Kansas
Wyandot Nation of Kansas Pursues Federal Recognition
Judith Manthe was about 10 years old and her cousin about 18 when the girls’ grandmother took them aside and spoke of prophecy.
The conversation took place outside, on some of the large rocks near a creek on family farmland near Piper, Kansas.
“She sat us down,” Manthe recalled. “And she said, ‘You two are going to be the ones that bring this tribe back to fruition.’ “
The older of the two, Janith English, later became principal chief of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas for 25 years. She spent those years carefully chronicling the tribe’s history.
English documented its time in Ontario, Canada, as the Wendat Confederacy. She recorded its time in Michigan and Ohio. She tracked treaties agreed to and dissolved. And then, crucially for this region, she documented the tribe’s pre-Civil War journey to Kansas and how it came to be the namesake of Wyandotte County.
Manthe took over as principal chief three years ago.
The tribe’s 400 members are now ready to reclaim its station.
The Wyandot Nation of Kansas is renewing an effort for federal recognition. It’s a complicated process, and despite having many factors in its favor, accomplishing it could take years.
“What is motivating me is our youth,” Manthe said. “It’s basically for the youth, to get them educated.”
Federal status can enable access to federal funding, which can include scholarships and access to higher education.
Federal recognition entails the United States acknowledging a tribe as a separate government entity. It denotes tribal sovereignty, a nation’s right to self-governance.
It can be achieved through an act of Congress, a federal court ruling or administratively by petitioning and passing the scrutiny of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Currently, 574 tribal nations are federally recognized.
The process is inherently cruel.
It includes convincing non-natives, such as members of Congress, to support the tribe. It depends on asking permission from a federal government that worked for centuries to erase the indigenous, to annihilate nations by dividing them, by taking their lands.
Those efforts were largely successful.
You might assume that familiarity with the tribe and its role in the Kansas City region would be strong, given that everything noted as “Wyandotte” has a connection.
Yet, even highly visible signs of the area’s indigenous roots in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, can be misleading.
For example, bold black lettering attached to the limestone masonry of the 7th Street Casino spells out “WYANDOTTE NATION.”
But the Kansas Wyandots aren’t affiliated with the gambling operation. The casino, in a former Scottish Rite Temple, is owned and operated by the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma.
They’re a related band, considered brothers and sisters, but separate.
There are four bands of the Wyandot, a fact that can be explained by tracing the history of the tribal confederacy being split as it was moved throughout what is now Canada and the United States.
The Oklahoma Wyandots are federally recognized.
The Wyandots that live in Canada are recognized by the Canadian government.
The Wyandots in the Detroit area also seek federal status.
The Wyandots of Kansas have no interest in the casino. It’s not why they seek federal status, Manthe said.
But they are deeply connected to land next to the casino, the Huron Cemetery, that lies to the north, tucked on a rise of land that overlooks the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
“Huron” traces to what the French called the Wyandot and despite the cemetery’s name, it’s not the term that the tribe uses.
The cemetery, where hundreds of Wyandot and Union soldiers are buried, was once the site of a standoff staged by three Wyandot — the Conley sisters — Eliza “Lyda,” Helena and Ida.
Around 1910, plans were announced to sell the land off, to dig up and remove the tribal members buried there.
In response, the women built a wooden shack in the cemetery, their fort. For two years the women refused to allow anyone onto the property.
Lyda was an attorney. She took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she argued on behalf of the Wyandot of Kansas.
She lost the case. But eventually, the cemetery was saved.
The shotgun that the sisters used during their standoff is on display at the Wyandotte County Museum. Helena’s rattlesnake bone necklace is also showcased there.
But the cemetery isn’t controlled by the Wyandot of Kansas. It’s held in a trust by the federal government.
If any local Wyandot wanted to be buried there, permission would be granted through the Oklahoma band. And cremations are the only thing possible. Digging in the cemetery could disturb unmarked graves, of which there are believed to be many.
The history contained at the site, including family lineages, will be crucial in obtaining federal recognition.
Manthe keeps her documents safeguarded, including proof of payments as Wyandot land was taken and the nation came down the Missouri River by steamboat and was dropped off near Westport, in 1843.
