A Kansas judge has dismissed every charge against Wyandotte County deputy Richard Fatherley in the case of Charles Adair — a 50-year-old wheelchair user booked over misdemeanor traffic warrants who never came home from the jail. After a three-day preliminary hearing, Judge Aaron Roberts ruled the state had not met its burden, and the most serious charge Kansas law allows went away with it.
The family learned about the dismissal from their attorney, not from the courthouse. Within a day, the district attorney filed an appeal. And more than a year after Adair was found unresponsive in his cell at the Wyandotte County Detention Center, the officer-worn camera video of what happened remains sealed — seen by his family and their lawyers, and by apparently no one else.
What happened
Adair was booked into the jail in Kansas City, Kansas on July 4, 2025, on outstanding warrants for missed court dates — traffic matters. He used a wheelchair because of a serious leg infection, and he had a pacemaker.
The next evening, he received medical care for that leg and was returned to his cell. According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s own account, deputies gained control of him, removed his cuffs, and left the cell. Moments later, he was unresponsive. Life-saving measures were attempted inside the jail; they did not succeed.
Two months later, the coroner’s finding pointed to complications from the restraint. Investigators themselves pushed back, arguing the record did not clearly establish what caused it.
The case against the deputy
In September 2025, District Attorney Mark Dupree charged Fatherley with the top charge in Kansas, with an involuntary manslaughter count as an alternative. Fatherley was never arrested. No mugshot exists. He spent the entire case on unpaid administrative leave, at home, while the county’s own investigation sat in prosecutors’ hands.
Then the case took a strange turn: the DA moved to disqualify all sixteen Wyandotte County judges from hearing it — every judge in the county, for one case. The motion was denied, and Roberts stayed on.
There was another detail that raised questions. Fatherley’s county email account stayed active for seven months after he was charged, and during that time he used it to contact coworkers, including potential witnesses. It was shut off only after the sheriff learned of the family’s federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in April 2026 against the county, the sheriff, and six deputies.
The ruling
At the preliminary hearing, the defense offered its own theory: perhaps sepsis from that infected leg wound, perhaps a knee placement that never restricted anything. Judge Roberts found the state had failed to prove reckless acts and proximate cause — the two things the charge required. Every count was dismissed.
“Our family had the wind knocked out of us this afternoon,” said Erica Adair, Charles’s sister and the family’s spokesperson.
The family had seen the video by then. In May 2026, they watched the officer-worn camera footage for the first time, and their attorneys — including civil rights attorney Ben Crump — described it as devastating and really hard to watch. Their demand has not changed since: release it. The public, they argue, has every right to see what happened in that cell.
What happens next
The DA has filed a notice of appeal with the Kansas Court of Appeals. No date has been set, and the dismissal ruling had not even appeared on the public docket when the appeal was filed. The family’s federal lawsuit moves forward separately.
The charges were dismissed, not proven false — Fatherley is presumed innocent, and the appeal exists precisely because the question is not settled. This post will be updated as the appeal, the lawsuit, and the fight over the video develop.
If a deputy is never arrested, never photographed, and never tried — what exactly does the public get to know?
Sources
KCUR · KMBC 9 · KCTV5 · The Guardian · Heartlander News
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