SHAWNEE, Kan. — A court document shows the perjury charge filed against Shawnee Mayor Michelle Distler stems from an open meetings complaint she allegedly filed using the name of another person without his permission.
The probable cause affidavit released Tuesday shows the investigation was opened on March 10 after a local government “watchdog” informed police in Shawnee, Kansas, that he had received an email from the state attorney general’s office confirming receipt of an online open records complaint that he had not filed.
An investigator with the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office subsequently obtained the IP address associated with the open records complaint and traced it to Distler.