“We have letters that our ancestors had written,” she said, “saying that we never wanted to lose our tribal status.”
Seeking Support from Those Who Sought Your Genocide
The process of gaining federal recognition can take decades.
Recorded proof of an unjust and painful past is crucial, said Tai S. Edwards, director of the Kansas Studies Institute and a history professor at Johnson County Community College.
“The same entities that wanted to eliminate you as a tribal nation are now whose records you have to use to prove who you are,” Edwards said.
Moreover, non-natives must be convinced, Edwards said.
Even beginning the process can be emotionally wrenching.
“You have to have what non-natives view as convincing documentation from a bureaucracy that was functioning for centuries to eliminate your ability to do this,” Edwards said. “And that is the hardest problem.”
But ultimately, it can also be healing.
Federal recognition forces the U.S. government to admit to its role in past actions.
The least cumbersome route is through an Act of Congress, and this is how several tribes have recently been able to gain federal status in recent years, the last during the Trump administration.
The Wyandots have the good fortune of having U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas in office.
Davids is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. Her maternal grandfather, a U.S. Army veteran, was born into the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Band in Oneida, Wisconsin.
But because the process is long, members of Congress often cycle out of office before enough consensus can be built for tribal recognition.
In 2019, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians were granted federal recognition through an amendment pushed through by Montana congressional members. The action was included in a defense bill.
Efforts for the Chippewa to reach federal status dated back to the 1930s, according to reporting by CNN.
Chris La Tray is an enrolled Chippewa member and the Montana Poet Laureate.
He wrote an article titled, “For All My Relations,” after the federal status was achieved.
Edwards says non-natives must understand an indigenous perspective.
La Tray wrote of his happiness, but also his “deeply mixed feelings.”
“The entire process is a bitter irony when one considers that the Little Shell will finally ‘get’ federal ‘recognition’ at the behest of a spending bill for a military that has only tried to eradicate us, signed by a president actively pursuing the very policies that disenrolled and dehumanized our ancestors, and made us ‘landless Indians’ in the first place,” La Tray wrote.
La Tray recounted tribal history in the piece and noted that the same bill that included the Little Shell Restoration Act also gave funding to support operations at the U.S.-Mexican border.
At the time, the Trump administration was separating migrant families arriving there, detaining them. Many of those families had indigenous blood, arriving from Mexico and Central America.
La Tray recounted the tribal history, documenting the similarities to then-current policy.
Federal status is also restorative, a fact that La Tray addressed in the same article.
“But we are a sovereign nation who are now in a position to deal in strength with another nation who surrounds us on all sides. A nation we must never forget rarely has our best interests in mind.”
Assimilation As an Act of Survival
Louisa Libby slowly walks the cemetery pathway, stepping off into the grass to point out specific graves.
Libby is the Second Chief of the Wyandot of Kansas.
Nubs, flush to the ground, are all that is left of many headstones. A fist-sized piece of granite lays under one tree.
On the southern end of the site is a marker, flat against the ground. It notes that a prior survey completed in 1895 and 1896 detected a large grave in this part of the cemetery. It’s the final resting site of Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Westport in October 1864.
They were a Black unit. Racism wouldn’t have allowed their burial elsewhere. The Wyandot were integral to the free state township of Quindaro, which is named for a Wyandot woman.
On the northern end of the cemetery, there are more headstones. A line of pink granite headstones stands out. The graves are the burial plots of the Conley sisters.
To Libby, the ancestors who are no longer buried there, disturbed from their rest by the greed and the disrespect of development, also fill her thoughts.
The tribal history is clear on this point. When surrounding roads were widened decades ago, graves were disturbed. Bones were disrespectfully dumped in the river, Libby said.
Former Principal Chief English once found a femur sticking out of the sloping hillside that backs up to the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library. The bone was delicately handled, honored and reburied.
That section needs a retaining wall. A zig zagging old wooden staircase is blocked off. It’s too dangerous to be secure.
But a small round metal marker is also nearby, emblazoned with a buffalo, noting a significant step in the cemetery’s and the Wyandot’s story.
It’s marked: “U.S. Department of the Interior, Sept. 3, 1971, National Register of Historic Places.”
