SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Wednesday morning accidents in Shawnee County and have released the identity of the driver.

According to Shawnee County Sheriff’s Captain Danny Lotridge, a Subaru Legacy driven by Cherie L. Wasson, 52,  Berryton, was westbound in the 4700 Block of SE 69^thStreet in rural Shawnee County just after 7a.m

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It slid sideways into the ditch and struck a tree.

Wasson was pronounced dead at the scene. AMR transported her 11-year-old son who had been in the front seat to a Topeka hospital with serious injuries.

He remains hospitalized but is expected to recover, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.

 

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SHAWNEE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 7a.m. Wednesday in Shawnee County.

According to Shawnee County Sheriff’s Captain Danny Lotridge, a Subaru Legacy driven by an adult female was westbound in the 4700 Block of SE 69^thStreet in rural Shawnee County.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It slid sideways into the ditch and struck a tree.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. AMR transported a juvenile male passenger who had been in the front seat to a Topeka hospital with serious injuries, according to Lotridge.

The names of the driver and passenger are being withheld at this time pending family notifications.

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Nearly seven months before publicly announcing its plans to close, an embattled Kansas military school amended its incorporation document to remove the Episcopalian church that founded it from getting the property once the school shuts down.

The revelation came when the document, signed by the school’s president last year and filed with the Kansas secretary of state’s office, recently became public. It was brought up in an alumni group’s social media posting and has raised questions at a time when supporters are working to keep St. John’s Military School in Salina open.

The Episcopalian boarding school announced in February it planned to shut downafter its May 11 commencement. The 131-year-old school for boys in grades 6 through 12 said at the time “the landscape of education has changed dramatically,” resulting in lower enrollment and unsustainable higher costs of education. It claimed it had unfairly become a target for litigationand negative media portrayals.

The school has been dogged over the years by litigation alleging it failed to properly supervise cadets and that its practice of giving higher-ranking cadets the power to discipline younger ones encouraged a culture of physical and mental abuse.

Military schools nationwide have been closing their doors amid declining revenues and falling enrollments. At least three others have announced closures in recent years in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

St. John’s did not release its enrollment numbers.

The school amended its articles of incorporation to remove the Protestant Episcopal Church of Western Kansas from getting the property once the school closes. The school’s new bylaws — signed on July 27, 2018, by school president William Clark — stipulate that once its liabilities are paid and any donor instructions followed, the remaining assets would go to the St. John’s Military School Endowment Fund or another nonprofit group with a similar charitable mission. St. John’s endowment fund was formally dissolved last week, according to a filing at the secretary of state’s office.

This is a change from amended bylaws filed in April 1994 that specified those assets should go to the Protestant Episcopal Church of Western Kansas or the bishop of the diocese of that church. Its founding 1888 document also said its property could not be transferred without the written consent of the bishop.

It is uncertain what will happen to the school’sfacilities. Clark did not respond to a request for comment and current Bishop Mark Cowell downplayed the disagreement.

“We are kind of hoping they will find a way to not close, but right now it doesn’t look like that is an option,” Cowell said. “If they end up closing, I think that we understand we have positions as to who it belongs to and I think we are working on resolving those.

“But there were a lot of people who thought that we were at odds and we are not,” he added. “We’ve enjoyed working with St. John’s for a long time and I think the dispute between us has really gotten somewhat inflated.”

The church is still interested in having a military school on the Salina campus, but the bishop said he doesn’t know if anybody can purchase it for that purpose. If not, he said the church plans to work with the school to find a good use for the property. The school has said it needs to raise $20 million to cover capital improvements and other costs to stay open.

“The trustees are still working this out and the property is still under their control, so right now I am letting them handle it,” Cowell said. “I think they are doing a good job.”

Neither the school’s attorney, Peter Johnston, nor two trustees contacted by The Associated Press responded to questions about why the school amended its articles of incorporation last year.

However, an email from Johnston to a former cadet that is posted on an alumni group’s Facebook page argued the change was spurred by the church’s desire to end any formal affiliation with the school after it was named as a defendant in at least one lawsuit against the school.

In the latest litigation, an arbitrator ruled in December that the school failed to adequately supervise cadets entrusted to its care and intentionally inflicted emotional distress in 2014 on a bullied 11-year-old student who had been physically tied together with his harasser in public as punishment. Shortly thereafter, the boy was allegedly raped and sodomized by his harasser in the dorm. St. John’s didn’t respond to requests for comment on the case.

