LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A lawsuit brought by the family of a Kansas murder victim against his killer has been settled.
Danny Queen -photo Douglas Co.
Douglas County court records show the case against Danny W. Queen was dismissed after an undisclosed settlement was reached.
The 38-year-old Eudora man is serving nearly 19 years for the murder of 32-year-old Bo Hopson in 2017. A jury convicted him of second-degree murder as well as attempted second-degree murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter for trying to shoot two other bar patrons.
Queen was kicked out of the bar after making offensive comments to women. When Hopson offered to find Queen a ride home, Queen pulled a gun and shot Hopson, who was the bar’s security guard.
The victim’s father, Scott Hopson, sued after Queen’s arrest.
Medicaid expansion supporters at the Kansas Statehouse
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A government transparency group says the Kansas attorney general’s office has dismissed part of a formal complaint, while continuing to investigate whether the public was denied the right under the Open Meetings Act to observe Senate business after the visitor gallery was closed during a protest.
The Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government sought intervention by Attorney General Derek Schmidt after the May 29 Senate session was interrupted by supporters of Medicaid expansion.
Reporters were removed from the chamber during the protest. Senators, legislative staff, employees of the governor and others were allowed to remain.
Sunshine Coalition President Ron Keefover says the attorney general’s office notified the organization that allegations the Senate violated its own rules and operated contrary to the First Amendment went beyond its authority.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The DUI case against Kansas Sen. Vic Miller has been referred to Shawnee County District Court from Topeka Municipal Court, where Miller used to be chief judge.
Vic Miller -photo Shawnee County booking photo
City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield says the case was referred to the county for charging consideration due to potential conflicts. Miller was the municipal court’s administrative judge from 2011 to 2015.
The court’s website shows that the municipal charges for DUI and inattentive driving were dismissed on June 20.
Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay says his office has received the charging affidavit from Topeka police and the case will go through the normal review process.
Topeka police arrested Miller in May after finding him inside his crashed vehicle in the ditch. Police said he wasn’t injured but appeared intoxicated.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old man accused of trying to kill a Manhattan police officer has pleaded no contest to attempted voluntary manslaughter. Mark Harrison of Manhattan entered the plea Thursday.
Authorities on the scene of the 2018 shooting and barricade situation photo courtesy WIBW TV
The charges stem from a standoff with police on Feb. 5, 2018 during which he fired more than 30 times . One of the bullets struck Riley County Police Sgt. Pat Tiede.
A jury found Harrison guilty in February of criminal damage to property for gunshot damage to an armored vehicle sheltering officers. He was found not guilty of attempted capital murder related to two officers who were inside it.
A retrial had been scheduled on the attempted capital murder charge involving Tiede after jurors could not reach a verdict on that count.
Kansas wants students to get vaccines against measles, polio and more, but many remain under-vaccinated. CHRIS NEAL / FOR THE KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
More than one in 10 kindergartners in Kansas schools last year lacked at least some of the shots that the state requires to shield students against outbreaks of measles, whooping cough and more.
On paper at least, Kansas law requires children to get such vaccines to attend school. Yet school boards get to decide whether to enforce that, and some balk at turning children away.
Kansas health officials surveyed hundreds of schools and found one in five didn’t have any policies on excluding those kids for lack of vaccinations.
Replies from those schools reflected worries about children falling behind on their learning if kept out of classrooms, or about cuts to state aid that hinges on enrollment.
Coffeyville nurse Kali Morgan reflected in the door of the fridge where her clinic stocks vaccines for children and teens who attend Coffeyville schools, and their families.
CREDIT CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Enough kindergartners appear to be getting shots against diseases such as polio, tetanus and hepatitis B to hit federal targets — and make all kids safer by lowering the chances of an outbreak — but Kansas lagged on shots for measles and chicken pox.
Kansas doesn’t survey statewide inoculation rates for grades other than kindergarten.
Herd immunity not only cuts the overall risk of outbreaks, it shields those in society most susceptible to serious illness. That’s people who can’t get immunized because they’re too young or have compromised immune systems.
Most of the state’s under-vaccinated kindergartners do not have religious or medical exemptions. Combined, those two groups made up just 2%. Kansas schools can’t deny entry to that 2% except when necessary during active outbreaks.
They can deny entry to the much larger group of children who have neither the required vaccines nor the legal exemptions to them.
