By Mallory Houser
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA— The Senate Judiciary committee heard strong debate between public safety and the power of rehabilitation this week during the discussion of SB12, possibly changing the required distance between where a sexual predator lives and places where children frequently reside.

SB12 revises the residency restrictions for sexually violent predators who have been convicted, served time in prison and completed a civil commitment process upon release, receiving treatment for mental defects.

The current law prohibits transitional or conditional offenders to live within 2,000 feet of a school, daycare, church, or a residence where a child lives.

SB12 clarifies that any place a person on the civil commitment program resides is subject to the restrictions. The bill also grants the district court power to make exceptions to restrictions. There is a limit provided that the court cannot set a restriction less than 500 feet.

Christy Molzen, representing the Kansas Judicial Council, spoke in support of the bill. Molzen said some restrictions are necessary, but the court should consider specific circumstances.

“If we want these people to be able to successfully reintegrated into the community, they do need to be closer to their support systems.” Molzen said.

Opposing the bill, Eldon Dillingham, representing the Family, Friends, and Other Concerned Citizens of SPTP (Sexual Predator Treatment Programs) Residents and as the father of a sexual predator, testified to making changes to SB12. Dillingham stressed that many people who go through the civil commitment program have spent years in reintegration centers and are unable to find places to live due to the restrictions.

“If it is legitimately a treatment program, they need to start being moved out,” Dillingham said. “We can’t continue to have a containment program. And that’s what it really is.”

Dillingham said the court historically sides with the agency, and that court discretion is not enough.

The committee voiced concerns about possible re-offenders and public safety. Dillingham agreed that public safety is always a priority, but added that offenders change during the duration of the program.

-Mallory Houser is a University of Kansas junior journalism major from Dallas.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man who fled from police while an officer was hanging on to his steering wheel was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

Dyllon Alan Tucker, 25, was sentenced Friday for the April 2016 incident.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports police found Tucker asleep in his car with music playing loudly.

When they woke Taylor up, he drove off in his car with officer Cassandra Caviness hanging from the driver’s door. The officer was dragged for several hundred feet before she shot Tucker in the shoulder.

Caviness suffered a broken arm.

At the time, Tucker was on 18 months of probation on a drug conviction. His sentences on that charge and a second previous case were added to his sentence for his encounter with Caviness.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man was killed driving on a highway Thursday when a wheel from a trailer being towed broke loose and struck his windshield, causing him to crash into a concrete barrier.

The victim has been identified as 67-year-old Michael J. Skali of Kansas City.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says Skali was driving southbound on Interstate 435 when the wheel from the trailer going northbound crossed the median and struck Skali’s windshield on the driver’s side. Skali then collided into the barrier on the left side of the road and died at the scene.

The driver of the pickup truck towing the trailer was not hurt. Both men were wearing seat belts.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man who attacked and injured several children at a suburban Kansas City playground has been found not guilty by reason of mental illness.

A Johnson County judge on Friday found Javan Lockett not guilty but ordered that he be committed to Larned State Hospital for evaluation.

Police say that in March 2015, Lockett injured three children and endangered more than a dozen others at a playground near his home in Lenexa. The children suffered mostly cuts, bruises and scratches.

Police arrested Lockett after receiving reports that a man was pointing a gun and throwing rocks at people.

The Kansas City Star reports at a hearing in January, two mental health experts testified that Lockett was experiencing a schizophrenic episode at the time of the attack.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The special election for the congressional seat formerly held by new CIA Director Mike Pompeo has added new urgency to pending court decisions in multiple federal lawsuits challenging restrictive voter registration requirements in Kansas.

Gov. Sam Brownback has called an April 11 special election to fill the 4th District seat covering southcentral Kansas.

Preliminary court orders allowed Kansans who registered using a federal form or at motor vehicle offices to vote in the November election even if they didn’t conform to a disputed Kansas requirement to provide documentary proof of citizenship to vote, such as a birth certificate, naturalization papers or a passport.

The uncertainty comes in part because federal judges hearing three separate cases unfolding in Kansas and in Washington, D.C. could rule on pending motions seeking summary judgment that could impact April’s special election.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Hutchinson man has been sentenced to three years in prison for a drunken-driving accident that killed his friend.

Twenty-year-old Dakota Wade James was sentenced Friday for a May 15 wreck on the Barton/Stafford county line. Investigators say James missed a curve and  his pickup truck rolled, leaving 20-year-old Jacob Kenny of Great Bend dead.

James told authorities after the accident that Kenny had been driving. James also had a history of alcohol-related violations, including a DUI arrest four months before the crash.

Prosecutors charged James with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence but he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter by reckless behavior.

A 30-day sentence for filing a false police report will run concurrently with the prison time.