Cowell said that while the church didn’t have any oversight of St. John’s when the lawsuits were filed, and believed it should not be named as a defendant, that is not the same thing as not having an interest in the school.

The nonprofit corporation’s tax documents show that by the end of May 2017, St. John’s Military School was running $1.71 million in the red — bringing in revenues of nearly $4.7 million at the same time it racked up expenses of more than $6.4 million. The school also valued its assets that year at $9.48 million, with liabilities of $11.2 million listed.

BARTON COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just after 7:a.m. Thursday in Barton County.

A 2000 Chevy Tracker driven by Erin L. Schmidt, 28, Hoisington, was eastbound in the 300 Block of Northeast 190 Road, according to Sheriff Brian Bellendir.

The vehicle entered the south ditch, struck a culvert at a farm driveway, became airborne and rolled several times before coming to rest on the driver side.

Schmidt was still in the vehicle when first responders arrived. She was transported to the hospital in Hoisington with possible head and neck injuries, according to Bellendir.

She was the only occupant of the vehicle and was wearing her seatbelt at the time of the accident, according to Bellendir.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 4-month-old boy who was found injured in a Wichita home where his brother died is recovering from his injuries.

The boy, named Tai, was severely underweight and had broken bones when officers found him last month along with the body of his 2-year-old brother, Zaiden.

Zaiden’s parents, Brandi Marchant and Zaiden’s dad Patrick Javonovich, are charged with felony murder and child abuse.

Tai’s father, Julius Casura, saidthat his son is reacting to lights and people talking to him. He says Tai is expected to make a full recovery.

Casura said he recently found out he was Tai’s dad and he’s trying to get full custody of the boy. He says he was unaware of the alleged abuse his son endured.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug charges after a Wednesday traffic stop.

Just after 10a.m., Shawnee County Sheriff deputies seized approximately 87 pounds of Marijuana worth an estimated  $175,000 from a traffic stop on eastbound I-70 near MacVicar Avenue, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.

A 2019 Dodge Caravan and a 2019 Nissan Armada, were involved in the traffic stop.

Deputies booked Preston G. Payne, 33, of Rossville, GA, and Ruth A. Sayger, 30, of Chattanooga, TN, were into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges that include Distribution of Hallucinogens, Use/Possession w/Intent to Use Drug Paraphernalia.

The Kansas Highway Patrol assisted with the arrest.

By DEWEY TERRILL
JC Post

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Oscar-winning screenwriter and Junction City native Kevin Willmott is involved in the work on a new movie. He is collaborating with co-writer Spike Lee on a film, Da 5 Bloods, a drama about black Vietnam War veterans.

Willmott told JC Post, “I have a new film that I just wrote with Spike that’s shooting in Thailand right now.”

“It’s about black soldiers in Vietnam,” he added.

Willmott has just returned from Thailand. He said the film is going to be on Netflix.

A professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas, Willmott won an Oscar for best-adapted screenplay for co-writing BlacKkKlansman.

Willmott is a graduate of Salina’s former Marymount College.

Salina Post

SALINA — The Salina Area Chamber of Commerce is trying to help locate family members of the person listed on the label of this old record. From the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page:

 

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are again investigating alleged computer scams involving gift cards.

On Wednesday, a 66-year-old Salina man attempted to use his computer  only to find a message on the screen that said access was denied because the computer had been compromised and that he was to call the phone number listed, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

The man called the number and spoke to a person claiming to be with Microsoft who told him that someone had debited $20,000 on a credit card account belonging to the man and his 65-year-old wife and that the alleged Microsoft employee would clean up the problem for a fee paid for in prepaid gift cards, Forrester said.

The man then went to stores throughout Salina and purchased a total of $11,000 worth of gift cards and read over the phone to the alleged Microsoft employee the information on the back of the cards, according to Forrester.

After the couple checked with the credit card company, they determined that there was no such $20,000 transaction on their account.

On Wednesday, Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse reported his staff was seeing scammers use gift cards to steal money from the unsuspecting public. Scammers are telling their victims to buy gift cards (iTunes – Google Play, etc.,) at Walmart and other retail stores.   A recent victim to this scam was contacted by a scammer who told him that his computer had a “virus”, and the scammer had him believing they would fix the problem once he provided them a payment via a gift card.

Morse reminded, “Anyone who asks you to pay for anything, including tech support services with a gift card is scamming you. No legitimate company will ever ask you to pay with a gift card.”