WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The father of a 5-year-old Kansas boy whose body was found months after he was reporting missing has pleaded guilty to hitting another child.
Lucas Hernandez
Jonathan Hernandez, 34, Wichita, was sentenced Wednesday to one year of probation and ordered to complete a parenting class after admitting to misdemeanor battery.
Prosecutors said in a news release that Hernandez struck his girlfriend’s 6-year-old, causing redness and swelling on the boy’s chest.
Emily Glass was Hernandez’s live-in girlfriend, and police described her as the stepmother of Hernandez’s son, Lucas.
Hernandez -photo Sedgwick Co.
She reported Lucas missing in February and fatally shot herself last month after leading an investigator to Lucas’ body in May. Prosecutors didn’t charge her in Lucas’ death but described her as a person of interest. Lucas’ cause of death couldn’t be determined.
It’s not often that Hays hosts a musical group whose concerts – by law – must be free and open to the public.
That is the case with the 35th Infantry Division Army Band, based out of Olathe.
Sergeant First Class Nathan Fabrizius, a Fort Hays State University graduate, schedules performances for the group. “I’ve been trying to get them out to Hays for a while,” said Fabrizius, who plays piano for the group’s jazz combo and trombone for its concert band.
The 35th Infantry Division Army Band, established in 1922, is a unit of the Kansas Army National Guard and is made up of 37 citizen soldiers. Members from Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska meet one weekend a month to practice and 2 weeks in the summer.
While the band performs at community events and military ceremonies throughout the year, summer is their primary touring season.
The unit divides into smaller groups including a rock band, two brass quintets, a woodwind quintet, a small brass band, and a jazz combo. The band’s main group is its concert band which plays concert music, pop, classical, and big band selections.
The band will perform multiple free concerts in Hays, with the largest being the concert band performance at 7 p.m. Monday, July 16, at Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center on the FHSU campus.
The full schedule is as follows:
Bullseye Brass Quintet
July 16, Noon
Hays Public Library, Schmidt Gallery
Concert Band
July 16, 7 p.m.
Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center
Jazz Combo
July 17, Noon
Hays Public Library, Schmidt Gallery
Heartland Brass Quintet & Prairie Winds Quintet
July 18, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Historic Fort Hays Site
Hard to Handle: Military Rock Concert
July 19, Noon
Hays Public Library, Schmidt Gallery
Events at the Hays Public Library will include free lunch for the first 30 guests.
Marilyn Jane (Renner) Appl, age 82, passed away on Sunday, July 8, 2018 at the Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. She was born on August 22, 1935, the daughter of Fred Renner and Mildred Fiegel in Cunningham, Kansas
She was a member of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, St. Anthony of Padua Alter Society and V.F.W. Auxiliary of Leoti, Kansas.
On December 28, 1957 she married Keith A. Appl in Marienthal, Kansas. He passed away on January 10, 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Survivors include:
Four Sons Dr. Brad (Nancy) Appl of Prairie Village, Kansas
Clay (Sheryl) Appl of Wichita, Kansas
Cory (Stefanie) Appl of Kansas City, Kansas
Gunnar (Amanda) Appl of Kansas City, Kansas
One Daughter Allison (Monte) Stewart of Belle Plaine, Kansas
One Sister Kathy (Ross) Lane of Baldwin City, Kansas
Fourteen grandchildren; Two Great Grandchildren.
Mass of the resurrection will be held on Friday, July 13, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church of Leoti, Kansas with Father Chris Renner officiating.
Graveside services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 14, 2018 at Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas with Father Meinrad Miller officiating.
Vigil Service will be on Thursday, July 12, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church of Leoti, Kansas.
Friends may call from 10:00 am until 5:00 p.m. Thursday, July 12, 2018 at Price and Sons Funeral Home of Leoti, Kansas.
Memorials are suggested to the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in care of Price and Sons Funeral Home.
SUMNER COUNTY —Two men injured in Monday’s home explosion and fire in rural Sumner County remain hospitalized.
Home is a total loss-photo GoFundMe
According to a GoFundMe page established for the victims, a father and son-in-law team of Rick McPhail and Robert Anglin were working on a home renovation at 1200 Block of N. Geuda Springs Rd. in Sumner County when the whole home exploded.
McPhail was thrown from the second floor and landed in the rubble, breaking his leg and both feet. He pulled himself to safety.
