SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect in connection with a shooting during a disturbance.
Wilseman photo Sedgwick Co.
Just before 2 a.m. Monday, police responded to report of a disturbance at a bar and grill in the 4800 block of East Harry in Wichita, according to office Charley Davidson.
Upon arrival, officers observed a large crowd of individuals involved in a disturbance in the parking lot of the business. They also heard a single gunshot and officers immediately conducted a traffic stop on a 2007 Chevy Tahoe. During the traffic stop officers located a handgun and arrested the drive 30-year-old Porsche Wiseman of Wichita.
There were no injuries.
She was booked on requested charges that include criminal discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol and unlawful possession of narcotics, according to Davidson.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury on Monday ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. to pay a combined $2.055 billion to a couple claiming that the company’s popular weed killer Roundup Ready caused their cancers.
Roundup, the Monsanto brand name pesticide built on the chemical glyphosate, is used on farm fields and on lawns and gardens. FILE: by GRANT GERLOCK / courtesy HARVEST PUBLIC MEDIA
The jury’s verdict is the third such courtroom loss for Monsanto in California since August, but a San Francisco law professor said it’s likely a trial judge or appellate court will significantly reduce the punitive damage award.
The state court jury in Oakland concluded that Monsanto’s weed killer caused the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Alva Pilliod and Alberta Pilliod each contracted. Jurors awarded them each $1 billion in punitive damages in addition to a combined $55 million in compensatory damages.
A federal jury in San Francisco ordered the weed killer maker in March to pay a Sonoma County man $80 million. A San Francisco jury last August awarded $289 million to a former golf course greens keeper who blamed his cancer on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready herbicide. A judge later reduced the award by $200 million.
The three California trials were the first of an estimated 13,000 plaintiffs with pending lawsuits against Monsanto across the country to go to trial. St. Louis-based Monsanto is owned by the German chemical giant Bayer A.G.
Bayer said Monday that it would appeal the verdict.
“The verdict in this trial has no impact on future cases and trials, as each one has its own factual and legal circumstances,” the company said.
The company noted that none of the California verdicts has been considered by an appeals court and that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers the weed killer safe.
The EPA reaffirmed its position in April, saying that the active ingredient glyphosate found in the weed killer posed “no risks of concern” for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, in yards and along roadsides, or as residue left on food crops.
“There is zero chance it will stand,” said University of California, Hastings School of Law professor David Levine. He said the ratio between the $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages is too high. He said judges rarely allow punitive damages to exceed four times actual damages awarded.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that any punitive damages exceeding 10 times the compensatory damages are likely unconstitutionally high. The court didn’t propose a ratio it felt correct, but said punitive damages should almost never exceed nine times actual damages, it said.
The punitive damages awarded Monday are 36 times the actual damages.
The lawsuits have battered Bayer’s stock since it purchased Monsanto for $63 billion last year and Bayer’s top managers are facing shareholder discontent.
Chairman Werner Wenning told shareholders at Bayer’s annual general meeting in Bonn last month that company leaders “very much regret” falls in its share price. At the same time, CEO Werner Baumann insisted that “the acquisition of Monsanto was and remains the right move for Bayer.”
Bayer’s stock price closed Monday at $15.91 a share, down 45 cents or 2.76 percent per share, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The verdict was announced after the trading session closed.
Bayer’s share price has lost half its value since it reached s 52-week high of $32.80 a share.
SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on a series of arrests connected to a South Florida hip-hop festival.
Josh Jackson photo Miami Dade Police Dept.
Authorities say Phoenix Suns forward and former University of Kansas basketball player Josh Jackson was arrested after refusing to leave a VIP area at a South Florida hip-hop festival.
A Miami-Dade police report says Jackson was arrested Friday night and charged with resisting arrest and escape at the Rolling Loud Festival, which was held Friday through Sunday at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Police are investigating connections between the festival and a series of shooting that killed a Chicago rapper, wounded another rapper’s girlfriend, left a bystander dead and injured a little boy.