Manthe’s fifth great-grandfather played a crucial role in how the nation survived.
He was Chief Tarhe, born near Detroit in 1742.
Chief Tarhe is credited with guiding the tribe through difficult periods, wars where tribal members were slaughtered and subsequent treaties.
Manthe is proud of her bloodline. It was Chief Tarhe who made the difficult decision that ultimately brought her to this place, as a new chief in a new era.
“He told all of them that you’re not going to win this battle,” she said. “They’re going to keep bringing people in and they’ll just wipe you off the face of the earth. You need to assimilate. You need to start living white or we will be destroyed.”
For several years, Manthe has worked to establish positive relationships with the other bands of Wyandot.
The past includes protracted legal battles over where the Oklahoma band would locate the casino and how the cemetery would be affected.
Now, security guards from the casino note when visitors arrive at the cemetery. They keep a watchful eye. One guard recently noted with dismay the condition of some graves, vandalized through the years and disrespected.
Manthe has brought family members with her to attend naming ceremonies in Oklahoma and celebrations to note green corn coming into the fields.
She’s also attended cultural sessions, learning how to fletch feathers to an arrow, shape arrowheads from flint, weave baskets and create intricate beading.
At each full moon, Manthe connects by Zoom with other Wyandot women around the nation.
“We have got to keep our history alive,” Manthe said. “We have got to promote our history because if you forget it, you’re going to relive it.”
Mary Sanchez is senior reporter for Kansas City PBS.
Cincinnati Bearcats coach Wes Miller on team approaching Kansas game
Cincinnati Bearcats coach Wes Miller on team approaching Kansas game Saturday, Jan. 11 at Fifth Third Arena
The Kansas Jayhawks visited the Armory Fieldhouse just a few months after The Beatles appeared at Cincinnati Gardens in 1964. Then-coach Tay Baker’s squad beat them 76-72, which would be the last UC win in the series until last year’s Big 12 tournament.
After falling short at Allen Fieldhouse in January 2024, 74-69 UC beat the Jayhawks 72-52 last March 13 in Kansas City, just 47 miles from their home. To be fair, Kansas played without Big 12 First Team players Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr., but the game was in front of over 18,000 at the T-Mobile Center pulling for the Jayhawks.
Kansas coach Bill Self was none too pleased about exiting a tournament his team had owned for years. Now, Kansas is again a highly-ranked team with 7-foot-2 Dickinson back as they come to Cincinnati for the first time in over 60 years Saturday.
Saturday a tall order for Cincinnati Bearcats
This Kansas team has only lost three times. Wednesday, they came from behind against Arizona State at halftime to win by 19, 74-55. The Jayhawks fell against Quad 1 opponents in Missouri, Creighton and had a one-point home loss to West Virginia. The Bearcats and Jayhawks share one common opponent: Howard. Kansas began their regular season beating the Bison by 30, while UC beat them by 17 in early December.
The Bearcats are coming off their worst game of the season, a 68-48 thrashing at Baylor Tuesday in Waco. UC will look to bounce back with a sellout crowd at Fifth Third Arena.
“You know you’re going to hit tough stretches, that is part of this,” UC coach Wes Miller said of the 0-3 Big 12 start. “That doesn’t make it fun. It’s part of college basketball, it’s part of high-level competition. Going into the year, I went, ‘When we do, we’re going to be OK because of who we have in the locker room’. I’ve got high-character guys that are bought into this place and our program and they want to win.”
A boost from UC AD John Cunningham
Miller and company received support from athletic director John Cunningham Thursday as they await the powerhouse Jayhawks.
“It’s everything we always wanted when we got into the Big 12,” Cunningham said. “It does remind a lot of people of the competition we saw week in and week out when we were in the Big East. This is even more so.”
As for UC’s 0-3 start, Cunningham says the Bearcats are a really good team going through a tough stretch in a demanding league.
“I see no cracks in the armor in terms of the confidence of the team,” Cunningham said. “If I’m going to battle, I want Wes Miller and his staff right next to me. He’s the right man to get this thing moving the right direction. Honestly, sometimes the shots don’t drop. They’re going to start to drop.”
