TOPEKA — The attorney who worked out a plea deal for a woman who is now seeking clemency for killing her abuser says a Washburn University Law Clinic report is filled with false allegations about him.
The law clinic sent its report to Gov. Laura Kelly earlier this year to support Sarah Gonzales-McLinn’s request for clemency. Gonzales-McLinn is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the first-degree murder of Hal Sasko, who controlled her finances and repeatedly raped her before she killed him in 2014 in Lawrence.
She was convicted after a trial in which a Douglas County judge blocked the jury from hearing evidence of the abuse she suffered and then sentenced her to a minimum of 50 years in prison. Attorney Jonathan Sternberg represented her as she appealed that conviction and asked for a new trial.
Kansas Reflector last week reported on the law clinic report, which faults Sternberg for presenting Gonzales-McLinn with a plea deal in 2021 that cut the minimum prison sentence in half — but also took away her right to appeal.
Sternberg sent a letter to the governor this week that says he “unequivocally” supports clemency for his former client. However, he says in the letter, “I am appalled by the false account of my representation that the Washburn Law Clinic submitted to you.”
The law clinic report quoted from Sternberg’s emails to Gonzales-McLinn’s mother without disclosing that some of his words had been removed from one of the quotes. The report claims Gonzales-McLinn...
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