An officer says Jackson was told to leave a VIP because he didn’t have a pass. The report says Jackson left, returned and then refused to leave, prompting the officer to handcuff Jackson and remove him from the area.
The report says Jackson was told to sit on a golf cart but ran away when the officer wasn’t looking. Jackson was located a short time later and taken to jail.
Jackson was released Saturday on $1,000 bail. His next hearing in June 10.
Jackson played the 2016-17 season for the Kansas Jayhawks before he was selected as the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft.
Brock Robinson was sentenced Monday for second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault. He is the second of three men from Columbus, Kansas, sentenced in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Taven Williams and the wounding of another man.
A sentencing hearing for 21-year-old Azaiah Forester is scheduled for June 10. The third defendant, 23-year-old Erik Jones, was sentenced in November to 15 years in prison.
Police say Williams was killed in January 2017 when he tried to stop the three men from robbing another man of a large amount of marijuana. The target of the robbery was wounded.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers have passed a bill that could give parents and guardians greater rights in end-of-life decisions involving children.
Sheryl Crosier photo courtesy Kansans for Life
The House gave final approval Monday to “Simon’s Law” — named for a St. Louis boy with a rare genetic disorder who died at 3 months old in 2010. His parents said they discovered later that hospital employees did not try to save their son’s life because a doctor had issued a do-not-resuscitate order without their knowledge.
The legislation prohibits medical personnel from instituting do-not-resuscitate orders for those younger than 18 without the consent of at least one parent or legal guardian.
Simon’s mother, Sheryl Crosier, emotionally thanked Missouri lawmakers Monday as she watched them vote on the bill.
Kansas became the first state to enact a similar law in 2017.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A court document reveals lurid details of sexual abuse allegedly committed against inmates by a former dental lab instructor at the Topeka Correctional Facility.
Tomas Co -photo Oklahoma Co. Sheriff
The suspect, 73-year-old Tomas Co, is facing seven chargesof unlawful sexual relations with seven different inmates at the women’s prison. The affidavit is based on interviews with 25 inmates during an investigation by a Kansas corrections department special agent. It says Co flaunted his authority over inmates, touched them inappropriately and removed the pockets of his pants to allow one inmate to touch him sexually.
A judge made the affidavit public Friday after The Topeka Capital-Journal asked for its release.
Co taught inmates to make dentures in a program designed to teach them a marketable skill. He was fired in December.
His attorney, Chris Joseph, said no one has independently verified the women’s stories.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Law enforcement officials say 219 people were arrested and 583 warrants were cleared during a crime-fighting initiative in Kansas City, Kansas.
The effort involving local, state and federal agencies was called Operation Lateral Storm.
Police Chief Terry Zeigler said Monday the task force ran from March 1 until the end of April and targeted gang, drug and gun activity. Officers concentrated on five districts with the most crime in the city.
Officers investigated drugs being smuggled in Kansas City, Kansas when it led to a search warrant at a residence. Approximately 13 pounds of methamphetamine and 2 kilo’s of Heroin seized! Great bust!! pic.twitter.com/g5qOFQjsJr
Zeigler said this type of operation has a long-term impact on crime because it targets the worst criminals and results in them getting long prison sentences.
The initiative had a budget of $60,000 to cover overtime for officers. It falls under the U.S. Marshals’ nationwide crime reduction initiative called Operation Triple Beam.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to 121 months in federal prison for receiving and distributing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister. In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay $6,500 in restitution.
Pedro Zamora is in custody in Atchison Co.
Pedro Zamora, 36, Leavenworth, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that investigators found 127 videos and 1,900 images containing child pornography on a computer in his home. He used file sharing programs to collect and distribute the images.
Zamora told investigators he began searching for child pornography on the internet when he was in middle school.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas State Board of Education is concerned enough about e-cigarette use among high school and middle school students that it is reviewing the issue.
image courtesy FDA
The 10-member elected board is scheduled to have a presentation on vaping Tuesday, during its regular monthly meeting.
