DOUGLAS COUNTY – A man who allegedly injured a police officer by dragging him with his vehicle as he fled a traffic stop in Lawrence is in custody.

Aramis Neal Hernandez, 36, was located and arrested on Tuesday by an out-of-state agency on a Kansas warrant for Aggravated Battery of a Law Enforcement Officer, according to a media release.

Just before 5 p.m. on July 5, a Lawrence police officer stopped a white Ford Fusion with a Missouri license plate.

Hernandez fled the area, dragging the officer on the street with his vehicle, according to police.

The officer was treated in a local hospital for injuries that weren’t life-threatening.

The day after the incident, police found the vehicle

HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man bound over for trial in a child sex case was arraigned Tuesday and entered not guilty pleas.

Tanner Ward, 23, is charged with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated burglary and criminal threat. The charges involving a child 14 to 16 years of age are alleged to have occurred on January and January 11.

The aggravated burglary is alleged to have occurred on June 23 where he allegedly went into a home in the 100 block of East 5th to allegedly intimidate a victim or for a sexually motivated crime, according to police. The mother of the victim found him in her daughters bed. He was later found inside the garage of that home.

The final charge of criminal threat is alleged to have occurred on February 15, where he allegedly threatened to cut another person’s head off. Saying once all this is over he would go to the victim’s mothers home and take care of her.

Judge Tim Chambers has also scheduled a pretrial hearing for Friday.
Ward has another case where he was originally arrested for burglary after he allegedly stole some copper pipes from the construction site at the Hutchinson Sports Arena, then took the pipes to Midwest Iron and Metal and sold them for cash. In doing so, he apparently signed papers saying the items were his. The state charged him with making false writing.

Ward is also alleged to have made contact with the alleged victim urging her to not show in court to testify telling her she wouldn’t be in trouble if she told them she simply forgot. Schroeder charged him with another count of Intimidation of a witness.

Those cases are still pending a preliminary hearing and is scheduled as part of a waiver-status docket on Wednesday.

FINNEY COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating an alleged kidnapping, robbery and looking for two suspects.

Police reported on September 1, a 57-year old Garden City woman reported that she was approached by a female suspect outside of JC Penny in Garden City and told she was in financial hardship and needed help, according to a media release.

A short time later a male suspect approached them. The female suspect grabbed the victim and would not let her leave.

The suspects told the victim to take them to her house. The victim refused to take the suspects to her home, but did agree to take them to the bank, verbal threats were made towards the victim as they demanded money, according to police.

The victim did transport the suspects to a bank where the male suspect and victim entered the bank and withdrew an undisclosed amount of money.

The victim then drove the suspects back to the shopping area and dropped them off.

There were no injuries or weapons involved. The suspects are described as:

White female, 40-50 years of age, thick brown hair, wearing a black long sleeve shirt and floral print skirt.

White Male, 50 years of age, no facial hair, wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Police say a Kansas man charged with harassing a New Zealand fashion blogger online also sent sexual pictures to other people.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a recently released arrest affidavit says the social media accounts of 19-year-old Kalim Akeba Lloyd Dowdell had been blocked more than two dozen times. He faces a single misdemeanor charge of harassment by telecommunications device in Douglas County.

The criminal charge was filed eight months after blogger Rachel Gronback contacted police about inappropriate pictures she

had received on her Instagram account. The affidavit says Dowdell would create new accounts when Gronback attempted to stop the pictures by blocking him. Her effort to stop online harassment can be found here.

A Lawrence resident has offered to pay a substantial portion of her travel fees if she needed to come to the U.S. to testify.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors are appealing a decision to overturn the conviction of a man accused of setting a fire that destroyed a Topeka apartment building and killed one tenant.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that a Shawnee County judge ruled last month that Frank Jerome “Chicago” Robinson wasn’t fairly convicted and should be retried.

Robinson had been serving a 36-year prison sentence after jurors convicted him of reckless second-degree murder and aggravated arson in the 2006 fire that killed 53-year-old Marvina Washington. Several other people escaped, including a woman who was badly injured while jumping.

Robinson’s attorneys had argued that his trial counsel was ineffective.

Shawnee County District Attorney’s office chief of staff Matt Patterson says efforts are underway to notify surviving victims, witnesses and Washington’s family about the decision.