HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man facing trial for the armed robbery of Dollar General in Hutchinson in October of last year was found in contempt of court on Friday after an outburst in front of Judge Tim Chambers.
The outburst came during a discussion over an attorney for Leroy Randall, 54, Hutchinson.
His attorney had filed a motion to withdraw because he and Randall had disagreements over how to proceed with the case.
Randall had other attorneys assigned to this case and he told this attorney he might file an ethics complaint against him.
Judge Chambers denied that request and that led to an outburst from Randall accusing his attorney of acting like a prosecutor.
Judge Chambers and the defendant were in a shouting match at one point until deputies removed him from the courtroom.
Judge Chambers indicated that he will set a hearing within the next week or so to see how they will proceed.
Randall may want to represent himself. He is charged with two counts of kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated assault.
Police say a Dollar General employee reporting that she heard a knock at a back door of the business.
Thinking it was the other employee she opened the door and a black male came in the store, stuck a gun in her face and demanded money.
That employee reportedly screamed, causing another employee to come out of the bathroom of the store.
Randall is then alleged to have pointed the gun at him as well. Both testified to what happened and both admitted to being scared. One thought the gunman was going to shoot them. He also made them give him their cell phones.
During the robbery, Randall allegedly got away with over $5,480.
Randall’s female roommate testified that he told her what he was going to do and then after he came back, she watched him count the money. She also admitted that she cut up a stocking cap they he used as the mask in the robbery.
The trial was scheduled to begin next week. Randall remains jailed on a bond of $125,000.
photo by Elle Moxley- Helen Stoll answers questions at Vikingpalooza, a fundraiser for Shawnee Mission West High School athletics. Stoll, a Democrat, doesn’t think moderate Republicans can fix problems in Topeka.
Growing up in Shawnee, Tom Cox remembers looking up to “traditional Republicans.”
Politicians like Bill Graves, Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum – Kansans who were willing to reach across the aisle and set political ideology aside in the interest of public policy.
“My pitch at the door? ‘I’m running against a Brownback Republican, and I’m an anti-Brownback Republican,’” Cox said. “We need to save our state. We need to focus on tax reform, education reform and protecting local governments as a start.”
Running on a pro-public education platform, Cox unseated one of those Brownback Republicans, Brett Hildabrand, in the August primary. But the anointed Republican nominee for House District 17 still has to win in November.
In a lot of ways, though, Cox still sounds like he’s running against Hildabrand, which could be a problem.
Because his Democratic opponent, Helen Stoll, sounds like she’s running against Tom Cox.
“We keep referring to my opponent as moderate, but I don’t know that we know that for certain,” Stoll said.
Democrats also claim ‘moderate’ label
Stoll said the Kansas Democratic Party is the party of fiscal responsibility.
“I think what we see happening right now, the decisions that are being made, the tax plan, the way the bills are being paid and spending is being done, it is not conservative,” she said, alluding to the current Republican majority in the Legislature.
Photo by Elle Moxle Self-described moderate Republicans Tom Cox and Dinah Sykes unseated incumbents in the August primary. They’re hoping a pro-public schools platform resonates with general election voters too.
Paul Davis, the Democrat who challenged Brownback in 2014, won this Johnson County district.
That creates an opening for Stoll. She doesn’t think it matters that Cox and so many other moderates won their primaries.
“To my mind, nothing has changed because the problems are not fixed yet,” she said.
Stoll said there’s too much infighting in the Republican Party for moderates to move the state forward.
But most of the competitive matchups this fall aren’t between self-described “moderates” and Democrats. They’re between “Brownback Republicans” and Democrats.
“I always start off saying I’m the library director and I serve on city council,” said Adrienne Olejnik, a Democrat running in the expansive 51st House District. “That way, people hopefully realize I’m a pretty normal person. You know, I’m like them. I’m involved in the community, and I want to work with others. I also am very clear that party lines don’t mean a great deal to me.”