The board plans to get a briefing from a Kansas Department of Health and Environment official who oversees efforts to reduce youth tobacco use and a presentation from the Blue Valley school district in Johnson County about its efforts to reduce vaping.
The federal Food and Drug Administration says e-cigarette use among high school and middle school students nationally jumped 78 percent between 2017 and 2018. The state school board said a 2017 survey showed that more than one-third of high school students had tried e-cigarettes.
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say no one is believed to still be missing after three people were rescued from a flooded vehicle in east-central Kansas.
Flooding in rural Lyon County-photo Lyon County Sheriff
Lyon County Undersheriff John Koelsch says the three people who were rescued early Saturday told deputies that there were initially five people in the car. They said two of them left to get gas for the stalled vehicle because they thought it was out of fuel. They never returned, and the three who were rescued after the car floated into a ditch didn’t know their full names.
Koelsch says the area was searched and no one else was found.
Authorities also arrested a man on a bicycle who ignored officers’ commands to stay put and attempted to go into the water to rescue the stranded motorists.
Kansas is one of just a handful of states that doesn’t allow a person injured by a drunk driver to sue the retailer who furnished the alcohol.
The driver who nearly killed Jeff Kudlacik had consumed at least eight alcoholic beverages over several hours before he got into his car. BIGSTOCK
On Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld that 34-year-old rule, saying it was up to the Legislature to change it.
On March 10, 2015, Jeff Kudlacik was driving down 135th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park around 11 p.m. when a Ford Fusion going 70 miles an hour ran a red light and slammed into his Mitsubishi 3000 sedan, slicing it in half.
The accident left Kudlacik, who had just celebrated his 23rd birthday with his parents, with compound fractures in both of his femurs, a punctured lung, nine broken ribs and other injuries. He was placed in a medically induced coma for 21 days and spent 70 days in Overland Park Regional Medical Center before he was discharged. He subsequently spent months in rehabilitation.
The driver who hit him, Michael Aaron Smith, had a blood alcohol content of 0.179, more than twice the legal level of impairment in Kansas.
Court records indicate that Smith had eight to 10 alcoholic drinks at Johnny’s Tavern in Shawnee over the course of about four and a half hours and then a beer at Barley’s Brewhaus in Overland Park over the course of an hour.
Thirteen months after the accident, Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated battery while driving under the influence and was sentenced to 31 months in prison. Court records show he was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $1.5 million to Kudlacik’s insurance carrier and more than $18,000 to the state crime victim compensation fund.
Kudlacik, meanwhile, sued the two bars where Smith drank, claiming the bartenders knew or should have known that Smith was intoxicated and still continued to serve him alcohol.
Johnson County District Judge Kevin Moriarty dismissed the case, noting that Kansas doesn’t allow third-party lawsuits against alcohol vendors for injuries caused by their patrons. The Kansas Court of Appeals upheld Moriarty.
Kudlacik then appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing Kansas’ rule is outdated, creating an “inexplicable immunity” for alcohol vendors, and is bad public policy.
The Supreme Court didn’t buy it.
“These arguments have some merit but not enough to cause this court to upend the status quo,” the court stated in an opinion written by Justice Dan Biles.
Biles said the court was bound by a 1985 Kansas Supreme Court case, Ling v. Jan’s Liquors, which found that since Kansas doesn’t have a dram shop act, “the common-law rule prevails in Kansas.”
Dram shop laws allow victims of drunk driving accidents to hold alcohol vendors accountable for the injuries or deaths caused by their drunk customers. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia have such laws. Only Kansas, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, South Dakota and Virginia don’t have dram shop laws.
Kansas used to have a dram shop law, but it was repealed in 1949, when the Legislature enacted comprehensive liquor regulation even as it criminalized liquor sales to minors and incapacitated people.
A line of cases since then has upheld the Kansas rule. Lawsuits against universities, fraternities, bars and liquor stores have all butted up against it and been thrown out.
And while the Supreme Court acknowledged on Friday that it wasn’t entirely convinced by the Ling case’s rationale — including what the opinion in Ling said were difficulties in recognizing intoxication and predicting patrons’ conduct — Biles said that “we are not clearly convinced Ling was originally erroneous or is no longer sound because of changing conditions and that more good than harm will come by departing from it.”