Tough travels for Cincinnati Bearcats
After waiting four hours to fly to Waco Monday night and arriving early on game day, the Bearcats were also delayed getting home. Though Miller mentioned it had nothing to do with the Baylor loss, he said UC didn’t arrive home until Wednesday afternoon due to flight complications. By NCAA rules, they took that day off and didn’t get back to practice until Thursday.
“We had to get a new plane so we slept in Waco and couldn’t leave until that morning,” Miller said. “This isn’t news to anyone who knows our program but the will, the want, the mindset, I believe it’s where he needs to be and I believe it’ll continue to be where it needs to be regardless of the results and circumstances. This team has the right internal stuff and internal fortitude. We’ll figure it out.”
A ‘Big O’ moment
On March 12, 1960 in an Elite Eight NCAA tournament game in Manhattan, Kansas, UC beat the Kansas Jayhawks 82-71 as Naismith Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson had 48 points and 14 rebounds.
3 keys for Cincinnati Bearcats to beat Kansas Jayhawks
1. Seize momentum on your home floor
The University of Cincinnati winter semester begins Monday and Fifth Third Arena will be packed for a matchup with a team that has briefly been No. 1 and for the most part in the Top 10.
While the Arizona game drew 11, 212, students were not yet back and the intensity was nowhere near Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout levels. Of course, the Bearcats didn’t help matters getting behind by 13 at halftime. With an 0-3 Big 12 start, the Bearcats could use every piece of motivation they can find.
“You have to go through difficult moments, speed bumps and hurdles in order to do the things you have to do to become who you’re trying to become,” Miller said. “My fire burns in these moments. It burns brightest when things are at their most difficult times.”
2. Hound Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson
UC was able to hold him to 10 points and six rebounds in Lawrence last year thanks to foul trouble. They also outrebounded the Jayhawks 40-29 and the game was tied at halftime 35-35. Getting the prolific pivot in foul trouble would be beneficial again, as would the glass advantage.
Dickinson is often good for 16 points and 10 rebounds. He finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds in their Arizona State win Wednesday.
“They’re the oldest team in the country, the most experienced team in the country,” Miller said of Kansas. “They’re a national championship contender. They present a load of challenges. The first is the depth and experience. You’re talking about guys on their roster that were the leading scorers at other high-major schools. They’re as deep as I’ve seen a college basketball team in the portal area.”
3. Let Dan Skillings Jr. get his minutes
Skillings was electric off the bench at Kansas last year with 16 points and even more so in the Big 12 tournament game when he popped in 25. When the 6-foot-6 wing is rolling, the Bearcats often follow suit. They didn’t on Tuesday, but maybe they do after a few spirited practices.
One solution might be to leave him on the floor. To date, Big 12 opponents are playing their starters more minutes than the UC starting five. No Bearcat has played 34 minutes yet and most games the starters are in for roughly 28 to 31 minutes of a 40-minute contest.
“We look at our coaching decisions after every game,” Miller said. “We always want to be consistent. I don’t ever want to be the guy that’s changing every game because I don’t think players can be effective like that. Over the course of time, we’re going to evaluate that. We have real data, real information, not just reactive information. We’ll adjust accordingly.”
Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Kansas Jayhawks
Tip: Saturday, 2 p.m., Fifth Third Arena (12,012)
TV/Radio: ESPN+/700WLW
Series: UC leads 5-4 (Bearcats won March 13, 2024, in Big 12 tournament 72-52)
Kansas Jayhawks scouting report
Record: 11-3 (2-1 Big 12)
Coach: Bill Self (21st season, 599-146)
Offense: 78.9 ppg
Defense: 63.6 ppg
Projected starting lineup
(Position, Height, Stats)
Hunter Dickinson (C, 7’2″, 15.9 ppg, 10.4 reb)
Dajuan Harris (G, 6’2″, 10.3 ppg)
K.J. Adams (F, 6’7″, 8.5. ppg)
Zeke Mayo (G, 6’4″, 14.6 ppg)
Shakeel Moore (G, 6’1″, 3.3 ppg)
Cincinnati Bearcats scouting report
Record: 10-4 (0-3 Big 12)
Coach: Wes Miller (fourth season, 73-47, overall 258-182)
Offense: 75.4 ppg
Defense: 61 ppg
Projected starting lineup
Simas Lukošius (G-F, 6’8″, 13 ppg)
Dan Skillings Jr. (G-F, 6’6″, 13.1 ppg)
Dillon Mitchell (F, 6’8″, 10.9 ppg)
Jizzle James (G, 6’3″, 11.1 ppg)
Aziz Bandaogo (C, 7′, 9.4 ppg)
Players to watch
Hunter Dickinson is a fifth-year player who reliably has been at or near averaging a double-double since he began in 2020. He has seven double-doubles this year. If UC has another game where they’re destroyed in the paint (40-16 at Baylor) that means Dickinson had his way.
