City of Topeka, Shawnee County continue fight over fugitive's medical bills

A lengthy legal saga between the city of Topeka and Shawnee County over which must pay the medical bills of a man shot by police will head to trial after a divided Kansas Court of Appeals panel reversed a Shawnee County judge’s ruling Friday.

While on the lam from Colorado authorities, Jesse Dimmick stole a minivan in Geary County on Sept. 25, 2009, and drove east on Interstate 70. After hitting stop sticks deployed by officers, the van came to a stop in the western Shawnee County community of Dover.

Dimmick then broke into the home of two Dover newlyweds and held them hostage at knifepoint. When the fugitive fell asleep, the couple escaped from their home and law enforcement officers went in to arrest Dimmick.

As a Shawnee County sheriff’s deputy and Topeka Police sergeant were arresting Dimmick, the sergeant’s rifle accidentally discharged. Dimmick was taken to Stormont Vail Hospital, where he spent more than two weeks recovering and accruing more than $40,000 in medical bills.

Kansas law requires law enforcement agencies to pay for the medical care of individuals they are holding or detaining. But both Topeka Police officers and Shawnee County deputies — along with Kansas Highway Patrol troopers — guarded Dimmick while he was at the hospital.

As a result, it is unclear whose custody he was in.

Rather than hold a trial to determine which law enforcement agency should pay Stormont Vail, Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks issued a judgment declaring Shawnee County financially responsible.

The question was then appealed to a three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals which, on Friday, reversed Hendricks’ ruling and returned the case to Shawnee County District Court for a trial.

“The district court erred in granting summary judgment for Stormont Vail and against Shawnee County based on the stipulated facts,” wrote Judges G. Gordon Atcheson and Kim Schroeder.

A third judge, Michael Buser, dissented. When Dimmick was taken to the hospital, he was in the custody of only one law enforcement officer: a Shawnee County deputy. As a result, Buser argued Hendricks “did not err” and was right to hold the county responsible.

“Moreover, on the two later occasions when Dimmick was taken to Stormont Vail for treatment, he was also in the custody of Shawnee County law enforcement officers,” Buser wrote.

Buser’s dissent notwithstanding, the two-to-one ruling in favor of the county returns the case to Shawnee County District Court for a trial to determine which law enforcement agency owes Stormont Vail.

As for Dimmick, he pleaded guilty in 2013 to second-degree murder for stabbing a man in the neck in Aurora, Colo., the crime that led to his police chase along I-70. He was also convicted in Shawnee County of kidnapping, among other charges, and sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison.