JOHNSON COUNTY -The two suspects in the kidnapping and assault of the Kansas Deputy are William Luth, 24, and Brady Newman-Caddell, 21, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.

They have each been charged with aggravated kidnapping, 2 charges of rape each and aggravated sodomy. They are each being held on a $1M bond. They are expected to make a first court appearance later this week.

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JOHNSON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Johnson County continue to investigate the weekend abduction and sexual assault of a Kansas Sheriff’s deputy.

Two suspects are in custody in Jackson County, Missouri, according to a media release.

Investigators also have located and secured a vehicle believed involved in the incident.

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JOHNSON COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities have released additional details in the weekend abduction and sexual assault of a Kansas Sheriff’s deputy.

The suspect’s vehicle is a dark blue, 4-door, 2015 or 16 Mazda 3. Surveillance cameras captured a white male occupant of the vehicle force the woman into the car, according to a media release.

Surveillance video also shows a front and rear license plate on the car but police do not have a state or tag number.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department says the deputy was abducted late Friday from a parking lot as she headed into work at the detention center in Olathe. It says the deputy, who has been with the department for about six months, did not know the two abductors and was not in uniform at the time.

The deputy was released about two hours later in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

The FBI is assisting with the investigation and a $5,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A  man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually attacked and suffocated his daughter, a high school honors student, at a motel.

Forty-year-old Jerry Bausby entered the not-guilty plea last week in Jackson County on charges of first-degree murder, sodomy, incest and sexual abuse in the March death of 18-year-old Daizsa Laye Bausby.

Authorities say Daizsa Bausby’s body was found March 22 in a Kansas City motel room. A medical examiner concluded the teenager died of asphyxia by smothering.

Police say Bausby denied having sexual contact with his daughter, and that lab tests completed last month show genetic material swabbed from Jerry Bausby’s body matched the victim’s DNA.

Bausby remains jailed on $750,000 cash bond.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican leaders are already conceding that the Kansas Legislature won’t be able to stick to a traditional 90-day schedule for its annual session next year.

The Wichita Eagle reported hat the GOP-dominated Legislature’s top seven leaders decided Tuesday to budget for an additional 10 days in session for 2017, for a total of 100 days. Democrats opposed the move.

Legislators expect to wrestle with difficult budget decisions and to write a new formula for funding the state’s public schools.

However, to control costs, legislative leaders also agreed to budget for only an 80-day session in 2018. The moves shift roughly $500,000 in costs to 2017.

The 2015 session lasted a record 114 days as lawmakers struggled to balance the budget but this year’s session lasted only 73 days.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas transportation officials say more than 300 people have died in traffic accidents this year, a 16 percent increase over the same period in 2015.

Kansas Department of Transportation traffic safety manager Chris Bortz says there was a 25 percent increase in traffic fatalities last year, with nearly 360 deaths.

Bortz says the increase is a national phenomenon and that distracted driving is likely one of the causes.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 50 percent of traffic fatalities in Kansas involve people who weren’t wearing a seatbelt.

About a third involve people driving while distracted, and another third involve people driving while drunk or otherwise impaired.

Interim transportation secretary Richard Carlson says that even looking down at one’s cellphone for what seems like a short amount of time is dangerous.

CHERRYVALE, Kan. (AP) — Police in the tiny town of Cherryvale, Kansas, looking to track down the owner of an abandoned gram of crystal meth have taken their case to social media.

 

A bag with methamphetamine was found Sept. 29 at a convenience store in the southeast Kansas community of 2,300 people. So Cherryvale police politely posted about it on the department’s Facebook page.

The post reads: “We are very concerned and would like to find the owner so please notify us and describe the packaging and we will see what we can do for you.”

It’s been shared nearly 1,700 times. But Police Chief Perry Lambert says no one has come forward as the owner of the illegal stimulant — though he says he’s hopeful.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Haskell Indian Nations University employee alleges in a lawsuit that she was demoted from her job as a student counselor after trying to help a student who said she was raped.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Angelina Adams sued Monday in federal court.

Adams says Haskell leaders improperly expelled the female student after she became involved in an altercation with a male Haskell student in March. Adams protested and said the female student hadn’t been given due process.

The female student said she was a 19-year-old freshman when she was raped last November in a university dorm. Both of her accused attackers also were expelled and their trials ended in hung juries.

Haskell spokesman Stephen Prue didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

GARDNER, Kan. (AP) — The Gardner Edgerton School District has agreed to a $1.8 million settlement with three former top administrators who sued the district after they were fired in 2014.

Former superintendent Bill Gilhaus and two of his top aides sued the district and four school board members who voted to fire them. The administrators said the board denied them due process when their firings were announced during what they said was hastily called illegal meeting.

The Kansas City Star reports Gilhaus’ aides, Christy Ziegler and Lana Gerber, also alleged they faced sexual discrimination from two male board members.

The district said in a statement Tuesday that the school board strongly disagreed with the allegations but thought accepting the settlement was the most responsible action.

GEARY COUNTY -Former Kansas State University student Paige Shoemaker was arrested in Geary County on Friday.

