State officials released a document Thursday revealing new details about the emotional abuse allegations against state Rep. Michael Capps.
The appeal hearing summary, prepared in January, goes into previously undisclosed details of the allegations against Capps, who is now filling the last several months of an unexpired term in the House and is campaigning for a full two-year term.
The redacted copy of the report obtained through the open records act reveals new details about the “inappropriate contact” and overinvolvement Capps had with two children as a volunteer for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Sedgwick County.
Instead of summarizing it here, we’ll provide you the document so you can make your own conclusions about the case. No criminal charges were ever brought, a point Capps uses to show he did nothing wrong.
Capps late Thursday issued a statement that has previously been circulated to the media, calling the allegations false and untrue.
“They were made in retaliation after I made DCF aware that a foster parent was allowing a registered sex offender into her house putting foster children at high risk,” Capps said in his statement.
“These allegations were made 30 days after children in her home had to be removed due to her placing the children in unsafe conditions – conditions brought to light through my observations and reporting to CASA of Sedgwick County.”
The statement added, “The real problem is that we have two political parties and a DCF system that values covering their own backsides politically over the safety and well being of children in their care.”
Capps has vowed to press ahead with his campaign, although many Republican leaders, including the governor, the House speaker and the state Republican Party, have called for him to resign and end his campaign.
In a 20-minute interview with the Sunflower State Journal a week ago — the last time he spoke to this publication — Capps stressed that his record was clean.
“I can tell you there was no finding,” Capps told the Sunflower State Journal. “It concluded there were no findings against me. They were unsubstantiated.”
The state Department for Children and Families later released this statement after that interview:
“The Department for Children and Families can confirm that we conducted an investigation concerning Michael Capps and that he was affirmed for emotion abuse,” the statement said.
“Capps appealed the decision and it was reviewed by the Office of Administrative Hearings and the finding was later reversed due to a technical error.”