Coffeyville Public Schools, seated in a county that hit the state’s ambitious herd immunity target last year, aims to get vaccines to every child whose parents are willing. Children who arrive with gaps in their vaccine history get put on catch-up schedules to get them up to speed at a safe pace.
“I want the children to be protected from those diseases that used to devastate the pediatric community,” said Stephanie Ackley, a registered nurse at the 1,000-student elementary school, the largest in the state.
Ninety percent of her school’s students were on track with required shots this school year, Ackley said, or else working their way through the catch-up schedule.
“And that’s with a lot of people coming in that have never had vaccinations,” she said.
Ackley works at one of three health clinics at the district’s schools, operated by the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas.
The organizations teamed up several years ago, and families quickly turned to the new, convenient locations for primary care. Immunization rates shot up in a district where school officials and nurses recall them as abysmal before. By way of example, about a third of third-graders met the rules before the clinics opened, compared to nearly all of them today.
“If you have kids who aren’t getting shots, what do you do?” said Jason Wesco, the community health center’s executive vice president. “You go where the kids are.”
It frustrates him that more health care providers don’t take the same tack.
“It’s self-evident,” he said, “but we have a health care system that’s more interested in expensive tests and specialty care.”
Surveys and federal data suggest towns like Coffeyville face steeper hurdles to herd immunity. Rural areas have fewer pediatricians. Additionally, most children in Coffeyville schools come from low-income families. Poverty often leaves families with less preventive care.
Desirae Judd’s 4-year-old son gets his vaccines at the Coffeyville school clinics.
“It makes it really accessible,” Judd said. “When Emmett was born, we had a pediatrician that we loved … He moved away.”
Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @Celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
MARION COUNTY — Emergency crews 0n Monday located the body of a boater reported missing Sunday at the Marion Reservoir, according to the sheriff’s department.
Just after before 9:30 a.m. Monday, officials found the body of Steven Meyer, 46, Eudora, according to the sheriff’s department..
Kansas Game Wardens are assisting with a multi-agency search for a man who went missing at Marion Reservoir. Game Warden Jake Spear is using a KDWPT drone to search from above.
Just before 1:30a.m. Sunday, the sheriff’s office received a report of the missing boater and located the victim’s truck and boat trailer at the Marion Cove boat ramp, according to the sheriff’s department.
Just after 3a.m. Sunday, crews recovered the unoccupied boat floating against trees along the north side of the reservoir near Nighthawk Road.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office, boats from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and a Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft were assisting in the search.
Meyer’s body was released to the coroner’s office for an autopsy, according to the sheriff’s department.
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MARION COUNTY — Emergency crews continued the search for a missing boater on Sunday at the Marion Reservoir, according to the sheriff’s department.
Just before 1:30a.m., the sheriff’s office received a report of the missing boater identified as a 46-year-old from Eudora.
Authorities located the victim’s truck and boat trailer at the Marion Cove boat ramp, according to the sheriff’s department.
Just after 3a.m. Sunday, crews recovered the unoccupied boat floating against trees along the north side of the reservoir near Nighthawk Road.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office, boats from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and a Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft were assisting in the search.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a Kansas traffic stop.
Maria L. Gallegos-Martinez photo Shawnee Co.
On Friday, a Shawnee County Sheriff deputy initiated a traffic stop on a 2008 Volvo on Interstate 70 near Valencia Road for a registration violation, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.
Deputeis located illegal contraband in the vehicle that included 9 kilos of cocaine and 1 kilo of black tar heroin. The street value of the contraband is estimated to be around $1,000,000.
Deputies arrested Maria L. Gallegos-Martinez, 41, of Indianapolis, Indiana on requested charges of Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell, Possession of Heroin with Intent to Sell, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, according to Stallbaumer.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A United States Senator from Kansas hopes more federal resources will help fight a growing problem in rural America: farmer suicides.
Sen. Jerry Moran says it is a disturbing trend.
“Well, sadly, there are a significant number of farmers, family farm members, who commit suicide and the numbers are increasing,” according to Moran.
Moran of Kansas inserted the allocation in the Farm Bill.
“I think about farmers who look back and they recognize that their great-grandparents, their grandparents, their parents; they were able to keep the farm together and succeed and pass it on to another generation and I’m sure there’s this concern, this worry that, ‘Why can’t I do that? Why are things so difficult? Why can’t I manage this farm, operate it in a way that allows me to pass it on to my kids?’ So, there’s tremendous stress in agriculture today,” Moran says.
