Wyandotte County Deputy Richard Fatherley is free while he awaits trial in the July 5 death of Charles Adair, who prosecutors say was killed when Fatherly knelt on his back. Fatherley, who faced his first hearing Tuesday, wasn’t required to appear in court in person, which the judge said was standard early in the judicial process when substantive issues aren't heard.

The brother of Charles Adair, who prosecutors say was killed in the Wyandotte County Jail when a sheriff’s deputy knelt on his back, says the deputy’s treatment shows the county’s “two-tiered justice system.”

Richard Fatherley, 32, is charged with second-degree murder and, in the alternative, involuntary manslaughter in the July 5 death of Adair, 50, which was ruled a homicide by mechanical asphyxiation. While trying to re

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