Olejnick has been knocking on doors in Shawnee, Riley, Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie and Lyon counties for months. She’s called herself a conservative Democrat, described her politics as “in the middle” and claimed to be the “real” moderate in the race.
“Regardless of which party you officially align yourself with, it labels you,” she said. “It defines you. So in some ways, you’re working against that all the time.”
If Olejnik can unseat conservative incumbent Ron Highland, it would be a big win for a Kansas Democratic Party trying to regain ground. Democrats haven’t had a majority in the state House for a quarter century. They haven’t had a Senate majority for nearly 100 years. It’s not going to happen this election cycle, either.
Democrats could give moderates a majority
But if moderates with a “D” next to their names can work with moderates with an “R” next to their names, the Statehouse looks very different come January.
“Every one of those conservatives that a Democrat defeats gives moderates more power in the Republican caucus to elect their own leadership and puts moderates in a position where they have to bargain less with conservatives,” said Patrick Miller, a political science professor at the University of Kansas.
Miller wasn’t surprised by how many moderates won in August. After all, moderates hold seats in Johnson County, and in far western Kansas where President Obama only got 15 percent of the vote.
“They can win anywhere in a low-turnout primary, no matter how Republican or conservative a seat is as long as it’s their voters getting out,” Miller said.
General election voters don’t turn out for down-ballot legislative races. They turn out to pick the president.
“If Trump keeps 1 percent of Republicans from coming out, if they stay home, that could be the difference in some of these races,” Miller said. “One thing we know about state legislative races, not just in Kansas but elsewhere, is voters don’t pay a lot of attention to them in November.”
That means the vast majority of Kansans won’t be casting anti-Brownback ballots. They’ll vote for Democrats or Republicans, not moderates.
PRATT – Fall hunting seasons may have started, but there’s still time to get into a Kansas Hunter Education class near you. October is chock-full of opportunities, and with Internet-assisted courses, finding one to fit your schedule has never been more convenient. The easiest way to find a class near you is to visit ksoutdoors.com and click “Hunting,” then “Hunter Education.” Students must be 11 or older to be certified. However, hunters 15 or younger may hunt without hunter education certification provided they are under the direct supervision of an adult 18 or older. Otherwise, anyone born on or after July 1, 1957 must be certified by an approved course before they can hunt in Kansas.
Class schedules are organized by format: traditional or Internet-assisted. Traditional hunter education courses are 10 hours long and are usually held over two to three days. Internet-assisted courses are designed to meet the needs of individuals with busy schedules by providing online classwork that can be done at home. After the Internet work is completed, students must attend a field day, which often includes live-fire, trail-walk and safe gun handing exercises before final testing and certification. Students must register for an Internet-assisted course (field day) before completing the online portion.
Classes fill up quickly, so early registration is encouraged. Sign up today and we’ll see you in the field!
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 27-year-old man has been charged in the death of a Wichita woman.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Dane Thomas Owens is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in connection with the shooting death of 22-year-old Rowena Irani. He’s also charged with aggravated burglary.
Owens made a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on the felony charges, and is being held on $500,000 bond. His next court date is Oct. 20. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer.
Authorities say Irani was found unconscious Monday with a gunshot wound to her head. She died later at a hospital.
GEARY COUNTY – A man was injured in an accident just after 4p.m. on Saturday during a pursuit by law enforcement.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Honda motorcycle driven by Devin C. Booth, 20, Peoria, IL., was merging onto Interstate 70 westbound from Kansas 18.
The driver accelerated to a high rate of speed, attempted to flee and elude police while driving in excess of 100mph.
The motorcycle exited J Hill Road at a high rate of speed. The driver was unable to make a right turn at that speed. The motorcycle flipped and tossed the driver.
Booth was transported to Geary Community Hospital. He was wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.
