GREAT BEND — A Kansas prosecutor is planning to resign, saying the sheriff has been acting like a “bully” since he was acquitted of a misdemeanor for allegedly slapping a handcuffed man.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Barton County Attorney Amy Schartz Mellor said in a news release Tuesday that she plans to step down next month. The release cites a letter from Sheriff Brian Bellendir that states his intention to try to have Mellor removed from office.
After Bellendir’s acquittal last week, he called the case a “politically motivated witch hunt.”
The defense said Bellendir slapped the suspect in a propane theft on the back of the head as someone would do a child. Bellendir says that was a mistake, but didn’t rise to the level of mistreatment of a confined person.