Dillon Mitchell has been UC’s double-double leader with three but he’s coming off a scoreless game where he had just two rebounds. He hasn’t been held without a point since his freshman year at Texas. For the Bearcats to have a chance, Mitchell must be productive.
Rankings
KenPom.com: Kansas is No. 10, Cincinnati is No. 33
NCAA NET: Kansas is No. 9, Cincinnati is No. 35
KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
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The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, applauded city staff for their efforts to plow snow following Sunday’s storm.
On Thursday, KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas gave the city an A-minus grade for the job, even if the job isn’t totally complete. Drivers continue working in 12-hour shifts clearing the nearly one foot of snow which fell.
“Nobody is ever perfect,” Lucas said. “I think we continue to pursue getting every street addressed. But I think it was a really darn good response. I’d give an A-minus.”
Al Miller
Lucas said the city’s made changes to its snow response in the past four years. Those changes are paying off in the way of improved service.
“When I was growing up in Kansas City, the story was, ‘You go to the suburbs and everything is perfect,’ ‘You go to the city, and everything is not,’” Lucas said as he reiterated a narrative KSHB 41 News has heard before. “With respect to all of our peers around the region, I think you’ve seen that change a bit.”
Changes to the snow plan were the product of KCMO City Manager Brian Platt, who took over in December of 2020.
The following the year, the city began implementing four main changes to its plow routine:
- purchases newer trucks
- shifted employees from other departments and trained them to drive snow plows (even Platt drove a plow this week)
- those additional drivers allow the city to plow main streets and side streets simultaneously
- the city keeps drivers assigned to snow duty for longer periods of time
Al Miller
“It’s going to continue to get better. We’re not where we want to be, but we are going to get better,” KCMO director of Public Works Michael Shaw said. “So we have changed expectations because we are delivering a higher, better quality service.”
Grant Stephens
The changes seem to be changing opinions from residents.
“Considering how much snow came and how fast it was, I’m pretty satisfied,” Shawn Colby, a KCMO resident, said.
Al Miller
“This year seems to be better,” added Eileen Cohen. “It’s always the side streets, but what do you do? But I think they did a good job, it was a blizzard.”
Al Miller
“Honestly, I feel like they could do better with the side streets and stop pushing the snow people just shoveled back in front of their yard,” DJ Juan said, offering some advice to the city.
Al Miller
At Thursday’s council meeting, members introduced a resolution asking the city manager to review snow removal plans. The proposal should come up for more discussion next week.
—
Kansas
Kansas City Chiefs' fans deaths: Why former homicide detective believes criminal charges still possible
A year-to-date after three men were found frozen in their friend’s snowy Kansas City backyard after an NFL watch party, their families still have no explanation for their sons’ mysterious deaths.
Clayton McGeeney, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 36, were found dead behind their friend Jordan Willis’ home on Jan. 9, 2023. Two days earlier, the four men met up at the house to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers.
In the days before McGeeney’s fiancée found the men’s bodies, Willis could not be reached by phone and did not answer his door, according to family members who searched for the three friends who never returned home.
A representative from the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that an investigation into the men’s deaths is ongoing. Members of each of the three men’s families said that a year later, they still have no updates in the case, with Johnson’s mother saying she was “heartbroken.”
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FANS’ DEATHS: VICTIMS’ FAMILIES AT ODDS OVER ‘ANGRY’ SPECULATION, LAWYER SAYS
David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friend’s Kansas City, Missouri, home on Jan. 9, 2024. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)
“No news or developments,” a source close to Willis said on Wednesday. “It’s very frustrating, and we don’t know what the holdup is.”
