TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Kansas Supreme Court has reversed a Topeka real estate developer’s conviction for threatening another man, saying a law used to convict him criminalizes free speech.
The court based its decision on its October ruling that struck down a provision of the criminal threat law that made it a crime to speak with reckless disregard for whether one’s comments would cause fear. The court found that the law could make some protesters’ comments illegal, violating free speech guarantees.
A Shawnee County District Court jury in 2016 had convicted Kent Lindemuth of making a criminal threat to Michael Matthews, the owner of an Oklahoma trucking company.
In 2014, Matthews told police Lindemuth threatened to kill him over the phone multiple times as he attempted from Oklahoma to retrieve a trailer cab Lindemuth had towed.
The Shawnee County jury convicted Lindemuth of one count of criminal threat for allegedly threatening Matthews before he left Oklahoma. Lindemuth appealed the case to the Kansas Court of Appeals, which in 2018 reversed the trial court’s ruling, saying it had failed to instruct jurors. The Supreme Court agreed that the conviction should be reversed, but not because of the jury instruction.
The court on Friday said Lindemuth “simply spoke in the heat of argument and the result of unthinking rage” and, therefore, did not make an “intentional threat.”
The Shawnee County District Attorney’s office can try Lindemuth again or dismiss charges.
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Andy Tsubasa Field is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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