photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Former Douglas County DA Suzanne Valdez addresses the Kansas Supreme Court at her disciplinary hearing Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

Topeka — Suzanne Valdez’s tumultuous, singular term as Douglas County’s district attorney ended three months ago, but on Tuesday she found herself facing the Kansas Supreme Court for a disciplinary matter that arose during her very first months in office, back in 2021.

It’s a position, she told the court in a sometimes shaky and tearful voice, that she never expected, even in her “craziest nightmares,” to be in. While acknowledging that she had made “a grave mistake” and offered an apology, she also sought to provide mitigating context for behavior.

The justices, who oversee attorney discipline in the state, heard oral arguments from Valdez’s attorney and a special prosecutor concerning what punishment is warranted for Valdez, who was found by a panel for the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys to have engaged in “undignified or discourteous conduct” toward Douglas County Chief Judge James McCabria during the COVID pandemic when the court system was considering how to safely conduct jury trials.

Valdez and her attorney, Stephen Angermayer, argued to the five justices hearing the case that Valdez deserved at most an informal admonition.

Kimberly Bonifas, the special prosecutor, told the court that public censure should be the least punishment.

The justices, who asked numerous questions during the hourlong hearing, including whether Valdez’s comments about McCabria occurred in the context of an adjudicative process and whether they were protected by the First Amendment, have now taken the matter under advisement and will issue a written ruling at some point.

The disciplinary matter stemmed from McCabria publicly stating during the pandemic that he had consulted with all stakeholders to ensure safety at trials. Valdez, however, disputed that she was consulted, which led to her issuing a news release and social media posts in which she implied that McCabria was untruthful and “insecure” and sexist.

The panel last year found that Valdez violated “her duty to the legal system, the legal profession, and the public as a result of her comments about Judge McCabria” in the press release and in the Facebook post. It found that she did so knowingly and that her misconduct “caused actual injury to the legal system, the legal profession and the public.”

The panel also found that she “impugned Judge McCabria’s character in a publicly issued press release and by referring to him as an ‘insecure man,'” though not by name.

This is a developing story and will be updated.