Woman accused of family hoax to be detained in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS -- A woman accused of misleading a couple into believing she was their missing daughter will not be returned to Kansas despite a judge's ruling that her extradition was improper, an Indiana prosecutor said Wednesday.\nDonna Lynette Walker, 35, has been held in Indiana since Sept. 25, when she was flown here from Topeka, Kan., aboard a state police plane.\nA district court judge in Kansas ruled Tuesday that Walker should be returned because she had not exhausted her rights to appeal when Indiana authorities took her from the jail in Shawnee County, Kan.\nBut Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer said Indiana authorities have a valid governor's warrant to hold Walker.\n"A Kansas court has no jurisdiction over an Indiana matter. Donna Walker is a criminal defendant in a pending criminal case here in the state of Indiana, and I have no intention of returning her to the state of Kansas," Meyer said Wednesday in a news release.\nIn Topeka, Meyer's statement provoked an angry response from defense attorney Billy Rork.\n"It's a continuation of what has been a personal vendetta all along," Rork said in an interview. "This is a clear example of abuse of prosecutorial authority. I can't think of a clearer or better example."\nRork said he will ask Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to intervene and threatened to seek criminal charges against Meyer and other Indiana officials responsible for Walker's return to the state.\n"I'm going to ask that criminal kidnapping charges be filed," Rork said. "That's what happened here -- a kidnapping."\nTwo days before Walker left Kansas, Shawnee County District Judge Nancy Parrish had ruled that Walker's extradition to Indiana could go forward. Rork appealed the decision.\nIn a hearing Tuesday, Rork argued that Walker's extradition was illegal. Parrish agreed that jail employees should not have offered Walker to Indiana officials so soon, but she said she was not sure how Walker could be returned now that she is in out-of-state custody.\nWalker spent 56 days in the Shawnee County Jail after surrendering to authorities in Topeka on July 31. Her attorney immediately began fighting her extradition to Indiana.\nWalker is accused of carrying out a hoax on the family of Shannon Marie Sherrill, who was 6 when she disappeared in 1986 from outside her mother's home in Thorntown, about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis.\nIn Boone County, Walker faces charges of felony identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting. Rork has said Walker is mentally ill and believed she may have been the Sherrills' daughter when she contacted the family in July.\nBoone County Sheriff Dennis Brannon said Walker would not be sent back to Kansas without a judge's order.\n"Right now, she's not going anyplace unless I am absolutely directed by a court," Brannon said. "Even in that case, I don't know if Kansas can make us take her back. I think they'll have to come get her"