On November 16, 2018, Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir was found not guilty by a six-member jury on misdemeanor charges of mistreating a prisoner in custody. That jury needed only 15 minutes to find the Sheriff not guilty of the charges that had been filed by then Barton County Attorney Amy Mellor, who appointed a Special Prosecutor to try the case. We now know how much it cost the county to prosecute the case.

A bill received in late December by Barton County from Special Prosecutor William Halvorsen totaled $8,837.77 for 93.2 hours billed at a rate of $80 per hour. There was also a charge of $701 for mileage to and from Great Bend from Halvorsen’s office in Cottonwood Falls, a trip that Halvorsen indicated he took six times. There were also $608.70 in motel expenses for Halvorsen and a trial assistant.

The long drawn out process lasted from the time of the alleged incident on August 10, 2017 to the not guilty verdict in November of 2018.