• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« The Star pulls out all the stops on an investigative story — and passes on an important election story
UMKC’s response to latest scandal beats the hell out of its stonewalling four years ago »

David Jungerman: Back to his old, dumb ways — filing his own motions

November 20, 2018 by jimmycsays

I checked Monday on progress in the criminal and civil cases involving David Jungerman in the slaying last year of lawyer Thomas Pickert, and what I found was two slow-moving cases — a situation that didn’t surprise me, given the fact he’s a wealthy defendant with high-priced attorneys.

Another thing I found was that Jungerman appears to be following his old, misguided, legal instincts:

Two of the three lawyers who had been representing him in a “wrongful death” case filed by Pickert’s relatives have withdrawn from the case, and Jungerman, acting “pro se” (on behalf of himself, without counsel) recently filed a motion seeking a change of judge in that civil case.

Jungerman’s decision to represent himself in another civil suit in the summer of 2017 was a factor, I’m convinced, in the jury returning a $5.75 million verdict against him…Pickert represented the plaintiff, a homeless man whom Jungerman had shot, and a few months later, Pickert was shot dead in the front yard of his Brookside home. In all likelihood, Jungerman shot him from across the street, while sitting in a white van he had driven from his home in Raytown.

In his recent “pro se” filing, Jungerman wrote, “It appears you, Judge (Kevin) Harrell, have decided to revert back to your background as a prosecutor by crippling defendant from having any funds to provide an effective first-degree murder defense.”

Jungerman is pissed off because Judge Harrell appointed a “receiver” to take control of all Jungerman’s property and other assets, which Jungerman went to extreme lengths to disperse in order to make then inaccessible to authorities. One key step he took was removing himself as executor of the “Jungerman Family Irrevocable Trust” and installing his daughter as executor.

Jungerman is believed to be worth more than $30 million. His assets include several thousand acres of farmland in Bates and Vernon counties.

Judge Harrell has not ruled on Jungerman’s change-of-judge motion, but I doubt he’ll grant it. For one thing, Jungerman, a rigid libertarian, has a way of alienating people — which prompts some who have dealt with him to dig in more firmly.

Trial in the wrongful death case is scheduled to start Dec. 2, 2019. The plaintiffs in that case are Pickert’s widow, Dr. Emily Riegel, and his parents, Allan and JoAnn Pickert.

**

In Jungerman’s first-degree murder case, a “case management conference” was held Monday morning before Judge David Byrn.

Dan Ross

Tim Dollar

The conference, in open court, started promptly at 8:30. Assembled in front of the bench were Jungerman; his attorney Dan Ross; and three prosecuting attorneys — Tim Dollar, Dan Nelson and Lauren Whiston.

Nelson and Whiston are employees of the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. Dollar, a former assistant prosecutor, is a private attorney who was brought in by the prosecutor’s office.

A handful of people were in the audience, including Jungerman’s daughter Angelia Buesing, who lives in Harwood, MO, 100 miles south of Kansas City in Vernon County.

Jungerman was dressed, as he has been for all his courtroom appearances, in an orange “Detention Center” jumpsuit. His white hair was uncombed; he had a couple of days’ stubble of whiskers; and his collar was up on one side, down on the other. His shoulders were slightly stooped, and occasionally he leaned in to hear what the lawyers were saying.

It appeared, in general, that the 80 years he has lived were pressing down on him. When I saw him in court in Vernon County on another matter early this year, he was clean shaven, his hair was combed, and he was wearing crisp khakis and a white dress shirt.

…Assembled before Judge Byrn, the lawyers argued over prosecutorial access to some of Jungerman’s bank records. I couldn’t follow all the ins and outs, but defense attorney Dan Ross was basically seeking to ensure the prosecution took appropriate and proper legal steps to gain access to them. He appeared to get most of what he wanted.

Nicole Forsythe

Another development yesterday was that Nicole Forsythe, another lawyer who had been representing Jungerman, withdrew as co-counsel. Outside the courtroom, Forsythe said she withdrew because she was involved in the civil case (on Jungerman’s side, of course) and the two cases had been getting “conflated” over Jungerman’s finances.

While I was speaking with Forsythe and Ross, a sheriff’s deputy brought Jungerman out of the courtroom. He approached us, and I leaned forward and asked if he remembered me from Vernon County, where I had spoken with him extensively outside the courtroom.

He smiled but looked perplexed — which didn’t hurt my feelings at all. I’m just a pesky blogger who’s doing all he can to see justice served in one of the most shocking and repulsive murders in the history of Jackson County.

The case is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 25.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on November 20, 2018 at 10:58 am gayle

    Just wondering why you threw in that political reference (“a rigid libertarian “) when it really had nothing to do with the rest of the sentence.


    • on November 20, 2018 at 12:26 pm jimmycsays

      If I had to do it again, I’d just use the adjectives rigid and narrow-minded and omit the noun.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 563 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 563 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: