TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka businessman has been sentenced for threatening an Oklahoma man.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Kent D. Lindemuth was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail, but the judge suspended the sentence and placed him on one year of supervised probation.
A Shawnee County jury convicted him earlier of one count of making a criminal threat. During the trial, Lindemuth testified that he denied threatening to shoot Mike Matthews, an Oklahoma trucking firm owner, during a 2014 dispute about a trailer and cargo valued at more than $500,000.
Lindemuth, a Topeka real estate developer, said he would appeal his conviction.
Lindemuth also faces separate federal charges accusing him of bankruptcy fraud. He’s accused in that case of buying 103 firearms after filing for bankruptcy.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man charged with fatally shooting another man inside a Wichita restaurant says he doesn’t know why he is locked up.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 20-year-old Jonah Isaac Tausche told a judge Thursday during his first court appearance on a first-degree murder charge that he “ate some meth” and “now I’m here.” Tausche is jailed on $250,000 bond in Monday’s fatal shooting of 47-year-old Tan Van Vu of Wichita at the Bida Saigon restaurant.
But Tausche says there’s “no possible way” when he was told of the charges, which also include possession of cocaine and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He described himself as a “peaceful person,” although court records show he has a history of violence going back to when he was 15.
ELLIS — The top vote-getter in the Nov. 8 general election could be denied a seat on the Ellis City Council.
Dena Patee, who won one of three open seats on the council, was informed after votes were tallied that the city’s attorney believes her incompatible to serve because of her employment with the Ellis Alliance.
It was the first time potential incompatibility was raised, Patee said Friday.
“There was nothing mentioned at all,” she said. “But when I did meet with the lawyer … I was told that someone from the city was supposed to have contacted me, but they forgot.”
Patee met this week with the city’s attorney, Olavee Raub, who drafted the Nov. 10 letter.
“After conferring with the League of Municipalities it is our understanding that your service on the governing body for the City of Ellis is an incompatible office with your employment with the Alliance,” the letter stated. “My research, inclusive of Attorney General Opinions, concurs with this analysis.”
With 447 votes, Patee was the top vote-getter in the Nov. 8 election, which unseated two incumbents. Incumbent Jolene Niernberger (403 votes) and newcomer Susan Eaton (351 votes) also were elected to seats on the council. Martin LeBarge, Nan Brown and incumbents Gary Luea and John Walz were the other candidates.
On Monday, the Ellis City Council is expected to decide whether to seek a Kansas Attorney General’s opinion on the matter.
Ellis Mayor Dave McDaniel said potential conflict of interest concerns were raised after Patee’s election.
“Questions started arising because she is employed by the Ellis Alliance, which is a tax-funded organization,” he said. “That would, in my mind and other people’s minds, create a conflict of interest.”
A potential conflict of interest, he said, would force Patee to abstain from voting on certain issues.
“After the questions started coming in, Olavee decided she better talk to the League attorneys,” McDainel said.
McDaniel said he was surprised to learn the League of Municipalities advised Patee’s service would not be a conflict of interest, but that she would be incompatible for office.
“I figured it was perhaps a conflict of interest, that she could abstain from voting on certain issues,” McDaniel said. “A lot of people are upset about this because she was elected by an overwhelming majority.”
Patee has served a director of the Ellis Alliance since its formation in July 2007. Of the group’s approximate $34,300 budget, the city of Ellis contributes $12,500. Other primary stakeholders include Ellis County, the Community Foundation of Ellis and the Ellis Industrial Development Corp.
Raub is scheduled to appear before the Ellis City Council at 7:30 p.m. Monday to present findings and ask for permission to consult the Kansas Attorney General for an opinion.
McDaniel, who can only offer a tie-breaking vote in his position as mayor, said the situation remains uncertain.
“There’s still gray issues, many gray issues,” he said. “It’s a bad situation. … We’ll have to see what the end result is.”
Patee appears poised to continue to seek her seat on the council.
“For me, I guess I’m going to wait and see what the council says,” Patee said. “If need be, I’m going to contact my own lawyer.”
