WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are accusing two former Wichita police officers and a gambling operator of obstructing justice, saying they revealed the identity of an undercover officer who was investigating illegal gambling, an indictment unsealed Thursday says.

The indictment charges police officers Michael Zajkowski, 50, of Wichita and Bruce Mackey, 45, of Goddard with obstruction of law enforcement along with gambling operator Brock Wedman, 48, of St. Marys. Wedman also is charged with lying to the FBI.

Also separately charged Thursday in a related criminal complaint is retired Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Frederikson, 52, of Derby. He is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI about his participation in an illegal cash poker game and contacts with the man running the illegal gambling business.

Court records do not indicate whether the men have attorneys. The Wichita Police Department referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office, but said Chief Gordon Ramsay will attend Friday’s regular media briefing.

Investigators have been looking into an illegal gambling business with ties to public corruption in Wichita since November 2011, according to an FBI affidavit. Investigators learned of more than five different business establishments throughout Wichita and identified numerous individuals involved with the illegal live poker games.

A member of the Wichita Police Department’s undercover narcotics section developed an unwitting informant who offered to introduce an undercover officer into the game, according to the affidavit.

Thursday’s charges against the four men follow two Wichita men’s guilty pleas last week to federal gambling and income tax charges related to operating an illegal gambling business in the Wichita area. One of those men, Danny Chapman, pleaded guilty last Friday to one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of tax evasion. The other, Daven Flax, pleaded guilty to two counts of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making a false statement on a tax return. Flax admitted he managed illegal games at numerous locations in Wichita.

The latest charges, which include those against the police officers, stem from a Feb. 12, 2014, poker game during which Zajkowski and Mackey allegedly used Police Department resources to determine the ownership of a vehicle driven by the person who they suspected was an undercover investigator. Prosecutors say they revealed the identity of the officer to Wedman and other co-conspirators and that Frederiksen, while still a Highway Patrol trooper, was a player in that game.

The undercover investigator posing as a gambler tried to use his phone to snap photographs, and the men running the game took him aside and told him he was making other players nervous by taking photos, according to the FBI affidavit.

The government alleges Zajkowski and Mackey made a series of phone calls and sent texts, using police resources to learn the ownership of the vehicle the suspected undercover officer drove to the game in an effort to learn his identity. The calls were allegedly made at the request of Wedman and other co-conspirators.

Zajkowski and Mackey then provided the undercover officer’s identity and the vehicle information to Wedman and others, according to the indictment. The vehicle was registered to the city of Wichita and was in service to the Police Department.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City, Missouri, man who was thousands of dollars in debt from a drunken driving case has pleaded guilty to a Kansas bank robbery that netted just $615.

Prosecutors say 41-year-old Ryan Michael Cothern pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbing a U.S. Bank in Overland Park in October 2017.

Investigators say Cothern handed a teller his cellphone with a message demanding she put money into a bag. The teller placed $615 and a GPS locator in the bag and pulled the alarm. Cothern was arrested about 7 miles from the bank.

Johnson County records show Cothern was released from jail four days before the robbery. He was under court order to pay back more than $14,000 he owed in an earlier DUI case.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Wichita Police Department Captain has been placed on unpaid administrative leave in connection with a weekend incident during a youth-league sport event in Augusta, according to officer Charley Davidson in a media release.

The Augusta Police Department is investigating the incident that showed the officer pushing a referee during the game.

The Wichita Police Department, according to policy, will review the incident to determine if department polices were violated, after the completion of the investigation or criminal proceedings. At this point, no charges have been filed. The Wichita police department did not release the officer’s name.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect in connection with a robbery and kidnapping.

Just after 8pm. Monday officers responded to a disturbance with weapons call at a business in the 1000 Block of East Douglas in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. A 24-year-old woman told police she had arranged through Facebook to sell a ring to an unknown man at a sandwich shop in the 500 Block of North Hillside.

The suspect entered the woman’s vehicle, produced a handgun and forced her to drive to several different locations, according to Davidson.

The woman was eventually able to use a phone at a convenience store after the suspect took the ring and her phone.

After an investigation police on Wednesday were able identify a 32-year-old suspect. They took Miguel David Ibanez into custody, according to the Sedgwick County booking report. He is being held on a $100,000 Bond on requested charges of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and outstanding warrants.

Police did recover the woman’s cell phone but not her ring, according to Davidson.

Ibanez has previous convictions for criminal threat, aggravated assault and felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An 18-year-old Topeka man is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting death at a hotel.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay on Thursday charged Logan Lee Able Bartley with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery.

Prosecutors allege Bartley shot 31-year-old Jesse Lee McFall last week at a Best Western Hotel.

Topeka police say McFall was shot several times during an argument at the hotel.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Key senators and farm groups are trying to fix a provision in the federal tax overhaul that gave an unexpected tax break to farmers who sell their crops to cooperatives rather than regular companies.

Lawmakers say they didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops. But it’s not clear they can rework the legislation given the partisan divide on Capitol Hill. That means many companies — from local grain companies to agribusiness giants such as Cargill and ADM — could wind up paying more for crops than co-ops.