“He’s taking it hard on the anniversary,” the source said. “We thought there would be closure by now.”
Although preliminary autopsy results shared with the media by family members indicate that fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana were in their systems, the deceased men’s families have questioned Willis’ involvement in what happened, with some threatening to file lawsuits.
In September, Willis’ attorney John Picerno told Fox News Digital that “charges [will be] forthcoming in the next few weeks,” based on “internal conversations” with prosecutors.
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FANS’ DEATHS: FAMILIES AT ODDS THREATEN LAWSUITS AGAINST EACH OTHER
An exterior view of the home of Jordan Willis in Kansas City, Missouri, on Jan. 26, 2024. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
“They claim the case is still under investigation,” Picerno said on Wednesday. “But as you know, [the] prosecutor told me months ago that my guy has been cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to harming the other three individuals.”
Julie Rendelman, a former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that if Willis was responsible for his friends’ deaths, he “likely would have been arrested already.”
That said, she said she would “be shocked if a prosecutor’s office would promise that any individual wouldn’t be pursued, especially if the case is being investigated.”
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FANS DEATHS: ‘WALTER WHITE NARRATIVE’ ABOUT PARTY HOST IS ‘OUT OF CONTROL,’ SOURCE SAYS
Family and friends of Clayton McGeeney, left, David Harrington, center, and Ricky Johnson are clamoring for answers after the three men inexplicably died in below-freezing temperatures outside their friend’s Kansas City, Missouri, home. (Facebook)
“I’m not saying that [Picerno] is lying, but none of us were privy to any conversation that was had,” she said on Wednesday.
“It seems to me that there’s room to give some answers without giving it away, even if the answers are ‘we don’t have the answers,’” Rendelman said of the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office. “That happens – cases go unsolved.”
Criminal defense attorney Ted Williams told Fox News Digital that a year later, a medical examiner should have complete autopsy results.
“After getting the results of the autopsy, which I would believe they have the full results by now, you would think that would be enough to bring charges against someone associated with the death of these three men,” Williams said on Wednesday.
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HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checked himself into a rehab facility after his three friends were found dead in his backyard on Jan. 9, 2024. (GitHub)
“What is weird and strange and mysterious is that this is still an open case with the Kansas City Police Department – if they believe that this was not a death that was caused at the hands of another, you would think that they would close this investigation out, and they have not,” Williams said. “It’s still open, so… it could still be considered a homicide… The big question is, what direction is the investigation going?”
But Rendelman pointed out that, although toxicology results and an autopsy are likely completed, a medical examiner may have been unable to determine causes of death.
Rendelman also said it is not outside the realm of possibility that detectives with the Kansas City Police Department are still gathering information in the case. They could be withholding information from the public so as not to jeopardize that investigation.
“I had cases as a prosecutor where we didn’t charge anyone for years,” she said. “We kept them very quiet and close to the vest because we didn’t want outsiders impacting our ability to fully investigate and hold the people responsible that were responsible… they may be concerned that anything they tell to the public could impact their ability to investigate this.”
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FANS’ MYSTERIOUS DEATHS YET TO BE RESOLVED A YEAR LATER
“Are there some law enforcement offices that just take longer to investigate things? Yes. Are there some prosecutors’ offices that aren’t as savvy in determining what the public should or shouldn’t know? Yes,” Rendelman said.
Previously, members of the men’s families told Fox News Digital that they intended to sue Willis in civil court. David Harrington’s father told Fox News Digital that he and his son’s mother were “convinced that Jordan Willis played a part in this somehow” and they “just [hadn’t] figured out how yet.”
Rendelman said that, in addition to holding someone responsible for their sons’ deaths, the families could get the information they are seeking through the discovery period of a civil lawsuit if the prosecutors’ office continues to keep them in the dark.
“Sometimes people sue just to get information – you can get a subpoena, get depositions,” Rendelman said.
“I would have to believe that there’s going to be civil litigation that will bring out more than the public is going to learn from the criminal investigation,” Williams echoed.
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