Howe fires eight from DA’s office

Incoming Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe has told eight employees of the DA’s office to find new jobs, The Kansas City Star reported Monday. Howe wouldn’t name names, but sources tell us that the eight employees following Phill Kline out the door in January are all Kline hires. They are:

Eric Rucker, Kline’s chief of staff
Dave Davies, attorney
John Christopher Pryor, attorney
Gabrielle Rhodes, attorney
Tom Williams, investigator
Megan Harmon, Kline’s assistant
Bob Curtis, victim witness coordinator
Valerie Baul, trial assistant

In a karmic twist, Rucker played hatchet man for Kline in January 2007, handing out pink slips to fired employees — including Howe — as Kline was being sworn in.

During his campaign for DA (he won the election), I asked Howe if he would retain Rucker in the event that Rucker lost in his bid for Shawnee County DA (he lost). Howe told me: “I don’t think that’s going to be possible. And I don’t think Eric Rucker would want to remain in the office. … You’re going to have to have a first assistant and other people who are going to be the core members of your administration that you can trust and also work with. I think Eric Rucker understands that as well as anybody else.”

If Rucker didn’t before — and I’d heard a rumor he was trying to keep a job in the office — he does now. — Justin Kendall