The provision from GOP Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Hoeven of North Dakota surfaced in the final days of the debate over the tax bill, which President Donald Trump signed last month. Thune and Hoeven wanted to replace a deduction that benefited co-ops in the old law, which was being dropped, and they wanted to make sure farmers didn’t wind up with a tax increase.

But the final language went further than maintaining the status quo.

“I think at the end of the day what it boiled down to is the staff didn’t know what they were doing. … They rushed this thing through,” said U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.

Agricultural co-ops are typically owned by farmers, and they provide their members with help with marketing crops, purchasing supplies and various other services. They range from small and local co-ops to big, nationwide ones such as Land O’ Lakes and Sunkist Growers.

The new provision lets farmers deduct 20 percent of their gross sales to co-ops, but only 20 percent of their net income if they sell to other companies. The difference is big enough that farmers who sell to co-ops could entirely eliminate their tax bills.

“If it stands the way it is, you’re going to see a dramatic change in who farmers sell their product to,” said Paul Neiffer, a partner with CliftonLarsonAllen, a national accounting firm with clients on both sides.

Farmers who do sell to regular companies may be able to command higher prices to help make up for the lower tax break.

Kristine Tidgren, assistant director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University, calculated that a farmer with $300,000 in income from grain sales to a regular company and $180,000 in expenses would have $86,400 in taxable income for the year. If that same producer sells to a co-op, she said, the farmer would have just $48,000 in taxable income.

“It’s a huge difference. … We’ve tried to tell everyone to hold on and see what happens before you make any major changes to your business,” she said.

Hoeven’s chief of staff, Ryan Bernstein, said the senators didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops and their farmer-patrons. They’ve been working with the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and other parties to find a quick solution, he said.

Greg Ibach, undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the tax code shouldn’t “pick winners and losers” and the agency expects a correction.

The new tax break has at least one defender, the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group’s president, Mark Watne, said efforts to change it “may not be in the best interest of farmers or the viability of cooperatives.”

Spokespeople for Thune and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said they’re supporting efforts to fix the provision.

Randy Gordon, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, which represents co-ops as well as regular companies, said there’s been progress in the past week. He said in a newsletter Wednesday that all sides have held several meetings and conference calls to explore alternatives.

Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, the country’s third-largest agricultural co-op, and Illinois-based ADM both said they look forward to a fix.

But it won’t be simple. Bernstein said Hoeven and Thune are looking at attaching it to must-pass legislation, likely a big spending bill expected to come up late next month. That assumes that everyone agrees on a solution by then.

Even a must-pass bill likely would require 60 votes to pass the Senate, which would require some support from Democrats.

“All it’s going to take is a couple Democrats in the Senate to derail the whole thing. … I’m willing to help, but it looks like a long shot to me,” Peterson said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal inspectors say they found no evidence the Topeka Zoo violated any standards before the death of a 35-year-old elephant.

Inspectors were called after the Dec. 11 death of Shannon, an African elephant.

Deputy Topeka city manager Doug Gerber says a veterinary medical officer from the U.S. Department of Agriculture presented a report to the zoo Tuesday.

The cause of the animal’s death has not been determined. The veterinary pathology department at Kansas State University is evaluating tissue samples taken from the elephant.

Shannon died that day after she spent about 20 hours on the ground over a two-day span. When she was found on the ground Dec. 10, a team lifted her back up but she was found back on the ground the next day.

LYON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating four suspects on burglary and drug charges.

An alert citizen followed the “SeeSomethingSaySomething rule,” according to the Lyon County Sheriff’s department. As a result,  four suspects were caught in the act of breaking into buildings in the 200 block of Road 190 on Wednesday afternoon.
Deputies arrested Diana Lee, 59; Clinton Moody, 28; Andrea Redburn, 31 and Nathan Kennedy, 33, all of Emporia

Moody and Redburn also had outstanding warrants they were arrested for various charges, according to the sheriff’s department. Moody has a previous drug conviction and DianaLee has a previous theft conviction, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Corporation Commission is studying how recently enacted federal tax cuts could affect public utilities.

The KCC on Thursday announced the general investigation and ordered utilities to track all savings from the tax cuts and to keep those funds in a separate interest-bearing account.

The tax cuts reduce the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 to 21 percent.

The commission’s announcement came after Westar Energy, Kansas City Power and Light, and Black Hills Energy announced they will ask for regulatory approval to lower their rates because of the tax cuts.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports KCP&L expects to save up to $100 million a year, while Westar anticipates it will save about $65 million a year. Black Hills did not say how much it anticipates saving.

PRATT, Kan. – A 38-year-old Pratt man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to two counts of child sex crimes according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Matthew T. Gamblin pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The crimes occurred between October 2014 and May 2015.

Judge Francis E. Meisenheimer accepted the pleas in Pratt County District Court. Sentencing is scheduled for February 26 at 10:30 a.m.

The case was investigated by the Pratt Police Department.