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

In the hubbub of knee-replacement surgery, the Kansas City mayor’s race and Frank White’s self-immolation as Jackson County executive, I’ve been derelict in writing about Public Enemy No. 1…none other than pop-’em-up-shoot-’em down David Jungerman.

Today I went to the courthouse and checked out the latest filings in the criminal and civil cases pending against Jungerman in the October 2017 killing of Kansas City attorney Thomas Pickert.

From all indications, Jungerman is very pleased with himself because, from his jail cell, he’s doing what he loves doing best — making everyone in his sphere miserable.

That includes not just Pickert’s family members but also his own attorneys and even his own daughter, who spent nine days in jail after the judge in the civil, wrongful-death case held his daughter in contempt of court for failing to heed his orders.

The daughter, Angelia Buesing, was jailed from Feb. 26 to March 7 by Judge Kevin Harrell for refusing to turn over financial records the judge had ordered her to surrender. Apparently, Buesing didn’t care for confinement because on the 7th, Harrell ordered her released after determining she “has begun to cure her discovery deficiencies.”

(Got to love the legalese, don’t you? He could have said she “started getting the message through her thick skull,” but he chose to exhibit judicial temperament.)

The civil case — filed by Pickert’s widow, Dr. Emily Riegel and his parents — is a veritable legal slog that will turn on the financial records. Jungerman is believed to be worth more than $30 million, but sorting out his assets, which include thousands of acres of farmland in southwest Missouri, is proving to be extremely challenging. Not to mention that Jungerman and his family members are throwing up every possible road block.

The finances also play a significant role in the first-degree murder case, but a convincing case conceivably could be made without a mountain of financial evidence because the state has a mountain of circumstantial evidence. That evidence includes video that shows Pickert’s distinctive, white van traveling to and from his home in Raytown to Pickert’s home in Brookside the morning Pickert was shot outside his house.

In the one interview he gave police, Jungerman said the van did not move from his property that day.

Here are the major developments in the murder case:

:: The start of trial, originally set for last month, has been pushed forward to early September.

:: As I reported in December, Jungerman filed a motion, which the state did not object to, for a mental competency evaluation. The result of that evaluation was filed on March 12, but unlike almost all other filings, it is not open to the public. I have to assume, however, that psychiatrists determined Jungerman was competent to stand trial because the criminal case appears to be moving forward without alteration.

Dan Ross

:: For a period of less than 24 hours, Jungerman wanted to fire his criminal attorney, Daniel Ross. On Jan. 23, he filed a hand-written “motion to discharge attorney.” In the motion, he said, among other things, he had paid Ross $137,500 even though Ross had failed to produce “any major trial preparation.”

“Defendant doubts Mr. Ross will be willing to refund those funds,” Jungerman astutely noted.

He and Ross must have kissed and made up, however, because the next morning Ross filed a formal motion, obviously with Jungerman’s approval, to withdraw the motion to discharge.

:: The goofiest part of the discharge motion was Jungerman’s contention that he had pushed Ross to get the prosecutor’s office to file second-degree murder charges against one of the police detectives who investigated the Pickert case, Bonita Cannon.

Jungerman’s beef with Cannon is that she “included fake information on the probable cause statement” — the court filing that lays out the gist of the state’s case. Jungerman doesn’t say exactly why Cannon should be charged with murder — or whose murder — but the reader is left to presume that Jungerman is contending that she killed Pickert and then attempted to frame Jungerman.

…Yeah, you gotta watch these damn detectives. Sometimes they kill witnesses and plant guns on them, and sometimes they just kill lawyers and try to pin the blame on a guy sitting at home in Raytown watching TV.