Before Amber Peery is sentenced for crimes linked to the crash deaths of three Girl Scouts, her attorneys ask that they be able to hear more than 70 phone call recordings and see more than 20 videos taken of her talking to various people at the Shawnee County Jail.
District Attorney Mike Kagay’s office shared those last week with Peery’s defense team, which then filed a motion asking that Perry’s sentencing hearing — set for 10 a.m. Thursday — be postponed until they’ve reviewed them.
“Defense counsel is unable to open the files and does not know which specific recording will be played by the State,” the motion said. “Defense counsel must review all of the recordings in order to be properly prepared for sentencing.”
Prosecutors don’t object to Perry’s sentencing’s being postponed, the motion said.
The system involved notifies Shawnee County Jail inmates making phone calls at the front end of each call that they are being recorded, said Tim Phelps, the jail’s deputy director. That system’s been in place since at least 2002, he said.
600-plus have signed online petition asking for mercy for Amber Peery
Defense attorney Vanessa M. Riebli filed last week’s motion seeking to postpone the sentencing hearing for Peery, 34, who was convicted Aug. 15 of felonies linked to the October 2022 Kansas Turnpike crash deaths of three Girl Scouts.
Deputy Shawnee County District Attorney Will Manly filed a motion last week asking District Judge Jessica Heinen to deny the defense’s request that it be allowed to admit as evidence for the sentencing hearing a change.org petition signed by more than 600 people asking for mercy on behalf of Amber Peery.
“Amber is a devoted mother who has always strived to protect, cherish, and empower her children to lead strong, healthy, and productive lives,” the petition says. “She was a stay-at-home parent for many years before seeking employment within her children’s school district so she could be on the same schedule as them.”
Amber Peery has been employed since July 18, 2022, by Auburn-Washburn USD 437, first in reception/attendance for Washburn Rural Middle School and more recently as registrar for that school, according to information the district provided The Capital-Journal free of charge in response to a Kansas Open Records Act request.
Admitting the petition as evidence would be inappropriate, Manly’s motion said.
“It is not persuasive that the Defendant can produce 600 names of persons from the Internet who purportedly signed an online petition,” it said. “Billions of people on Earth have access to the Internet.”
A brief examination of change.org reveals many laughable petitions, Manly added.
More importantly, Manly wrote, American courts don’t act in response to the requests of mobs.
“Suppose a crowd of 600 people gathered outside the Shawnee County Courthouse,” he wrote. “Suppose they arrived, armed with pitchforks and rope. Suppose they presented the district judge with a petition, announcing their demand that the Defendant — found guilty of killing three children — be brought to justice, as the crowd envisions it. Would it be proper for this Court to consider that crowd’s petition?”
What else does the motion by Amber Peery’s attorneys say?
In Riebli’s motion seeking postponement of Peery’s sentencing, she also said she learned last week that a letter had been sent to attorneys for the families of Peery’s victims in civil litigation related to the case “disclosing the existence of a second video of the car accident that was not provided to the defense.”
“Upon information and belief, the video has operational data of the truck embedded into the video,” the motion said. “Defense counsel does not yet have a copy of the video. Upon receipt, counsel needs time to consult with its expert as to the data contained in the video to be prepared for the pending defense motions and sentencing hearing.”
Riebli and Tom Bath Jr., Peery’s other defense attorney, filed a motion Aug. 29 seeking a new trial for her while arguing that defendants must be given a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense.
They said Peery wasn’t provided that because video wasn’t available after being taken in his cab showing semi-trailer driver Robert Russell, who was also involved.
Western Flyer Express, the company for which Russell worked, didn’t tell investigators about the existence of the video taken inside the semi’s cab, which has since been lost, Riebli said at Peery’s trial.
It wasn’t clear whether that video was the one to which Riebli referred in her request that Amber Peery’s sentencing be postponed.
Heinen has yet to rule on the Aug. 29 motion seeking postponement.
That motion also contends Amber Peery should get a new trial because of the following:
• Heinen erred when she allowed prosecutors, over the defense’s objections, to show jurors gruesome and irrelevant photos taken at the crash scene and during autopsies of the girls.
• The evidence in the case was insufficient to convict Peery of the crimes because she wasn’t the sole cause of the deaths and her behavior wasn’t a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable person would observe under the same circumstances.
Riebli told The Capital-Journal on Friday that she also intended to file a motion asking Heinen to set bond to enable Peery to be released from jail.
What happened in the crash?
Three Girl Scouts died and two others were injured when a semi-trailer struck the rear driver’s side of the van Peery was driving at 9:07 a.m. Oct. 8, 2022.
Killed were Laila El Azri Ennassari and Kylie Lunn, both 9, and Brooklyn Peery, 8. Brooklyn was Amber Peery’s daughter.
Amber Peery and her two other passengers — her daughter Carrington Peery, then 5, and Gabriella Ponomarez, then 9 — were hurt but survived.
The crash occurred as Amber Peery sought to make a U-turn to pass through an opening in the barrier wall on the Turnpike while taking her passengers to a Girl Scout event at Tonganoxie.
She was part of a three-vehicle caravan, for which the two other drivers had already made U-turns through a turnpike opening.
Jurors found Amber Peery guilty of three felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, two felony counts of aggravated battery and one count each of failure to maintain a single lane and making a U-turn on an interstate highway.
Amber Peery was being held without bond Monday at the Shawnee County Jail, jail records said.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at [email protected] or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topekan convicted in Girl Scout deaths tries to postpone sentencing
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