Republican state Rep. Adam Thomas has entered into a diversion agreement with Johnson County prosecutors that will allow an election perjury charge to be dropped.
Thomas, 36, signed the one-year diversion agreement with the Johnson County district attorney on July 3.
The Olathe legislator declined comment and a spokeswoman for District Attorney Steve Howe said he was out of the office and unavailable for comment.
The agreement was filed with the court clerk late Tuesday afternoon after a hearing in which Thomas did not appear with his lawyer.
Judge Sara Welch approved the agreement after she was advised that a diversion agreement had been executed.
The election perjury charge will be dropped if Thomas fully complies with the conditions of the diversion agreement, court records show.
He is required to perform 150 hours of community service, none of which can be done in conjunction with his duties as a lawmaker, a campaign for public office or any other political activities.
Thomas is barred from using the community service in any advertisements, press releases or public statements related to his public office; any campaign for public office; or any other political activities, according to the agreement.
He also agreed to submit to drug and alcohol testing during the 12-month diversion period. Failure to submit to a requested drug test would be grounds for revoking the diversion.
He must pay $65 to the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission’s Metropolitan Community Service Program. He also must pay a $150 diversion fee and $204.50 in court costs, records show.
Diversion essentially allows Thomas to remain in office assuming he complies with the conditions of the agreement.
The state constitution requires a legislator to be a “qualified elector.”
If Thomas had been convicted of a felony, he would have lost his right to vote and would no longer be a qualified elector.
The Kansas secretary of state’s office has said previously that a diversion agreement should not cost someone their right to vote, although it acknowledged there might be circumstances that it cannot account for.
State law defines “diversion” as the referral of a defendant in a criminal case to a supervised performance program before adjudication.
The person has been charged but not convicted of a felony, meaning they would still be a qualified elector, state officials said. That could change, however, if the person doesn’t meet the terms of the diversion agreement.
The diversion agreement came about 10 months after Thomas was charged with election perjury after he filed documents to run for the Kansas House last year.
The case centered on where Thomas was living when he filed to run for the Kansas House in May. Democrats contended that Thomas misrepresented an Olathe duplex as his address within the House district when he filed to run for the Legislature.
Democrats contended that Thomas listed an Olathe address — 1308 E. 152nd St. — where he really didn’t live when he filed to run for office at the end of May 2018.
They argued that Thomas — and his wife and four children — lived at 1420 S. Apache Lane in Olathe, outside the 26th House District.
Thomas had said the duplex on 152nd Street was a transition between the home where he lived on South Apache and a new home that he took possession of in July 2018.
Democrats sought to have Thomas’ name removed from the ballot but were overruled by the Republican-controlled state Objections Board.
Thomas represents House District 26, which straddles the Johnson and Miami county line and covers parts of Olathe and Spring Hill.
Last fall, Thomas won the general election for House District 26, defeating Democrat Deann Mitchell with about 55 percent of the vote.