Moran sponsored the Farmers First Act with Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
“We’ve set out to be helpful,” Moran says. “There are, of course, not enough mental health services in rural America, probably not enough mental health services anyplace in the country and so we’re trying to strengthen the ones that we have and encourage them, provide them the resources to help farmers and ranchers in rural America.”
While Moran succeeded in getting more federal money to tackle the problem, he suggests a little neighborly concern could make a big difference.
“What I would say is that all of us know farmers and ranchers. We need to check in. We need to have conversations with them. We need to pay attention to how they’re doing and we need to encourage them if it is suggested that it’s needed to see a professional, to seek out counseling, to talk to their minister, their pastor, to talk to friends,” Moran says. “We can’t allow farmers to be isolated.”
Moran says a 2016 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found agricultural workers have a higher suicide rate than individuals with any other occupation.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former federal prosecutor who’s been an executive in a company that invests in medical marijuana has launched his campaign as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas.
Barry Grissom courtesy photo
Kansas City-area attorney Barry Grissom entered the race Monday after months of hinting that he would run. Four-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is not seeking re-election in 2020.
Grissom served as U.S. attorney for Kansas from 2010 to 2016 as an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama. He has since served as corporate counsel and a vice president for Nevada-based Electrum Partners.
Grissom jumped into the race after state Sen. Barbara Bollier said she may seek the Democratic nomination. Bollier won her Kansas City-area district as a moderate Republican and switched parties last year.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita police dog that helped comfort crime victims has died of cancer.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of KSDS Laddy, the Wichita Police Department Victims Services Dog. Laddy served the community from January 28, 2014 to June 27, 2019. Laddy battled cancer earlier this year. Please keep his handler Michelle in your thoughts. pic.twitter.com/Ss9dCOYb9W
— Officer Paul Cruz (@officerpaulcruz) June 30, 2019
The city of Wichita announced the death of the yellow Labrador retriever named Laddy on social media Sunday. Mayor Jeff Longwell said in a tweet that he would “immensely miss Laddy stopping by for treats and pats.”
Laddy was trained at the Kansas Special Dog Service campus in Washington to act as a calming presence to people struggling with stress and anxiety from violent crimes. Laddy joined the Wichita Police Department’s Victims Assistance Unit in 2016 at the age of 2. Michele Blunck, Laddy’s handler, said at the time that dogs aren’t “silent” or “judgmental.” Blunck says, “They just are there for you.”
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found the body of a missing teen in the back of a tractor-trailer in Kansas City, Kansas.
17-year-old Jasmine Mills, of Olathe, had been missing for two days when her remains were found Saturday morning in an industrial area near the Kansas River. Her mother, Deanna Peters, says her daughter was supposed to go do some odd jobs for an adult friend when she was last seen.
Peters says the friend Jasmine was supposed to be working for told her Jasmine never arrived. Peters is waiting for police to determine what caused her daughter’s death.
Police in Kansas City, Kansas, and Olathe are investigating. Olathe police have released little information except to say the death is suspicious.
MILLER COUNTY, Mo— One person died and five were injured after two boats collided just after 10p.m. Saturday at Lake of the Ozarks.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Formula Cruiser driven by Bradley Siebenek, 37, Holts Summit, was headed downstream at the four-mile mark of the Osage Arm. A 2002 Formula cruiser driven by Kelly L. Wise, 59, Atlantic, IA., was headed upstream when the boats collided.
The body of Jason Russell, 39, Eugene, was recovered by divers at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in 80 feet of water, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol
EMS transported Siebeneck and passengers in the 1999 Formula Brian D. Basham, 42, Eldon, Wise and a passenger in the 2002 Formula Tammy Wise were transported to Lake Regional Hospital.
Nathan P Sneller, 37, Jefferson City, was airlifted to University Hospital. They were not wearing life jackets, according to the MSHP.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an arson fire and have a suspect in custody.
Wesley Howell photo Shawnee Co.
Just after 1 p.m. Saturday. fire crews responded to a structure fire located at 911 SE Bellview Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Michael Martin.
Upon arrival, fire crews found the two story wooden frame residential structure with smoke showing. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack, keeping it confined to the structure of fire origin.
A preliminary investigation indicates the fire was intentionally set, according to Martin. The estimated dollar loss is $15,000, of which all is associated with structural loss.
During the course of the investigation a suspect was identified. Police arrested 32-year-old Wesley E. Howell. He booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of arson.
