Print edition: 
As Occidental Management considered investing $2 million in December 2006 in Wild West World, the Wichita firm learned that the theme park's founder, Thomas Etheredge, still owed more than $260,000 in federal and state income taxes.
Occidental wanted Etheredge to acknowledge that he owed the money and to know what his plan was to pay the taxes.
The topic came up Thursday during Etheredge's securities fraud trial in Sedgwick County District Court when Gary Hamilton was on the witness stand.
Hamilton is an accountant who had done work for Etheredge for a number of years. He worked for him on a contract basis in late 2006 and then served as Wild West World's chief financial officer.
Steve Joseph, one of Etheredge's defense lawyers, asked Hamilton what the plan was as the park prepared to open in May 2007:
"Get the park opened, get cash flowing and pray for a miracle. Strike that!" Hamilton said, then added, "Start generating some income."
In the end, it didn't generate enough. Two months after it opened in May 2007, the $24 million park declared bankruptcy.
In charging Etheredge with nine counts of securities fraud, the state is trying to show that he misled investors in a number of ways, including not telling them that he owed back taxes, that he had two prior felony convictions — including one for securities fraud 20 years earlier — and that he misrepresented his prior business experience.
Occidental later opted not to buy 37.5 percent of the park. That much ownership of the park also would have required Occidental to be a guarantor on a Small Business Administration loan Etheredge had obtained to build the park.
In using Hamilton's testimony about Occidental, prosecutors were trying to show that investors with full knowledge of Etheredge's various difficulties wouldn't invest in the park. That was in contrast to those investors who did give Etheredge money but didn't have all the background information.
Rick Fleming, general counsel for the Kansas Securities Commissioner's Office, also used Hamilton's testimony to show that Etheredge paid close attention to details.
When Fleming asked Hamilton to describe Etheredge's role at Wild West World, Hamilton said, "Thomas is very hands on, (pays attention) to minute detail every day.
"He would spend the nights at Wild West World doing things he didn't have time to do during the day."
He said when the paving of the park's Main Street didn't go right and the work had to be redone, Etheredge grabbed a chair and watched part of the repaving.
Hamilton also testified that Etheredge didn't pay him $150,000 for contracted work done in 2006.
Thursday's testimony included defense cross-examination of Marvin Whitson, the uncle of Etheredge's wife, Cheryl. Whitson invested $150,000 in Wild West World.
Whitson said he knew that Etheredge had been in prison but acknowledged in previous testimony that he hadn't asked about all the details.
Thursday, Chris Joseph, who is co-defense counsel with his father, asked Whitson whether he would not have invested in the park if he had known more about Etheredge's prior convictions.
"No, I can't say that," Whitson said.
In further testimony from Whitson, Fleming said, "The question is not would have you changed your mind. The question is whether you would have invested the $150,000 if you had known at that time about his criminal history and about the restitution."
"Again, it would have been good information to have," Whitson said. "I would have asked more questions.
"I really don't think it would have (made a difference)."
