LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors in Kansas are dropping all charges against a University of Kansas student accused of falsely reporting a rape, saying they feared publicity surrounding the case could discourage sexual assault victims from coming forward.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said in a statement Monday that the three felony counts of making a false report were dropped after much discussion. His office believed in the merits of the case, he said, but the “cost to our community and the negative impact on survivors of sexual violence cannot be ignored,” reports The Kansas City Star.

“We are concerned this case, and the significant amount of misinformation surrounding it, could discourage other survivors from reporting their attack,” Branson said. “That is unacceptable.”

Cheryl Pilate and Branden Bell, attorneys for the woman, said that although they were pleased their client could “finally put this nightmare behind her,” they were “disappointed that the DA’s office continues to promote the fiction that this case was supported by the facts.” The statement added: “It was not.”

Police first spoke to the woman in September 2018 outside a Lawrence hospital before she went inside to undergo a rape examination, according to court records. The woman said she had been raped by the friend of her ex-boyfriend, but the details were fuzzy because she was drunk at the time. She also said she didn’t want to press charges but allowed officers to look through her phone.

Police interpreted the texts as an acknowledgement that the sex was consensual, according to court records. District Attorney Charles Branson says the woman fabricated being raped out of regret and to get revenge.

However, the woman’s attorneys argue in court documents that she is innocent and that her text messages made light of what happened because she wasn’t yet able to admit she had been raped after waking up in a strange bed with no memory of how she got there with unexplained bruises on her legs, neck and arms. They say police decided to investigate her rather than the man whom she alleged attacked her. The man, who also was a university student, was never charged.

The woman’s legal fees were covered in part by the Times Up Legal Defense Fund, an organization founded by celebrities during the #metoo movement.

The student’s attorneys said she never told officers she wanted to pursue charges, though she did say she might consider it at some point. The police investigation began in October 2018 after the student asked for a detective to be present when she made a formal statement to Title IX investigators at the university, according to testimony from a motions hearing. The student ultimately decided not to meet with the university, and her attorneys say she never told officers she wanted to pursue charges, though she did say she might consider it at some point.

Patrick Compton, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman, said police have the latitude to determine whether to proceed with a case even if the reporting party declines to press charges.

Going forward, Branson said in his statement Monday, he planned to work with police to update his office’s guidelines for investigating and prosecuting sexually violent crimes. Law enforcement will provide multiple options for “survivors to report crimes on their terms,” he said.

The media isn’t naming the woman because she says she is the victim of a sexual assault and the paper has a policy of not naming sexual assault victims. The felony false reporting charge carried a maximum sentence of up to 23 months in prison.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors plan to drop all charges against a University of Kansas student accused of falsely reporting a rape.

Douglas County district attorney’s office filed a motion Monday to drop the three felony counts of making a false report against the woman.

The woman’s attorneys contend she is innocent , saying she was mistreated by police and prosecutors after reporting she was raped by a friend of her ex-boyfriend last year.

Prosecutors had contended the woman fabricated the story out of regret and to get back at her ex-boyfriend. Police have said text messages show the sex was consensual.

The woman contended the messages made light of the incident because she was not able to admit at the time that she had been raped.

By Dewey Terrill, JC Post

GEARY COUNTY —A 22-year-old Kansas man has entered a plea deal in a fatal August 2018 shooting in Junction City.

Fontelle Jolly, Junction City, entered pleas of no contest in Geary County District Court Friday to Voluntary Manslaughter, a level three person felony and Aggravated Battery, a level five lesser felony, according to Geary County Attorney Krista Blaisdell

The court originally charged Jolly with Reckless Second Degree Murder and Aggravated Battery, level four, but pleaded no contest to the new charge in an amended complaint. A jury trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday, but now will not occur.

The charges stemmed from the August 31, 2018 fatal shooting of Felix Snipes, 29, Junction City, and the wounding of Cartavius King, 25, Junction City outside an apartment complex on Wildcat Lane on the west side of Junction City.

Snipes was shot two times in the chest and later died from his injuries. King had testified he was shot three or four times.

Court testimony has revealed the the incident began as an altercation between Jolly and his girlfriend in one of the nearby apartments. King was called to the scene and later testified that he remembered that he and Snipes told Jolly to leave the premises, and Jolly sat in his own vehicle. King said he and Snipes were ready to leave, they turned around and Jolly shot them.  Sentencing for Jolly is scheduled for December 30.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Flooding along the Missouri River has stretched on for seven months in places and could endure through the winter, leaving some Upper Midwest farmland and possibly some homes encased in ice.

There are several reasons for the flooding, including high levels along the river, saturated ground and broken levees. And with forecasters predicting a wetter-than-normal winter, it’s possible flooding could continue in some places all the way until spring, when the normal flood season begins.

“There’s no end in sight. None at all,” said Tom Bullock, who hasn’t been able to live in his northwestern Missouri home since March because floodwaters cut off access to it.

