St. John’s Seeks To Shield Employee’s Criminal Past

A Salina military boarding school embroiled in a lawsuit alleging widespread abuse of its cadets is asking a federal judge to keep any mention about prior arrests or criminal convictions of its employees away from jurors at next month’s trial.

The request comes amid 21 sealed motions filed on Wednesday by St. John’s Military School in Salina seeking to restrict evidence when trial begins March 4 in federal court in Kansas City, Kan.

The school also seeks to keep out of the trial a police report, findings by a state child welfare agency and certain testimony.

Four sealed motions also were filed by the ex-cadets seeking to exclude references about illicit drug use, their own “prior bad acts,” and references to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.