Great Bend ? A deputy sheriff involved in four accidents during chases over the past two years has been charged with vehicular homicide in one in which a motorcyclist was killed.

Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline filed the misdemeanor count on Wednesday against David Paden, an 11-year veteran with the Barton County sheriff’s office. Brian K. Frenzl, 40, of Great Bend, was killed last Sept. 1 in a collision with the deputy’s squad car.

Paden was making a U-turn on U.S. 281 while involved in pursuit of another vehicle, and Frenzl’s motorcycle crashed into the front of the squad car.

Rick Scheuffler, the Barton County attorney, referred the case to the attorney general’s office, citing a possible conflict of interest.

Sheriff Buck Causey and county officials took no immediate administrative action against Paden, who has a first court appearance on Feb. 27.

But during an interview, Causey said he “had some decisions to make” on Paden’s status with the department.

“That’s not to say, you understand, that he’ll still be on the road today, tonight or tomorrow,” Causey added. “All I was saying was that as we speak, he’s still on the road.”

In addition to vehicular homicide, Paden is charged with making an unlawful U-turn and operating a vehicle with unlawful tinting.

An investigation in September by the Kansas Highway Patrol found that windows in Paden’s patrol car were illegally tinted and improperly retrofitted to accommodate a police dog that he transported in it.

As a result, investigators noted, Paden would have been forced to lean out the driver’s window to avoid obstructions and see Frenzl’s motorcycle coming from behind.

Causey said Wednesday that the car was illegally tinted at the factory, and then the infraction was compounded when it was further tinted for the dog.

“It was certainly darker than the law allows,” Causey said.

In January 2002, a 16-year-old boy was killed when his truck hit a telephone pole during a chase that Paden initiated. Two months later another motorcyclist was injured after a chase in which the deputy was a participant, and last October a man was hurt when his car struck a tree during another chase that Paden initiated.