KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Dressed in a gray striped prison jumpsuit, Verruckt designer John Schooley made his first appearance Monday before a Wyandotte County, Kan., judge on a second-degree murder charge related to a young boy's 2016 death on a water slide.
Schooley barely spoke during the 15-minute hearing before Wyandotte County Court Judge Robert Burns. In March, a grand jury indicted Schooley on second-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated endangerment of a child charges stemming from the 2016 death of Caleb Schwab on Verruckt, billed as the world's largest water slide but one that the grand jury alleges was built without regard to rider safety.
Schooley was booked into the Wyandotte County jail on the afternoon of April 6 after waiving extradition from Texas. U.S. Marshals arrested Schooley when he stepped off an airplane that arrived in Dallas from China.
Schooley was working on a large water park resort project called Atlantis in Sanya, a Chinese city on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
Schooley spent his 73rd birthday Saturday in Wyandotte County jail, where he had been held over the weekend on $500,000 bond.
J. Justin Johnston, Schooley's lawyer, asked Burns to reduce Schooley's bond to $250,000, arguing that he surrendered to authorities not long after learning of the charges against him, and that he was not a flight risk given his family and two properties he owns in Texas and Alabama.
"He intends to defend himself and see this to the end," Johnston said.
But Burns denied that request, saying the serious nature of the several charges against him and his few apparent ties to Kansas _ Schooley told Burns that he had some friends in Kansas _ justified the bond.
"The bond will remain at $500,000," Burns said.
Schooley remained in custody as of Monday afternoon. Burns told him not to get in trouble after he gets out on bond, a possible reference to accusations that Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry threatened a woman in Texas when he returned there last week after his first appearance in Kansas. Henry has not been charged with any crime in relation that incident.
"Make sure we don't hear about you in the news," Burns said.
Johnston declined to comment after the hearing.
