Kansas volunteer charged with using county owned excavator to assist with tornado cleanup

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WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — “No good deed goes unpunished,” an old saying goes.
And, in the telling of a Kansas state representative, that adage applies to a case of what he calls “prosecutorial overreach.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Brett Fairchild accused the Reno County district attorney of unfairly going after a good Samaritan who was helping the county clean up from the Plevna tornado last May. That storm destroyed nine homes and damaged about 20 others in the tiny town of less than 100 people.

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Cody Royer, a volunteer firefighter from Rice County, came to Reno County with his father on May 24, just six days after the tornado hit.
“I was just trying to do a good deed,” Royer said. “That was how I looked at it — people in need that wouldn’t have been able to make the progress they did without all the volunteers down there.”
Fairchild said someone told them they could use a county excavator in the cleanup work. Royer said they used the machine that morning and part of the afternoon.But unbeknownst to Royer, according to Fairchild, that person didn’t have the authority to give him permission.
“They didn’t think they were doing anything wrong,” Fairchild said. “They were just trying to help Reno County clean up from that tornado.”
When a county employee showed up, she “started yelling” at Royer and told him to get off the excavator, Fairchild said.
Royer got off, according to the representative, and law enforcement soon arrived on scene.

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In July, Royer was charged with criminal deprivation of property, a misdemeanor. But Fairchild said District Attorney Thomas Stanton is now threatening to increase the charge to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in order to get Royer to make a plea deal.

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A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday. The state is trying to delay the case, but the defense has objected.

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