As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women winning their constitutional war over voting rights, JoAn Hamilton Lindfors could be included on a list of Kansas women who have made a difference in the lives of others.

Lindfors, 69, recently retired after almost 45 years in the practice of criminal law. At the time, the I-R’s sister newspaper, the Marquette Tribune, published a retirement story on Lindfors, who returned to her hometown of Lindsborg in 2001 and now lives in Marquette, in the historic Hanson-Lindfors House with her husband, Allan.

But there is much more to the story. We recently talked with Lindfors as she remembered more of the highlights in a life filled with “firsts.”

Lindfors graduated from Topeka’s Washburn University School of Law in 1975 after receiving a bachelor’s degree there in 1971 and teaching elementary school for a year. At that time, women law students were the exception, not the rule. Her class of 160 had 15 women; today’s classes typically are half and half.

As a senior at law school, Lindfors accepted a job as a legal intern with the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office, where she handled misdemeanor and traffic cases. In 1976 she became the FIRST woman assistant district attorney hired in Shawnee County and six years later, the FIRST woman to be named first assistant to Republican District Attorney Gene Olander.

In 1983, Lindfors left the D.A.’s office after being appointed to the Kansas Parole Board by Gov. John Carlin, a Smolan Democrat. Lindfors remained on the Kansas Parole Board for more than five years, being reappointed by Republican Gov. Mike Hayden, an Atwood Republican. When her appointment ended in 1989, she ran for the Kansas House of Representatives from the 51st District and was elected by a 67-vote margin as the first Democrat ever to represent the district. She didn’t seek another term two years later, deciding instead to run for district attorney. She became the FIRST woman elected as Shawnee County DA and the second in the State of Kansas (Margaret Jordan in Wyandotte County being the first).

“As a woman, I was constantly challenged in court,” she said, particularly when she handled all sexual offense cases from 1976 - 1982.

There were the so-called jokes that weren’t funny, the judgments based on appearance rather than work performance, the men who refused to take her seriously — until she got the better of them in court. It took a woman judge (District Judge Kay McFarland [who later became Kansas Chief Supreme Justice]) to stop the constant challenge of “affidavits of prejudice” because JoAn was a woman trying a rape case.

“I just ignored them and tried my case,” Lindfors said

An impressive conviction rate of 89 percent was evidence that her strategy worked.

It also helped that she worked hard and was a fighter, first as a state representative and then as a district attorney. And she was a fierce crusader for victim rights, a trait that earned her the title of “Dragon Lady” in some quarters.

“DA Gene hated working with families and getting their input for plea bargaining,” said Lindfors, who was appointed in 1984 to the newlyorganized “Victims’ Task Force” by then Kansas Attorney General Robert “Bob” Stephan, a Republican.

In those days, Lindfors said, rape victims were expected to fight and fight hard if they wanted to be taken seriously. After all, if you’re a strong woman, why couldn’t you prevent the rape?” was all too often the attitude.

“You couldn’t get angry,” Lindfors said. “You just had to show them.”

From 1976 to 1983, as an employee of the D.A.’s office, assigned to all sexual offenses, Lindfors worked with Lawrence Rep. John Solbach to write and pass the Rape Shield Law, which limits the ability to introduce evidence or cross-examine rape complainants about their past sexual behavior. They also were able to eliminate the word “resistance” from the rape statute, make “female” rape equal to “male” rape, add object rape, and remove the fact of “not being able to rape your wife”. She was also was instrumental in the creation of a child’s rape kit.

The Attorney General’s Task Force for Victims (which Lindfors testified before Legislators) passed legislation for the rights of victims during the late 1980s.

As a Kansas lawmaker from 1990 to 1992, Lindfors was involved in the passage of limiting “picketing at funerals” and sentencing guidelines, which she opposed.

Lindfors said she was never a typical Democrat. One issue that separated her from her party was the death penalty. She supports its use in cases where “there are no redeeming qualities left with that person.” Democrat Gov. Carlin refused to sign a bill twice after Kansans said they favored it.

However, Joan Finney, the state’s first woman governor and a fellow Democrat, opposed the death penalty but said she would sign a bill if Kansans favored it, and kept her promise. Lindfors’ office handled a horrible murder of a young woman, who was the sister of one of Joan Finney’s task members. While the case was being tried by Lindfors, Gov. Finney came to her office and thanked her.

“It was a no-need murder and it was a violent murder,” Lindfors said. “Gov. Finney changed her mind after that.”

Another outgrowth of Lindfors’ respect for victim rights was her legal campaign against the late Fred Phelps, a former civil rights attorney whose family continues to picket and otherwise disrupt both public and private gatherings, all in the name of God. Their targets are mostly homosexuals and anyone they suspect of opposing them.

As Shawnee County District Attorney, Lindfors was at the top of the Phelps’ hit list. “Gene [Olander] had ignored Phelps, but you can’t ignore him. He won’t go away,” Lindfors said. “What he did to families was just incredible, and very traumatic.”

Lindfors tried 14 cases in all part of Kansas involving the Phelps family. Fred Phelps sued her seven times in federal court, but she won all the cases.

“Hamilton, 45, became the lead character in this bit of guerrilla theater when she ran for district attorney in 1992 as the underdog candidate, on a platform that included a promise that she would faithfully prosecute the Phelps family for any criminal activity. She has pursued her campaign with zeal,” a Washington Post writer reported in 1995 in a story entitled “Holy Hell.” She was also interviewed for the TV show 20/20 because of her fight for victims against the hateful Phelps’ family.

Lindfors described herself as a “working DA” — she was in the courtroom every week, and tried over 300 cases of murder alone — plus other serious felonies. The stories could be heartbreaking, particularly when they involved children and domestic abuse.

“Having a family is probably what saved me from the constant trauma I saw each day. When you go home, you are just ‘mom’ and a wife,” said the mother of three.

Her children were born during her years as a prosecutor, in 1979, 1982, and 1985. Lindfors career as district attorney ended when she filed for a third term in 2000. Her husband of 31 years, also an attorney, served her with divorce papers the night she lost her third bid for re-election.

“2000 was a pretty rotten year, but it brought me back home to Lindsborg in 2001, and 11 years with my parents’ last years,” Lindfors said.

In Lindsborg, the prosecutor became a defense attorney. JoAn continued her work in public service by signing on as a criminal defense attorney — first for the Salina Regional Public Defenders’ Office and then as a Board of Indigent Defense Services court-appointed attorney in McPherson, Harvey and Saline counties. She has also assisted in murder cases for the Saline County Public Defender’s Office, which included two cases in Geary county. As a defense attorney, Lindfors said her goal was not to get her clients “off ”, but to make sure their constitutional rights were protected.

“We were just trying to do what’s right for them,” she said. JoAn and her husband, Allan, were

JoAn and her husband, Allan, were married in 2006. Between them they have five grown children and seven grandchildren. Spending time with them is important in their lives.

Retirement has been a blur of activity. JoAn and Allan enjoy traveling. So far, they have been to France, Italy and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Then there was Christmas. They also are active in the Marquette community, and JoAn keeps trying to persuade Allan to retire too.

“As a woman, I was constantly challenged in court.”

JoAn Lindfors

Former Shawnee County District Attorney