She added she has been in contact with the attorney general’s office, who told her an opinion is not binding, but would carry weight in court.
“I honestly don’t think it would go forward because, after that, they’re going to have to sue me,” she said, noting if forced to choose between a seat on the council and her position with the Alliance, “I haven’t got that far.”
According to the Kansas Government Journal, there are three factors that could lead a candidate being incompatible for office, as determined by Baker v USD 501. The first is one cannot be an employee and serve as an elected official of the same government entity.
A second factor is that one cannot serve in the same office that keeps check upon another. For example, the Journal notes, one could not serve as both city treasurer and city clerk, because the treasurer’s duties include serving as a check to the clerk’s.
The third factor is that the functions of the two offices can be deemed incompatible.
“For example, if one has the responsibility to vote on budgets for two separate entities, where setting one budget might impact the decision-making of the official in setting the other budget, the positions might be incompatible,” the Journal states. “Just abstaining from voting does not cure the incompatibility problem, because the public is deprived of a fully performing public official in the office, unless the positions only incidentally raise a fee compatibility issues.”
Raub was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.
MANHATTAN – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 7:30 a.m. on Friday in Manhattan.
The Riley County police department reported a 2009 Chevy Cobalt driven by Gary Harris, 63, Manhattan, was traveling near the intersection of College Avenue and Kimball Avenue in Manhattan.
The vehicle left the road and came to rest in a creek bed with approximately 18 inches of water.
Personnel on scene with the assistance of the Manhattan Fire Department extricated 2 occupants from the vehicle, which sustained significant damage, which included fire to the back end.
Riley County EMS transported Harris to Via Christi Hospital where he died.
Devin Busick, 14, of Manhattan was transported to Via Christi Hospital and then a hospital in Topeka for medical treatment of a head injury, according to police.
The accident remains under investigation.
MANHATTAN – One person died in an accident on Friday morning in Manhattan.
The Riley County police department is investigating the accident single-vehicle crash in the 2200 block of College Avenue near Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The victim has not been identified.
An Air medical team flew another passenger to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.
Viola Ruth Burditt, age 92, died on November 17, 2016 at Cedar Village, Ness City. She was born on April 19, 1924 in Ness City the daughter of Harvey C. and Kathryn Nonnast Musbach.
She was a lifelong resident of Ness County and a member of the First Baptist Church, Ness City and enjoyed attending the Leisure Years Activities. Her life revolved around her family and she loved making quilts, dolls, and afghans for her children and grandchildren.
On June 6, 1948, she married Merle Bondurant. She later married Earl Burditt on December 3, 1965 in Ness City. Earl preceded her in death.
Vi is survived by her sons, Russell Burditt, Kansas City, Missouri, Kenny and his wife Bobbi Burditt, Wichita, and Keith and his wife Anita, Ness City; three daughters, Jan Tittel, Olathe, Carol Straub and her husband, Clete, Oklahoma City, and Shari Schweitzer, Olathe; sister Arlene Miller, Ness City; 11 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Earl, brother, Allen Musbach, and her sister Irene Stenzel.
Funeral service will be on Monday, November 21, 2016, 10:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church, Ness City with burial in the Ness City Cemetery. Viewing will be at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, Ness City on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. with the family present on Sunday from 7 until 9:00 p.m.
Memorial contributions to the First Baptist Church.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas court system is seeking a $20 million increase in state appropriations to improve the pay of judges and court employees, who are being paid less than peers in other states.
The request came Friday after two studies found that every job classification in the state’s judicial system was paid below market value, ranging from 4.6 percent to 22.2 percent.
One study from the National Center for State Courts found one-quarter of judicial branch employee positions earn starting salaries below the federal poverty level for a family of four. It also found that one-third of court employees work more than one job, a rate 24 percent higher than the state average.
Court employees have received only a 2 percent cost of living increase in the last eight years.
State officials acknowledged during a legislative hearing Wednesday at the Statehouse that the organizations overseeing and placing children in foster homes may have financial conflicts of interest.