Anglin who had been in the basement was fully engulfed in flames. He managed to pull himself out of the active fire before he collapsed next to McPhail on the ground.
McPhail is expected to recover after surgeries on his leg and feet, according to the page.
“Anglin remains in a coma, with 2nd and 3rd degree burns to over 80% of his body and is fighting for his life.”
Fire officials investigated and determined that propane caused the explosion.
Born Learning Trail in Sunrise Park just east of Roosevelt School
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Within the first six months of forming, the new Wonder Women League (WWL) of the United Way of Ellis County (UWEC) had 35 members, hosted one fundraiser and completed their first Community Impact Project.
The Hays Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting for the Born Learning Trail in Sunrise Park, 19th and Lawrence Drive, was held Tuesday morning.
“We’re very proud of our venture,” said WWL co-chair Nancy Jeter.
The trail was installed by the Hays staff of Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball (ABBB) as a community volunteer project.
The 50 or so employees split up the work over two sessions in June to first install the signposts and then paint the accompanying letters, numbers, colors and even hopscotch on the concrete walking trail. “We had about 25 people each time,” said Brenda Bickle, ABBB financial services coordinator.
Nancy Jeter and Rhonda Meyerhoff, co-chairs of the Wonder Women League with Brenda Bickle of ABBB talk about the new Born Learning Trail
“It’s so fun to have Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball as our partner in our first project,” Jeter added. The ABBB employees will also maintain the trail, repainting it as needed.
The city of Hays Parks Department, with the help of the volunteer Hays Beautification Committee, has installed a pollinators garden along the trail filled with plants to attract pollinating insects and other animals.
The Born Learning Trail is a series of 10 interactive signs describing fun learning activities to be done along the trail by children along with their families and caregivers. The adventures help with pre-literacy, gross motor skills and problem-solving skills.
“It’s fun and also a great learning experience. Studies have shown that children that have that advantage before they even hit preschool, they have an advantage by learning their numbers, their colors, their shapes, and everything,” Jeter reported. “They have a head start on everyone else. And when they don’t, they’re at a greater disadvantage of learning all the way through their education.”
The Wonder Women League is an affinity group of the United Way and operates independently.
“Please know we have no intention of taking away from the United Way of Ellis County,” emphasized Rhonda Meyerhoff, WWL co-chair. “Half of the proceeds from all of our fundraisers will go to the United Way of Ellis County. We want to support them and help that organization to grow and do even more of the really good things that they do.”
Sherry Dryden, executive director of the United Way of Ellis County, live streamed the ribbon cutting event on Facebook.
Sherry Dryden, executive director of the UWEC, who live streamed the event on Facebook, was full of praise for the Wonder Women League.
“They are a phenomenal group and we are totally blessed to have them in our community,” declared Dryden told the crowd about recently attending a regional conference in Gatlinburg, Tenn., where that women’s United Way group took two years to get 35 members and do their first project, “and they were in a county of 300,000 people,” she pointed out.
“These women in our community are amazing. I tell everyone when you see them, don’t run. They will catch you,” Dryden continued as the crowd laughed. “And when they do catch you, you just say yes.”
“When we started this, we talked to a few businesses and they didn’t know who we were. They didn’t know what we were going to do,” Jeter recalled. “We said just give us a chance and we’ll prove ourselves.” WWL now has several year-round sponsors including Werth Wealth Management, Golden Plains Credit Union, Eagle Communications, Bank of Hays and First Kansas Bank.
The next WWL project is a self-defense workshop for women to be held Sat., Sept. 8 at Fort Hays State University. Meyerhoff and Jeter encouraged Ellis County residents to contact the group with ideas for other community projects.
The group is still accepting new members, Jeter said, and hopes to have 50 by December.
“One woman can do a little, but a whole group… We’re going to change things in this community and make it such a better place,” Jeter said with a huge smile on her face. “Just give us the time. We’re going to get a lot of things done.”
My journey into helping families with chronic illness took an unusual path. My grandmother was widowed in 1984. She was about 70 at the time. Soon after, we built an apartment onto her home where my mom could oversee her care. My grandmother was actually doing fairly well. My mom was still working, and their relationship, in addition to being daughter and mother, was really a companionship. They had their evening meals together. They did their shopping together.
In December of 2000, my grandmother had a heart attack. She was given three to six months to live. But, we had a plan: my mom was going to take care of her. Then, two months later, my mother passed away. I became a caregiver to my grandmother.
