A Winfield man entered a plea of no contest to a misdemeanor count of battery in a bicycle accident that fatally injured Roger Moon in November 2022.
According to a Facebook post via NewsCow Wednesday night, Fredrick D. Jackson, 37, initially had been charged with a felony count of involuntary manslaughter. The charge was reduced as a result of a plea agreement with the Cowley County Attorney’s Office.
The plea was agreed to in writing and entered through journal entry in Cowley County District Court without a court appearance. Cowley County Attorney Larry Schwartz told Cowley Post Thursday morning the plea was filed on July 14.
Moon, a longtime Winfield community leader and retired theatre professor at Southwestern College, was on a ladder Nov. 11 changing out letters on the marquee of the Marquee Performing Arts in Winfield when a man on a bicycle ran into the ladder and knocked Moon off it.
Moon was transported to Wesley Hospital in Wichita with skull fracture injuries and died at the hospital on Nov. 16.
Jackson was sentenced to six months in the Cowley County Jail but that sentence will be suspended as long as Jackson has no other incidents for six months and pays $258 in court costs and fees.
NewsCow reported Wednesday night the Kansas Dept. of Corrections records show Jackson has previous drug-related convictions. Schwartz told Cowley Post Jackson was not under the influence of any substance at the time of the accident.
Jackson pleaded no contest but acknowledged the state had sufficient evidence to convict him of misdemeanor battery that recklessly caused bodily harm to Moon.
Schwartz said Thursday morning there are ordinances in the City of Winfield prohibiting the operation of a bicycle on sidewalks but that any punishment for such an offense would just be an infraction.