Photo by Dave Ranney
Kasey Rogg, deputy general counsel for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, told a legislative committee that the current system of bundled payments encourages the state’s private contractors to spend less on services for children in foster care. Placement agencies also have incentives to put foster children in homes that might not be appropriate, he said.
“Any business tries to cut costs,” Rogg said in written testimony. “When the private contractors and CPAs in the Kansas child welfare system try to cut costs, their interests could clash with the interests of children.”
Kansas privatized its foster care and adoption systems in 1997 after a class-action lawsuit alleged that DCF’s predecessor, the Kansas Department for Social and Rehabilitation Services, failed to adequately care for children in its custody. Some legislators have questioned the decision in the past year after several high-profile child deaths in foster care.
Two private contractors, KVC Kansas and Saint Francis Community Services, administer services for children in foster care and subcontract with child placement agencies and other organizations.
The state pays a bundled rate for all services provided for children in foster care — such as developing plans for children aging out of the system and providing respite care for families and counseling for children with mental health needs — which could push the contractors to increase their profits by using less funding for those services, Rogg said.
DCF is considering changing to a system that pays contractors based on the actual costs of services for children, but first it has to conduct audits to determine those costs, he said.
“We think the root of it is the way they are paid,” he said.
The department also is working to create an electronic tracking system to better match foster children with homes, according to Rogg’s testimony.
For example, an agency may put large numbers of children into a foster home it works with even though a foster home affiliated with another agency might be a better fit, he said. The system is scheduled to come online in January.
“We’ve had a difficult time identifying where in the system there are vacancies,” he said.
The state also allows child placement agencies to inspect the foster homes they work with, giving them an incentive to approve homes that don’t meet state standards, Rogg said. The placement agencies do the initial inspections, but DCF does follow-ups.
Most people working in the child welfare system have good intentions, he said, but the system has allowed other motives to sway the results in some cases.
“In general, the people who work in child welfare are good-hearted people,” he said. “But I have seen too many foster homes that CPAs gave a clean bill of health where my inspectors found violations.”
Lee Ann Smith Desper, director of communications for Saint Francis Community Services, said the organization is “eager” to hear DCF’s recommendations and work with them on improvements.
“DCF is always seeking to improve the foster care system in Kansas, and that’s a positive thing for all concerned,” she said in an email. “That’s the way the system should work, because ultimately, we both have the same goal: to keep families together whenever possible, while ensuring the health and safety of the child remains paramount.”
KVC Kansas didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Joni Hiatt is Kansas director of programs for FosterAdopt Connect, an advocacy group that represents foster families. She told the committee the problem isn’t necessarily with the contractors themselves but with the system providing more funds to agencies when they use certain homes.
“It’s the nature of the beast. It’s not necessarily the contractor,” she said.
The state could address the conflicts by setting up an administrative agency without a financial interest in the outcome to make placement decisions, Hiatt said.
Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat who also spoke to the committee, said he doesn’t think contractors or agencies are seeking to pad their profits at children’s expense, but some may have to “cut corners” due to limited resources.
“I think they are not getting enough money to provide the services,” he said.
Megan is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC
GOVE COUNTY – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 11a.m. on Friday in Gove County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 GMC SUV driven by Barbara Ogrady Short, 71, Bennington, was westbound on Interstate 70 just west of Quinter.
The SUV entered the median. The driver corrected across both westbound lanes, traveled into the north ditch, overturned multiple times and struck a fence.
Short was transported to Gove County Medical Center.
She was properly restrained at the time of the accident according to the KHP.
Vernice Lorena Forman McBurney was born in Yankton, Oregon to John Latimer Chestnut and Mary Ethel Chestnut on September 23, 1914 during the 10 months her father worked as a logger there. Like her parents, she was a lifelong member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and lived most of her life in Quinter, Kansas. Vernice peacefully left this earth on November 16, 2016 at the age of 102 to be with the Lord.