Details on what prompted the chase was not released.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas’ chancellor knows firing a gun on campus areas with pressurized gas cylinders, rocket fuel and other combustibles might be disastrous. But she says the school can’t ban guns in such places.
State-run universities in Kansas must begin allowing concealed weapons onto campuses next July. Schools must submit proposed policies to the governing Kansas Board of Regents by October.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little told the University Senate on Thursday there are high-security labs and other campus areas where shooting a gun would be dangerous. But she says the state’s attorney general has told the school it can’t make those places exceptions to state law.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Investigators are asking people for their assistance as they continue to look for a Kansas City area woman who has been missing since Sep. 8.
Detectives are hoping area residents who have trail cameras will review their footage.
Trail cameras are used to observe wildlife or trespassers and are usually motion activated.
The Kansas City Star reports detectives investigating the disappearance of 21-year-old Jessica Runions want anyone in the Kansas City metro area with trail cameras to review their video footage from Sept. 8 and Sept. 9 to see whether they have footage of a dark-colored SUV or anything out of the ordinary.
Runions was last seen leaving a party on Sept. 8. Her SUV was found burned in Kansas City.
Twenty-eight-year-old Kylr Yust was arrested and charged with burning the vehicle, but not in the Runions’ disappearance.
A judge entered a not guilty plea on Yust’s behalf.
President Obama meets with inmates- White House photo
President Barack Obama is cutting short the sentences of 102 federal inmates as part of his ongoing push to grant clemency during his final months in office, according to a media release. Three are from Kansas.
Almost all of those receiving commutations were convicted of drug-related offenses. Most are considered nonviolent offenders, although some were convicted of firearms charges in connection with drug crimes. Many of the recipients had been serving life sentences.
But Obama isn’t setting them all free right away. Many of those receiving commutations will see their sentences end in October 2018, almost two years into the next president’s term.
The latest round brings to 774 the number of sentences Obama has commuted, including 590 this year. The White House says it’s more than the previous 11 presidents put together. See the full list here.
Leroy Fondren, Jr. – Kansas City, KS
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; use of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime; District of Kansas
Sentence: 180 months’ imprisonment; five years’ supervised release (March 26, 2007)
Lavelle Henderson – Topeka, KS
Offense: Continuing criminal enterprise; money laundering; District of Kansas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years’ supervised release (November 22, 2002)
Lincoln Cardell Henderson – Kansas City
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of “crack” cocaine; possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of “crack” cocaine; Western District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release (August 31, 2004)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — With Republican Gov. Sam Brownback for now refusing to say how he’ll keep Kansas’ budget balanced, some GOP lawmakers are promising more aggressive oversight.
Some even want to challenge the governor’s longstanding control over annual spending blueprints.
Senate President Susan Wagle outlined a proposal this week to give lawmakers a bigger role as internal documents from state agencies showed how they might reduce spending.
Some agencies’ potential cuts would eliminate programs that keep state prisons from becoming crowded or even hinder efforts to collect taxes.
Kansas has struggled to hit revenue targets and balance its budget since GOP legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging as an economic stimulus.
Monthly tax collections have fallen short of expectations 71 percent of the time since.
DENVER (AP) — Federal air crash investigators say a pilot was unfamiliar with his plane’s fuel system and pilot error contributed to a 2015 propeller plane crash near Eaton that left two Kansas men dead.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the pilot lost control in gusting wind and crashed because of the error.
According to the Denver Post the plane had monitors on separate fuel tanks and the pilot failed to notice he was running out of fuel.
The pilot was identified as 35-year-old Jared Langston, of Holyrood, Kansas, and the passenger was identified as 41-year-old Benjamin Bates, of Lyons, Kansas.
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a fatal, road rage shooting.
Just after 12:30 a.m. on Saturday officers with Topeka police responded to a local hospital after report of a gunshot victim who had arrived by personal vehicle, according to a media release.
The victim, Michael Sadler, 28, Topeka, was suffering from critical injuries and died.