That began my journey into elder law, and my journey in dealing with families with chronic illnesses.
There are so many lessons from my journey with my grandmother, but one that really sticks out to me at this moment is this: she really did not understand why she would survive her husband, her three brothers, her parents, and all three of her children. I think of all the battles that she and I fought together over the next year paled in comparison to her trying to get her mind around that fact. Why did she have to live to see all of that?
I thought of this story recently, but on a different level. A month or two ago, I had a family come see me, John and Betty. Though they were both still working and a very vigorous couple in their late 60’s, John had been diagnosed with dementia-like symptoms. Even finishing a sentence was difficult. Betty would spend her day working, only to come home and need to address the issues with John. She was exhausted.
We began working with the family. We had one of our care coordinators (in this case a social worker) assigned to John and Betty to help guide them through the process of dealing with a chronic illness, as well as aging issues.
We had a second meeting scheduled with the family, and the care coordinator gave me a heads up: John and Betty were really in distress. The care coordinator was afraid they were angry about something, but she could not put her fingers on it.
When John and Betty came in to see me, I made a special effort to set aside some time to visit with them. In the beginning of the conversation, they related that they felt as if they just did not need help. (Remember that John, many times, could not even finish a sentence.) Betty said, “I am still working, John is still strong as a bull and he gets a lot of work done around the farm.”
I kept visiting with them. Finally, and in tears, Betty said to me, “We are just not supposed to be here now in this condition.”
During the rest of the conversation, it became so evident to me how much she loved John and hated to see him go through what he was going through. But, even more evident, was John’s heart pouring out his love for Betty. He had always been the strong one. He was still the strong one, and he was afraid he was losing that ability. He was afraid that instead of Betty leaning on him, he would have to lean on Betty.
Once all of us realized what was going on, my law partner and I, as well as John and Betty, felt the tension lift from the room. I think just recognizing our fears helped us talk about them and share with each other. Though I left the room and let the care coordinator finish up, I heard laughter coming from the room later on. I knew that some bridge had been crossed.
It does not matter if you are 27 or 87, bad things can happen. You can wake up and find yourself in a position that you never thought you would be in. Many of us are going through that type of journey now. It can make us question so many things that we take for granted in our lives.
My grandmother was never a complainer, but on a handful of occasions she did ask me why she survived all of her family. I wish that I could tell you that I said something profound. I did point out to her that because she was still around, our family, from all sides, got together once or twice a year just to be in her presence. I moved my grandmother to live in the same town with me. We were together the last four years of her life. That experience taught me that many little things are just as important as big things.
Though I have been practicing law for 38 years, though I have been working with people with chronic illnesses and aging issues for almost 15 years, I learned something from John and Betty. I know that their days ahead will be difficult, but I know that they will love each other to the fullest extent that they can, and they will appreciate every moment they have together.
My hope for all of you is that when you do face a situation like this, as is John and Betty and as did my grandmother, you be willing to let people help you. Many times a guide is important.
Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.
Barb Wasinger, Republican candidate for Kansas state representative in the 111th District, announced the formation of her campaign steering committee.
The members are former state Reps. Sue Boldra and Travis Couture-Lovelady, Nikki Pfannenstiel, Dustin Roths, Sara Bloom and Errol Wuertz. It also includes the previously appointed co-chairs of her campaign Sandy Jacobs, Hays city commissioner, and Dean Haselhorst, Ellis County commissioner.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A leading Democratic candidate for Kansas governor accused a rival with an anti-abortion past of trying to mislead voters after he said during a televised forum Wednesday night that he would support women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.
It’s been a long time since Democrats have had a meaningful statewide debate for Governor. We have one tonight. Ready to talk to Kansas about positive change for our state. #ksleg#ksgov#changekspic.twitter.com/f2NtxlUWWz
The exchange between state Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka, who has a strong abortion-rights voting record, and former Kansas Agriculture Secretary Joshua Svaty illustrated the importance of abortion as an issue for many Democrats. The third major candidate in the Aug. 7 primary race is former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, also a strong supporter of abortion rights.
Svaty represented a rural, GOP-leaning central Kansas district in the state House for nearly seven years before becoming agriculture secretary in August 2009. He voted consistently for anti-abortion measures as a lawmaker but has said he would veto any new restrictions if elected governor.
