A little over three weeks after it began its investigative work into allegations of misconduct by Emporia City Commissioner Erren Harter, the citizens’ grand jury has ended its deliberations.
According to Lyon County District Court Administrator Ruth Wheeler, the grand jury will not be seeking an indictment against Harter following those deliberations. The grand jury was empaneled after a petition was circulated alleging Harter received “substantial interest” and failed to disclose it, as well as voting in favor of certain public funding allocations without abstaining during City Commission meetings.
Harter stated at the onset of the grand jury that he “had done nothing wrong” and stood by that statement throughout the process.
The grand jury petition was one of two circulated against Harter, with a recall petition making its way through the community earlier this year. That effort came to an end a week before the grand jury was empaneled as part of an “agreed upon order” between the parties — Harter, the plaintiff, on one side; Recall Committee members Haley Bradford, Kathleen Lamb and Jay Vehige, Lyon County Clerk Amie Jones and Lyon County Legal Counsel Molly Priest on the other.
The order ended that specific recall effort from going forward, but it left the door open for other similar recall efforts to take place.