Police identified a potential crime scene in the 1300 Block of SW 29th Street. They say Sadler was a passenger in a vehicle traveling near the intersection of SW 29th and SW Burlingame Road, became involved in a road rage argument.
Police say suspect vehicles include a dark blue Chevy SUV or a red or orange motorcycle with unknown occupants. The involved parties did not know each other prior to the incident, according to police.
COWLEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Cowley County are investigating a teen for criminal threat.
Just after 8 a.m. on Friday, Police received information about a possible threat directed toward Arkansas City High School, 1200 W. Radio Lane, according to a media release.
The information came from a social media post associated with clowns.
An investigation into the post began immediately, culminating at 2 p.m. when officers located a possible suspect in the case at a home in Arkansas City.
The 17-year-old juvenile was processed by officers and released to the custody of a parent, pending case review by the Cowley County Attorney’s Office.
Photo by Andy Marso/KHI News Service Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka Republican, speaks during a candidate forum this week at the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center. At left is Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democrat from Topeka, and at right is Candace Ayars, Schmidt’s Democratic opponent in the November election.
Senators from both parties predicted a renewed effort to remove disability support services from KanCare during a candidate forum this week in Topeka.
The forum hosted by the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center focused on disability issues and featured candidates for state and federal office.
Mike Oxford, the center’s executive director, asked the candidates if they thought home and community-based services, or HCBS, should continue to be administered by three private insurance companies as part of the state’s managed care Medicaid program.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democrat from Topeka, told the crowd of about 50 that he was part of an effort to keep those services out of KanCare when it was launched in 2013.
“Unfortunately we were not successful in doing that,” Hensley said. “I, for one, would be more than willing to revisit that issue and try to carve that out.”
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration agreed to leave home and community-based services for Kansans with developmental disabilities out of KanCare for the first year, in favor of a voluntary pilot program. That decision came after disability advocates and service providers argued that the daily support services were fundamentally different from the acute medical care that insurance companies had more experience covering.
Efforts to keep services for people with developmental disabilities out of KanCare past the first year were unsuccessful.
Sen. Vicki Schmidt of Topeka, the lone Republican legislative candidate who attended this week’s forum, said “there was a lot of fear, a lot of unknowns, a lot of questions that we had” about privatizing the services at the time.
The past two years have not dispelled those concerns, she said, citing persistent billing problems and delayed payments from the KanCare companies as examples.
Schmidt said she hoped the next Legislature would discuss separating home and community-based services again.
“Now we have history on our side, and history tells us about how big some of the KanCare issues are,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt’s Democratic opponent, Candace Ayars, is a public health specialist who formerly worked for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Ayars said she opposed privatization of Medicaid services because health care is a unique industry with priorities that conflict with profit motives.
“There are probably two places where business has no business,” Ayars said. “One of those is health care and the other is education, and we’ve seen firsthand what trying to put those on a for-profit model does.”
More conservative legislators who have supported KanCare did not attend the candidate forum.
The Brownback administration has said KanCare will save the state $1 billion over its first five years while also improving health outcomes by coordinating care.
Angela de Rocha, a spokeswoman for state agencies, said she had requested information on how much it would cost the state to remove HCBS services from KanCare. Regardless of the financials, she said the state “does not believe it would benefit individuals receiving waiver services.”
HCBS providers have complained about increased billing complexities since the switch to KanCare and recent policy changes they say will cut their reimbursements.
Some people receiving the services have waged public battles against reductions in services. But the three KanCare insurers have produced clients who have praised their administration and expressed gratitude for the work of specific case managers.
Those stories are frequently aired at meetings of the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight.
Renae Hansen is a former staffer on that committee who is now the Democratic candidate for Kansas House District 54.
During the forum Hansen said based on what she had heard at the committee meetings, she also favors changes to KanCare.
“There’s all kinds of issues and it really needs to be looked at,” Hansen said.
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
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