Svaty went further during the forum broadcast live by television stations KWCH in Wichita and WIBW in Topeka, suggesting full support for abortion rights as a candidate for governor. While he did not explicitly label himself “pro-choice” or as a supporter of abortion rights, Svaty pledged to “trust women to make their own health decisions.”
“You can never make abortion illegal,” he said during the forum. “You can only make access to safe abortion illegal.”
His comments led Kelly to point to Svaty’s legislative record. Svaty voted for four bills to tighten state regulation of abortion clinics, at least 11 other measures and twice to override vetoes of anti-abortion measures by then-Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
“I think it’s important that we not mislead voters on where we stand on certain issues,” Kelly concluded.
Kelly called Svaty’s past promise to veto new restrictions on abortion “hollow,” given the raft of restrictions enacted after 2010 under Republican Govs. Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer. She said after the forum that Svaty is trying to “pivot” away from a position that is not playing well among Democrats.
“This is the first time that he’s come out and said women have a right to choose and presenting himself as a pro-choice candidate,” Kelly said. “That is not at all who Josh Svaty was as a legislator, nor is it what he’s been as a candidate until tonight.”
Svaty dismissed the criticism, saying his legislative record is not as important as what he’s done in the past decade. He noted that his running mate, businesswoman and former Army helicopter pilot Katrina Lewison, supports abortion rights.
Kelly has faced criticism from Brewer and others because her choice for lieutenant governor. State Sen. Lynn Rogers, of Wichita, is a former Republican who received the endorsement of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life in a past local school board race. Rogers has an abortion-rights voting record in the Legislature, however.
“I have married a strong, independent woman in control of her own body, and then on my ticket, I have added a strong, independent woman who is in control over body,” Svaty said after the forum.
Brewer stayed out of their back-and-forth but reiterated his strong support for abortion rights.
“In this day and time, I can’t even imagine why we’re even having this discussion because of the fact of equal rights and respecting each other,” Brewer said. “I don’t believe that any man has the right to tell a woman what she should or should not be doing with her body.”
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A former Kansas CPA was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in jail and ordered to pay the cost of his imprisonment, which could be an estimated $34,000, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister. In addition, the accountant was ordered to pay $106,055 in restitution for unpaid taxes.
Robert M. Purinton, 70, Fountain Hills, Ariz., pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement on his 2009 tax return by under-reporting his income. He agreed to make restitution for taxes owed in 2009 and 2010. During those years, he was a CPA with an accounting firm in Overland Park.
McAllister commended the Internal Revenue Service and Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Patton for their work on the case.
HAYS – Fabian Muniz turned in six solid innings on the mound and the Hays Larks offense exploded for 17 runs Wednesday night as the rout the Dodge City A’s 17-2 at Larks Park.
Muniz allowed six hits over six innings and allowed just two runs while striking out four and walking one as he moved to 5-0 on the summer.
The Larks got the offense started early scoring five runs in the first, all with two outs. The big hit came with the Larks already up 3-0 when Cole Solomon lined a pitch into left field that scored one run and an error by the left fielder allowed another to score putting Hays up 5-0.
Already leading 9-2 the Larks blew the game wide open in the bottom of the seventh scoring six times. Matt Munoz capped off the inning with a three-run homerun, his sixth of the season. He also drove in a season-high four runs.
Coach Frank Leo
With the win the Larks take four of six against the A’s this season.
Hays improved to 27-6 and 19-5 in the Jayhawk League. They have Thursday off ahead of a four-game home series with Derby starting Friday at Larks Park.
WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jones -photo courtesy Kan. offender registry
Tommy Jones, 30,Wichita, was convicted by a jury on four counts of sexual exploitation of a child related to incidents that occurred in 2014, according to a media release from the Sedgwick County District Attorney.
The evidence showed that Jones obtained nude photographs from a sixteen year old girl that he had met playing World of Warcraft online.
Members of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, as part of the Exploited and Missing Child Unit, were able to locate the images on Jones’ phone. The teenage victim, who lives on the east coast, was stopped by law enforcement just before she boarded a bus to Wichita to meet Jones.
Jones had previously been convicted of rape and aggravated indecent liberties with a child in Sumner County in 2009.
Under Kansas law, because of the prior convictions from Sumner County, these new convictions triggered the “aggravated habitual offender” statute which leads to a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