Although her life wasn’t always easy, it was happy. In her musings about growing up during the depression, she wrote, “We ate many meals of homemade bread and milk. We thoroughly enjoyed life without realizing we were poor.” Vernice graduated from Quinter High School in 1933 and shortly afterward moved to Denver, Colorado. Sometime between 1934-1936 while sharing a ride on her way back to Denver after a visit home, she met Rhea Hulett Forman. They were married in December 1937. While in Denver, she worked at various jobs including working at Lakeside Amusement Park and running Forman’s Cafe and Creamery. By 1947, they had three boys; Rhea, John, and Tom.
Although looking at Vernice you would see a tiny, sweet, smiling lady who always looked out for others and was generous to a fault, we all knew that underneath that soft exterior was a woman of steel. Her life was not an easy one, but her faith and trust in a God of providence sustained her and allowed hope eternal to shine through even in the darkest of times. Mother had a quiet strength that saw her through loss, including the death of her six-year-old sister Madge, her husband, Rhea, in March of 1950, her step-daughter Mary Jane, granddaughter Tammy, great-grandson Michael, and second husband Waldo McBurney. She also took her disabled mother into her home and tenderly cared for her until the Lord called Grandmother Chestnut home.
In 1955, she took her three fatherless boys back to Kansas to be under the guidance and influence of her father John and the boys’ uncles, Don and Calvin. With the help of her father, she ran the Dairy Delight in downtown Quinter. Vernice loved to write, so it wasn’t unusual that when she learned of her dad’s cancer, she chose to pour out her grief on paper; and at the top of the page put a quote by Henri Amiel: “It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man but what he is.” What was true of her dad can also be said of her.
In 1961, an elder from her church knocked on her door requested her hand in marriage. She and Ralph Waldo McBurney were married on April 12, 1962 and Vernice gained two more daughters and a son: Ruth, Mary Jane, and Kenneth. Waldo and Mother ran a honey business selling honey long after most people their age had retired. Her home was a hub of hospitality and many enjoyed the produce and canned goods from their garden and her wonderful pot roast. Her children and grandchildren always anticipated her kind and thoughtful letters, as well as her hand-sewn quilts and stuffed animals. After Waldo took up competitive running, they began traveling to races in places as far away as England, Scotland, and Puerto Rico. It wasn’t long before she ventured off of the sidelines to run and compete herself. She won the bronze medal in the 100-meter dash at the World Athletics Championships in Puerto Rico at the age of 88. Once, worried because we could not reach her for several days, we found out we had not heard from her because she was busy practicing shot put.
She dearly loved her parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren and never missed an opportunity to tell them. She never had any daughters of her own, but she loved and treated her daughters-in-law so well that each believes in her heart that she is Mother’s favorite. She was the rare mother-in-law that was always ready with a word of praise or encouragement and was never known to interfere, demand, or criticize.
She lived with Waldo in Quinter, Kansas until his passing in July 2009. Her sons moved her to Altamonte Springs, Florida after Waldo’s death, where she resided surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren until going home to be with the Lord.
Though in her later years she could not recall things in the present, she never lost the optimism and joy that so characterized her all of her life. In her last years when asked what day it was, she always responded that it must be the Sabbath, her favorite day. If you asked which son had come to visit, she would respond “all three of my boys came.”
Also preceding her passing were her parents, John and Ethel Chestnut, her husbands Rhea Forman and Waldo McBurney, her brother Calvin Chestnut and his wife Elizabeth, her sister Oneita Chestnut McWilliams and her husband Don, her sister Vera Chestnut Rice and her husband Lee, and sister Madge Chestnut, step-daughter Mary Jane Boyle, granddaughter Tammy Boyle, and great-grandson Michael Linders. She is survived by her children: Rhea Forman and his wife, Keay, of Ocala, FL; John Forman and his wife, Lorraine, of Chattanooga, TN; Tom Forman and his wife, Nancy, of Altamonte Springs, FL; Kenneth McBurney and his wife, Virginia, of Beaver Falls, PA; Ruth Mann and husband, Bob, of Colorado Springs, CO; 18 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 23, at the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Quinter. Burial will be in Baker Township Cemetery, Quinter.
