OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The American Family Association is making a final push to gather enough signatures, hoping to have the bare breasted statue in the Overland Park Arboretum removed. The association said on Thursday it has two-thirds of the 4,700 signatures needed to force a second grand jury. Those close to the push say the last effort was hijacked by the Johnson County prosecutor.
This effort started back in June of 2012 when Joanne Hughes spearheaded a petition drive to seat a grand jury. Along with the American Family Association, statue opponents collected the necessary 4,700 signatures and a grand jury empaneled. But it refused to find the arboretum statue obscene, labeling it art.
The group’s state director, Phillip Cosby, accused Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe of hijacking the process. He said that the grand jury didn’t properly investigate because Howe interfered. Joanne Hughes called the last outcome, disappointing.
“It was devastating. It was a lot of work to get all of those signatures and then to not even have a chance to tell the jury what was going on, on our side, it was very disappointing,” Hughes said.
We reached out to district attorney Howe on Thursday, and we were told he would not be making a comment. In the past he has told FOX 4 he didn’t have the power to “hijack” the process that the grand jury was in charge of the evidence it saw and heard.
A change in state law pushed by the AFA allows for this second try at a grand jury. If a grand jury is seated, a petition organizer says he’ll present the case to the panel, instead of the DA.
