Print edition: 
For the next two to three weeks the state will try to show that Thomas Etheredge misled investors and misrepresented himself in trying to convince people to give him money for his failed amusement park, Wild West World.
Etheredge's trial began Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court. He is charged with nine counts of misleading private investors.
Most of those who invested in the theme park that stayed open only two months before closing and going bankrupt were family members or friends of Etheredge.
"This case involves a dream that always seemed to require a few more dollars... in fact, a few hundred thousand dollars more," Rick Fleming, general counsel for the Kansas Securities Commissioner's Office, told the jurors during his opening statement.
For the first time in 39 years of law practice, defense lawyer Steve Joseph opted to delay his opening statement to the jury until after the prosecution had rested its case.
"We think it'll give us a tactical advantage," said Joseph, who, along with his son Chris Joseph, is representing Etheredge.
The judge also came up with a personal first.
For the first time in his long career on the bench, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess agreed to allow jurors to take notes during the trial, expected to include plenty of numbers and detailed testimony.
Burgess even gave the jurors steno pads.
Burgess said one reason that he had never allowed jurors to take notes was that he felt they would be distracted.
In his instructions to the jurors, he told them they could refer to their notes during deliberations, but that the notes weren't evidence and couldn't leave the courtroom.
Fleming gave an hourlong opening statement for the prosecution.
He told the jurors that the state isn't accusing Etheredge of stealing money, but that it maintains that he either omitted or misrepresented the facts to "induce" investors into giving him money.
"Half a truth is often a great lie," Fleming said, quoting Benjamin Franklin.
The charges stem from Etheredge struggling to raise money from early 2005 through 2007 to complete the Wild West World theme park in Park City.
He opened the park in May 5, 2007, and closed it July 9, 2007, filing for bankruptcy the same day. He claims to have spent $24 million on the park over a three-year period and cites rainy weather and construction cost overruns for the park's failure.
To prove its case, among the facts that the prosecution must show are that investors in the failed Wild West World theme park in Park City wouldn't have given Etheredge money for the venture if they had known he had been convicted twice on fraud charges.
Gary Fulton, a special investigator for the Kansas Securities Commissioner's Office and one of two prosecution witnesses to testify Wednesday, gave details about the convictions.
The first was in 1979, when Etheredge was convicted of felony theft for bouncing a check in Bastrop County, Texas. He served a little less than six months in prison.
The second one is known as the Bethany Trust, which resulted in Etheredge pleading no contest to nine securities fraud charges on Jan. 21, 1987. He was found guilty by a Wyandotte County judge and served four years in prison.
Kansas' law at the time didn't require Etheredge to pay back the investors the $787,000 owed to them if he did his prison time.
Marvin Whitson, uncle of Etheredge's wife, Cheryl, also testified that he invested $150,000 in Wild West World.
Whitson said that he was aware that Etheredge had served time in prison when he gave Etheredge the money.
Asked by Fleming what made him want to invest $150,000 with Etheredge, Whitson said, "My niece married him. He had prior business experience. There was no reason not to do it."
Asked if he would have invested the money if he had known Etheredge didn't pay back more than $750,000 to investors in the Bethany Trust case, Whitson said, "I guess it would have been nice to know. It would have invited me to ask more questions."
Pressed further on whether he would have invested knowing about the money not being paid back, Whitson said, "I probably still would have invested with him. I thought his debts were paid to society."
Whitson also testified that he thought Wild West World was a good investment because research had shown a theme park would work well in Wichita.
"He'd (Etheredge) had many studies done," Whitson said.
Numerous documents were signed by Whitson and Etheredge, including ones that said Whitson would get a 25 to 50 percent "bonus" in addition to the amount owed to him.
One document that Whitson signed with Etheredge included the phrase "security offering."
Whitson acknowledged he didn't know what that term meant.
"I signed it on faith," Whitson said.
