Smith was the prosecutor in the case. The supreme court overturned the conviction in a ruling last month.
Leonard said she has no issue with local officials who worked the case.
“They all did a great job,” she said. “We all thought this was over with… I can’t say the ones there in Ark City failed her, because I don’t believe that. They worked their butts off to get him into court and get him charged the way he needed to be charged.”
Leonard said her daughter is aware Fitzgerald, who remains a convicted sex offender based on a 2002 conviction in another Kansas county, has been released.
“She does know,” Leonard said of her daughter. “She’s very aware of what’s going on. Does she agree with the decision that they made? No. She says that’s a very unfair decision and that he shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets.”
Leonard said she and her daughter have moved out of state since Fitzgerald’s conviction. She added that neither her or her daughter, now 14, feel in danger. Instead, they fear for others.
“I don’t feel my daughter is in danger right now, but I just feel other children, wherever he may go, they will be in danger. I can’t help but feel that way. I just want everyone to know to keep your kids close, because you don’t know where he’s at.”
