Indiana won’t return suspect to Kansas

Prosecutor says Topeka has no jurisdiction over hoax case

? A woman accused of misleading a couple into believing she was their missing daughter will not be returned to Kansas despite a judge’s ruling that her extradition was improper, an Indiana prosecutor said Wednesday.

Donna Lynette Walker, 35, has been held in Indiana since Sept. 25, when she was flown here from Topeka, Kan., aboard a state police plane.

A district court judge in Kansas ruled Tuesday that Walker should be returned because she had not exhausted her rights to appeal when Indiana authorities took her from the jail in Shawnee County, Kan.

But Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer said Indiana authorities had a valid governor’s warrant to hold Walker.

“A Kansas court has no jurisdiction over an Indiana matter. Donna Walker is a criminal defendant in a pending criminal case here in the state of Indiana, and I have no intention of returning her to the state of Kansas,” Meyer said Wednesday in a news release.

In Topeka, Meyer’s statement provoked an angry response from defense attorney Billy Rork.

“It’s a continuation of what has been a personal vendetta all along,” Rork said in an interview. “This is a clear example of abuse of prosecutorial authority. I can’t think of a clearer or better example.”

Rork said he would ask Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to intervene and threatened to seek criminal charges against Meyer and other Indiana officials responsible for Walker’s return to the state.

“I’m going to ask that criminal kidnapping charges be filed,” Rork said. “That’s what happened here — a kidnapping.”

Two days before Walker left Kansas, Shawnee County District Judge Nancy Parrish had ruled that Walker’s extradition to Indiana could go forward. Rork appealed the decision.

In a hearing Tuesday, Rork argued that Walker’s extradition was illegal. Parrish agreed that jail employees should not have offered Walker to Indiana officials so soon, but she said she was not sure how Walker could be returned now that she is in out-of-state custody.

Walker spent 56 days in the Shawnee County Jail after surrendering to authorities in Topeka on July 31.

Walker is accused of carrying out a hoax on the family of Shannon Marie Sherrill, who was 6 when she disappeared in 1986 from outside her mother’s home.

In Boone County, Walker faces charges of felony identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting. Rork has said Walker was mentally ill and believed she might have been the Sherrills’ daughter when she contacted the family in July.

Boone County Sheriff Dennis Brannon said Walker would not be sent back to Kansas without a judge’s order.

“Right now, she’s not going anyplace unless I am absolutely directed by a court,” Brannon said. “Even in that case, I don’t know if Kansas can make us take her back. I think they’ll have to come get her.”