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

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Two of the three lawyers who had been representing him in a “wrongful death” case filed by Pickert’s relatives have withdrawn from the case, and Jungerman, acting “pro se” (on behalf of himself, without counsel) recently filed a motion seeking a change of judge in that civil case.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

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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.