KANSAS CITY, Mo, — A national legal defense fund for police is stepping up in favor of a Kansas City officer charged in the shooting death of a Black man.
Virginia-based Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is granting money to the legal defense for KCPD Detective Eric DeValkenaere.
Jason Johnson, the nonprofit’s president, said what DeValkenaere did on Dec. 3 would normally bring a police officer praise. Instead, DeValkenaere, 41, faces a charge of first-degree involuntary manslaughter.
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Johnson, a 20-year veteran as a police officer, said he believes charges delivered by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker are politically-motivated, the product of a climate brought on by the highly publicized death of George Floyd in Minnesota, who was killed while in police custody, and other related events.
“It’s became sport for certain elected officials to bring criminal charges for their political benefit, not necessarily in pursuit of justice, but in pursuit of a political objective,” Johnson told FOX4.
