TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case originating in Riley County this week in Topeka.
Tracey Jerome Toliveron spit several times on a police department detective. The issue is whether the detective can be categorized as a county correctional officer or employee to constitute felony battery, according to a media release from the office of judicial administration.
The district court found Toliver guilty. The Court of Appeals found the detective was neither a correctional officer nor correctional employee. Issues on review are whether a uniformed county law enforcement officer who is transporting a detained person into a correctional facility is a “county correctional officer or employee” and whether Toliver was a “confined person in a county jail facility.”
Toliver is currently at the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility after convictions for Criminal Threat, Aggravated Endangerment of a Child and Battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. Officials report Toliver has 17 disciplinary violations while in custody.
The court will hear the case Appeal No. 112,509/112,510: State of Kansas v. Tracey Jerome Toliveron on Thursday morning.