Visitation will be Tuesday, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home in Quinter.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Donations to the church may be sent to Schmitt Funeral Home, 901 South Main, Quinter, KS 67752.
Condolences may be left for the family by signing the online guest book HERE.
USGS image of the September earthquake near Pawnee, Oklahoma
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Residents of the town hit by Oklahoma’s worst earthquake have filed a class-action lawsuit against dozens of energy companies, accusing them of triggering dozens of temblors by injecting wastewater from oil and gas production underground.
Pawnee residents filed the suit Thursday against at least 27 companies, saying they operate wastewater injection wells even though they know the method causes earthquakes. The lawsuit seeks an unidentified amount for property damage and devaluation, plus emotional distress.
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Pawnee in September. The lawsuit claims 52 more have hit the area since.
Oklahoma has had thousands of earthquakes in recent years. Nearly all have been traced to underground wastewater disposal.
Regulators have asked oil and gas producers to either close injection wells or reduce the volume of fluids they inject.
Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman said the tree is expected to arrive in Hays between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Friday. As of midday Friday, the tree was nearing Denver, according to the “Track the Tree” feature on the official website.
Hileman
On Saturday morning, Hileman said he will have the honor of escorting the tree to the Missouri border, where he will hand off ceremonial escort duties to Kansas City, Mo., police officers.
Each year since 1970, the U.S. Forest Service has provided a special tree, known as “The People’s Tree,” to be placed at the U.S. Capitol. This year’s tree — and 80-foot spruce — comes from Idaho’s Payette National Forest.
Despite a record breaking high of 84 degrees in Hays Wednesday, Hays Director of Parks Jeff Boyle was looking toward the weekend’s weather forecast calling for two consecutive nights of lows around 20 degrees.
“Every year when the cold weather starts hitting, we will be shutting down our restrooms and drinking fountains in our area parks to keep everything from freezing up and breaking,” Boyle said. “The restrooms are not heated–it’s pretty costly to heat all those.”
“We have to drain the water out of the system, disconnect all the P-traps and do all kinds of interior plumbing to get the water out of the system to keep the pipes from cracking.”
Parks Department employees started the work Tuesday. Each year the shutoff date varies based on fall temperatures.
“We’ve had a phenomenal fall this year and there’s been no need to close those restrooms down. Two years ago though, we were closed down by mid-October,” Boyle recalled.
“We watch the 10-day weather forecast, knowing it takes us four to five days to get our work done. It just depends on Mother Nature.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the search for a missing Kansas infant whose mother was killed (all times local):
10:50 a.m.
Police in Wichita, Kansas, say the FBI has joined the search for a missing newborn whose mother was found shot to death in her home.
Police Lt. Todd Ojile said during a news conference Friday that the week-old infant’s father returned home from work Thursday to find the girl missing and her 27-year-old mother dead. He says the child is believed to be in danger.
Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the girl’s father isn’t considered a suspect.
Authorities haven’t released the name of the parents, but they released the name of the girl, Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Abarca.
Woodrow says authorities have not issued an Amber Alert seeking the public’s help in finding Sofia because investigators haven’t identified a suspect, which is required for such alerts.
—————
SEDGWICK COUNTY -Authorities in Wichita are investigating after a woman was found shot to death and her infant daughter was reported missing.
Police said the 27-year-old woman was found shot to death at her Wichita apartment Thursday, and her week-old infant daughter is missing. The woman’s name hasn’t been released.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says police are talking with the KBI and are canvassing the neighborhood.
Police also say they’re looking no longer looking for a 1997 purple Cadillac with Kansas tags in connection to the case.
Police contacted the occupant. Woodrow says the child’s father also isn’t considered a suspect.
Sofia-photo Wichita PD
————
SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a fatal shooting and searching for an infant.
Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Albarca is 6 days old and is missing from a scene of the shooting in the 200 Block of North Brunswick. The baby’s mother died in the shooting.
The infant was last seen around noon on Thursday and was reported in a purple Cadillac with Kansas License Plate 716GET, according to police.
Police asked if you have any information, call 911.
By BECKY KISER