“We remain unpersuaded that a duty of care runs from tavern owners to third-parties injured by their patrons after leaving the tavern owner’s premises,” he wrote.
Kansas City attorney David Morantz, who represented Kudlacik, said his client knew he faced long odds in getting the law changed but was hopeful the Supreme Court would see fit to scrap it.
“We told him going into this that it would be an uphill battle because the court’s prior rulings on this subject going back to the ’80s presented quite a challenge for us,” Morantz said. “And Jeff knew all along that if we weren’t successful in the courts, we would take the matter to this Legislature and that’s what we plan to do next.”
Jeff Kudlacik turned 23 the day a drunk driver ran through a red light in south Overland Park at 70 miles an hour and nearly killed him. CREDIT KIM KUDLACIK
Morantz said Kudlacik has learned to walk again and is engaged to be married in November.
“Jeff’s made a remarkable recovery and he’s really been an inspiration to our firm,” Morantz said.
The stakes in the Kudlacik case were big enough to draw the attention of outside parties with an interest in the case. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association and the Kansas Emergency Medical Services Association weighed in with friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Kudlacik’s position. The Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association and the Kansas Association of Defense Counsel filed briefs opposing it.
Wichita attorney Blake Shuart, who represented Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the organization was disappointed with the decision.
“We feel that the Supreme Court missed a good opportunity to create a cause of action that could benefit lots of Kansans,” Shuart said.
Shuart said the court seemed to recognize there were sound policy reasons for creating a right to sue, “but the issue has now been kicked back to the Kansas Legislature.”
“Regardless of this opinion,” he said, “the policy arguments presented by both Mr. Kudlacik and our client, MADD, remain viable, and we encourage the Legislature to take overdue action, so that Kansas may join the overwhelming majority of states that have elected to hold liquor vendors responsible for the injuries they cause.”
Adam Mills, president and CEO of the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association, said any change in the law was best left to the Legislature.
“We appreciate the Supreme Court upholding previous rulings and providing certainty for our industry,” Mills said in an email. “Alcohol sales by Kansas’ restaurant and hospitality industries are heavily regulated. These same regulations have produced reductions in the amount of alcohol-related traffic incidents, which have dropped dramatically since 1985.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
HOLTON, Kan. (AP) — A fourth person has died from injuries suffered in a Kansas crash that happened more than a year ago as they returned home from watching two family members play in a state football championship.
Popkess Mortuaries says Lee Fred Ukele, of Sabetha, died Wednesday at the University of Kansas Hospital. He was critically injured in a November 2017 crash that killed his wife, his 11-year-old daughter and his brother.
They were returning home from watching the Sabetha High School football team win the state championship when 49-year-old Maria Perez Marquez, of Omaha, Nebraska, crashed into their minivan while trying to pass another vehicle north of Holton. At the time, two of Lee Ukele’s sons played on the team.
Carmen and her daughter Marlee photo courtesy Popkess Mortuary
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Equinox driven by Perez-Marquez, was southbound on U. S. 75 just north of 318 Road near Holton.
Marquez attempted to pass another vehicle, swerved to the shoulder to avoid a collision and struck a northbound 2008 Chrysler Town and Country driven by Carmen K. Ukele, 42, Sabetha, head-on.
Marquez -photo Jackson Co.
Ukele and passengers in the Chevy Marlee G. Ukele, 11 and Stephen M. Ukele, 62, all of Sabetha, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Marquez is scheduled to be sentenced in June on three misdemeanor counts of vehicular homicide and one felony count of aggravated battery.
Join Kansas Corn at the Grand Opening of Bosselman Travel Plaza, corner of HWY 50 and HWY 83, Garden City on Thursday, May 16. Exclusive pricing for ethanol blended fuels: E85 for 85 cents and Unleaded 88 for $1.88 plus giveaways and food samples! pic.twitter.com/LCAj4MCQdk