Shoemaker, identified for what was reported as a racially charged social media post in September was arrested for alleged theft, according to the Geary County Sheriff Department booking report.

Shoemaker posted bond and was released.

For more on Shoemaker’s controversial social media activity.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman pleaded no contest to abusing two mentally challenged men. Twenty-one-year-old Brooke Shinn entered the plea Tuesday to two felony counts of attempted mistreatment of a dependent adult. Two other charges were dropped.

Shinn cared for the men in a home where they lived in Lawrence while working for ResCare in 2015.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports an arrest affidavit says that for several months, Shinn beat the men, locked them in their rooms for days and locked one in a small closet.

Prosecutor Amy McGowan recommended that Shinn be sentenced to a year of probation for each count, to be served consecutively. She also recommended Shinn serve 10 days in jail and several other conditions.

Shinn, who no longer works for ResCare, will be sentenced Nov. 21.

SEWARD COUNTY – Two people died in an accident just after 12:30a.m. on Tuesday in Seward County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Saturn Vue driven by Marcos Morales-Lux, 36, Guatemala, was westbound on U.S. 54 four miles west of U.S. 83 in the left, eastbound lane of travel and hit a 2016 Kenworth semi head-on.

Morales-Lux and a passenger Encarnacion Perez-Gutierrez, 29, Guatemala, were pronounded dead at the scene and transported to Brenneman Funeral Home.

The semi driver Paul Logan, 41, Oak Grove, was transported to the hospital in Liberal.

A passenger Michael Drinnon, 55, Lawrence, was not injured.

The occupants of the Saturn were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

BY ANDY MARSO

In a small, windowless room at the University of Kansas Child and Family Services Clinic, Julie Boydston put on a few sock puppets and explained that they’re more than just toys.

Like the dollhouse and costumes in the room, the puppets are tools that help student counselors get children with behavioral and mental health problems to open up.

“They can’t talk to you about their feelings,” Boydston explains. “But maybe they can say what ‘Mr. Duck’ thinks or ‘the frog is sad’ and why is he sad.”

The clinic provides counseling services to children and their families on a sliding scale based on income — no insurance necessary.

Boydston, a clinical psychologist, has been involved in the clinic for more than 10 years, as an adjunct professor and supervisor. But this year she was given a new role as the clinic’s director and charged with increasing outreach to expand the clinic’s role serving families throughout northeast Kansas and sometimes beyond.

Ric Steele, the director of KU’s clinical child psychology program, says before Boydston’s position was added, faculty members served as clinic directors in addition to their other duties.

“So with this move we’ve got someone who’s dedicated to really expanding the services and to think about how we can really address the needs of this part of the state,” Steele says. “This was a long time coming, and it represents a real opportunity to provide better services for people and enhance our training.”

Steele’s department also added two faculty members this year, including one who specializes in autism. Their presence and research will help the student counselors in the clinic serve more people more effectively, he says.

The counselors — all graduate students — had 1,793 appointments in the fiscal year that ended in July, a 30 percent increase from 1,377 the year before.

The number of clients seen rose from 397 to 461.

“I would say (demand) continues to grow,” Boydston says. “There’s a high need.”

Steele says there are multiple reasons for the increase.

One is that awareness of childhood behavioral and mental health issues has grown substantially in the last decade, especially when it comes to autism spectrum conditions.

While more families are seeking services, funding for community mental health centers, which are the only providers in some areas, has remained static or even been cut in recent years.

The community mental health center funding cuts also have reduced job opportunities for the program’s graduates.

“I can think of two or three community mental health centers that are down to really kind of bare bones in terms of the number of doctoral-level providers,” Steele says. “Until that turns around, that’s an issue.”

But Steele says “a surprising number” still opt to stay in Kansas, considering that many students come to the program from other states.

There are 19 student counselors in the program this year, and six more who just started the program will be able to provide counseling at the end of this semester or beginning of the next.

Boydston says that’s about average the last few years, so physical space constraints — the program has seven counseling rooms — are becoming a limitation, especially during the evening hours when more families prefer to make appointments.

But the program’s public role continues to grow. The clinic recently hosted its first Kids Behavioral Wellness Fair at the Lawrence Public Library.

“We really do kind of fill a need,” Steele says.

Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso

NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald’s says Ronald McDonald is keeping a low profile with reports of creepy clown sightings on the rise.

McDonald’s Corp. said Tuesday that it is being “thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events” as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities.” The company did not provide any other details about how often its red-haired mascot makes appearances, and how that will change.

The burger chain’s decision comes after a rash of pranks around the country that have involved eerie clown sightings. The reports have forced police in some areas to respond.

PAWNEE COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 6a.m. on Tuesday in Pawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Kenworth commercial truck driven by Shawn Allen Steinle, 44, Salina, was westbound on Kansas 156 one mile west of Burdett.

The truck went off the roadway into the north ditch.

It traveled west, hit a KDOT post, came out of the ditch, crossed the road, entered the south ditch, hit a fence line and jackknifed in the south ditch.

Steinle was transported to the hospital in Larned. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.