Watkins told detective his employee completed incorrect documents, prosecutors allege

Kansas Congressman Steve Watkins told a detective during a Feb. 10 interview that a staff member completed documents that listed an incorrect address for him, prosecutors alleged Monday.

The first-term Republican lawmaker faces several felony charges related to allegations of illegal voting, including a charge that he lied to investigators on Feb. 10.

The Shawnee County District Attorney’s office also alleged that lawyers for Watkins asked to sit in on any law enforcement interviews of his employees, a request prosecutors rejected.

The new information from prosecutors came in response to an effort by Watkins’ attorneys to remove Shawnee County DA Mike Kagay from the case. Lawyers for the congressman say the timing of the criminal charges – coming ahead of a contested Republican primary – are politically motivated.

In a 30-page court filing, Deputy District Attorney Brett Watson said Watkins failed to provide facts showing a conflict of interest. The filing also provided the most extensive timeline yet of the investigation that led to the decision to file charges against him last week.

Watkins used a Topeka UPS store as his registration address for a 2019 local election and allegedly voted in the wrong city council district. Sources say Watkins was living with his parents at the time, but used the UPS address to obscure that fact.

After the investigation began in December 2019, lawyers for Watkins told Shawnee County Sheriff’s Detective Stephanie Dicken in early January that “this situation is unintentional due to the Defendant’s ‘transient’ lifestyle given his military service,” Watson’s filing says.

Dicken met with Watkins and his counsel on Feb. 10, 2020, after several weeks of attempting to arrange an interview, according to Watson. Watkins is charged with lying to Dicken that day.

“During the February 10 interview, the Defendant denied completing the documents in question that had the incorrect address listed. He informed Detective Dicken that one of his ‘staffers’ completed the forms, but he did not know which one,” the filing says.

The filing doesn’t explicitly name the documents. Watkins is charged with making a false statement on a form for an advanced ballot, a felony, and failing to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of an address change, a misdemeanor.

Watkins’ office did not immediately comment when asked if one of the employees incorrectly filled out Watkins’ voter registration form incorrectly.

Watkins’ absentee ballot for the 2019 election was mailed to the Washington address of his chief of staff, Jim Joice, a detail first reported by the Topeka Capital-Journal last year.

Joice has previously said the ballot was sent to his apartment to avoid it getting lost in the congressional mail system. In Washington, Watkins sleeps in his Capitol Hill office.

Reached by phone Monday, Joice said explicitly that he “did not” fill out Watkins’ registration form. But he did not comment on whether another employee had.

The mail ballot request form and voter registration form are separate documents.

Lawyers for Watkins declined to comment. Watkins’ attorney Todd Graves, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a court filing last week:

“The timing and nature of this prosecution are remarkable. In an unprecedented interference in the electoral politics of a Kansas Congressional race, the District Attorney waited five months after an investigation to file a three-count felony complaint against a sitting member of Congress on the eve of absentee voting and 20 days away from his contested primary election.”

Watkins’ attorneys in mid-June sought a meeting with prosecutors to discuss subpoenas for a list of the congressman’s employees during the time when the documents were completed, according to Monday’s filing by prosecutors. The attorneys said their first availability was June 30 and that they wouldn’t produce any of the requested material until after the meeting.

At the June 30 meeting, lawyers for Watkins expressed concern with the timing of the investigation and asked for a delay “so as not to affect the election,” according to Watkins’ filing. The filing says Watkins’ lawyers were assured that prosecutors wouldn’t rush an investigation – or cause delays – simply because it was an election year.

Watkins’ lawyers also requested to sit in on any interviews with the congressman’s employees. According to the filing, they asserted they were entitled to be present because they represented Watkins in his capacity as their employer. Prosecutors said that was up to the sheriff’s office.

On July 10, Watkins provided the names of two employees who “may have relevant information,” according to the filing, which doesn’t identify the employees.

The filing says both employees were represented by the same attorney and that on July 14, the sheriff’s office notified prosecutors that the attorney would be on a two-week vacation and wasn’t available.

The sheriff’s office also provided prosecutors with a charging affidavit that morning, the filing says. Prosecutors filed charges that afternoon.

Watkins’ legal team alleges Kagay should be disqualified from the case in part because of his use of the same direct mail vendor as Watkins’ primary opponent, State Treasurer Jake LaTurner. Both men have used the Overland Park vendor Singularis.

“The fact that Defendant has political opponents who essentially shop at the same store as the District Attorney does not impugn the District Attorney’s motives or his fairness and it does not establish that the Defendant is unlikely to be treated fairly as the case progresses,” the filing says.

In his filing, Watson wrote that Kagay has met LaTurner just once in passing, sometime in 2018 or 2019 and that they haven’t discussed the investigation or any political issues.

This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 4:17 PM.