photo by: Journal-World File

Pictured clockwise from top left: Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden, District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, Chief Judge James McCabria, former Senior Assistant District Attorney Alice Walker, former Chief Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple, former Deputy District Attorney David Melton, Judge Blake Glover, Judge Stacey Donovan, Judge Mark Simpson and Judge Amy Hanley.

Six of Douglas County District Court’s nine judges are now named as witnesses for District Attorney Suzanne Valdez’s disciplinary complaint hearing next week, and the county’s chief judge says they’ve made arrangements for other judges to cover their duties while they’re testifying.

As the Journal-World has reported, the complaint against Valdez, filed by special prosecutor Kimberly Bonifas, alleges that Valdez called Douglas County Chief Judge James McCabria a liar and a sexist, implied that he was racist, sent him inappropriate texts and yelled and cursed about him to the extent that multiple attorneys in her office resigned under the stress. Bonifas had already named McCabria and three other Douglas County District Court judges — Amy Hanley, Blake Glover and Mark Simpson — as witnesses for the disciplinary hearing, and in a filing on Friday she named two more judges as “aggravating witnesses”: Sally Pokorny and Stacey Donovan.

According to the Kansas Supreme Court rulebook, an aggravating witness is called in a court proceeding to testify about additional considerations that may justify an increase in the discipline that’s imposed in a case.

McCabria told the Journal-World in an email Tuesday afternoon that the District Court judges who have been called to testify at the hearing have “made arrangements for another available judge to cover as needed.” The three judges who aren’t named as witnesses in the case are Catherine Theisen and Carl Folsom III, who were both sworn in in December of 2022, and Paul Klepper, who oversees the Juvenile Division.

Valdez last week also filed a list of “mitigating witnesses,” who will testify about considerations that could justify a reduction in any discipline that’s imposed. Her list names Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, former Douglas County Senior Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Vrana, and three other attorneys.

The hearing for Valdez’s disciplinary complaint is scheduled for Oct. 12 and 13 in Topeka and will be open to the public.