In Missouri’s Holt County, where Bullock serves as emergency management director, roughly 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of the 95,000 acres (38,445 hectares) that flooded last spring remain underwater, and at least some of that floodwater is likely to freeze in place this winter.

Similar conditions exist in places along the lower Missouri River, where broken levees will likely take several years to repair.

Nearly every levee in Holt County has multiple breaches and many haven’t even been examined yet. Repairs aren’t likely to start on most of the area’s levees until next year, Bullock said.

One key contributor to the flooding is that the river remains high because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still releasing massive amounts of water from upstream dams to clear space in the reservoirs to handle next spring’s flooding.

The Corps said it has been releasing more than twice the normal amount of water from most of the dams along the river and will likely continue at that pace into mid-December.

This year has been exceptionally wet in the Missouri River basin, and the amount of water flowing down the river through the year is expected to match the 2011 record of 61 million acre-feet (75.24 billion cubic meters). That is why the releases must remain high until the river freezes over in winter.

Other rivers and lakes in the region are also swollen. For example, parts of the James River in the Dakotas may not drop below flood stage between now and the start of next year’s flood season. About 50,000 sandbags are in place to protect homes and other structures near the river in Jamestown, North Dakota.

“I have never seen the water anywhere near this in the fall,” said Bill Anderson, who lives near the James in Montpelier, North Dakota. “If we get a bunch of snow, it’s not going to be pretty.”

South Dakota officials are also closely watching Lake Andes, which is the largest natural water body in the state and has been overflowing for months. The lake borders the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation and is located near the Missouri River and Fort Randall Dam.

For the last six months, residents in the town of Lake Andes and surrounding areas have had to deal with high water that has washed out roads, flooded basements and inundated graves, said Kip Spotted Eagle, the tribe’s historic preservation director. The problem is exacerbated by a 1930s aqueduct that is not properly draining water from the lake to the Missouri River, he said.

“The water is going to freeze and it’s going to stay there and it’s going to be a big problem,” said Spotted Eagle, who lives in Wagner. “Families and kids are going to walk across that ice because it’s a shortcut to town. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

At this point, any significant rain or snow in the region could lead to new flooding because the soil is too saturated to absorb most of it and many rivers are high, according to the National Weather Service.

“It wouldn’t take a big precipitation event to renew the flooding in places,” said Kevin Low, a weather service hydrologist at the Missouri River Basin River Forecast Center.

The latest long-term winter forecast from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center predicts that much of the northern United States, including the northern Great Plains, is likely to experience a wetter-than-normal winter. That could mean there will be above-average snowpack in the Missouri River’s watershed by spring.

“It’s just not a very good setup,” Low said.

That’s bad news for farmers such as Gene Walter, whose low-lying land north of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was underwater for most of this year. Walter still can’t work on most of his land because even though the floodwaters have partly receded, it is still too muddy.

Crop insurance will give Walter about 75 percent of his normal income, but this year has been full of additional expenses related to flood damage, so “the financial drain has been unbelievable,” Walter said.

“We’re just tired, he said. “We’ve been beat up so much. We’re just tired.”

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Patient safety at Missouri’s only abortion clinic is the point of contention at a state administrative hearing that will decide if the clinic can remain open.

Opening statements and testimony began Monday before a commissioner with the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission. At issue is the state health department’s effort to revoke the license for Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Louis.

Assistant Attorney General John Sauer outlined cases of “failed abortions,” including one where a woman had to have up to five procedures to complete the abortion, and another where the doctor failed to recognize that a patient was pregnant with twins, requiring a second procedure to remove the second fetus.

Planned Parenthood attorney Chuck Hatfield played a video deposition of a health department official indicating the clinic is not unsafe.

Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi is presiding. A commission official said that in his role, Dandamudi “acts as an independent trial judge.” A ruling isn’t expected until February at the earliest.

The hearing at a downtown St. Louis state office building is expected to last five days. Missouri officials have asked St. Louis police for heightened security since the licensing issue has generated protests from those on both sides of the debate.

Missouri would become the first state since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, without a functioning abortion clinic if the license revocation is allowed. The battle also comes as abortion rights supporters raise concerns that conservative-led states, including Missouri, are attempting to end abortion through tough new laws and tighter regulation.

Planned Parenthood has been battling the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for months to try to keep open its St. Louis clinic.

The state said concerns arose from inspections in March. Among the problems health department investigators cited were three “failed abortions” requiring additional surgeries and another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother.

TOPEKA — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the cause of a house fire and asking the public for information in an effort to locate suspects.

Just after 4:30 a.m. Monday, fire crews responded to the report of a structure fire at 320 SE Golden Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Michael Martin.

Upon arrival, fire crews reported heavy smoke and flames showing throughout residence. A search of the structure revealed no one was in the home at the time of the fire. The owner was on site to provide assistance and information to responding firefighters.

The Topeka Fire Department Investigation’s Unit determined the cause of the fire as Incendiary; intentionally set, according to Martin. The estimated structural dollar loss is $10,000, with $5,000 contents loss. Working smoke detectors were NOT found within the structure.
Any individuals with information about the circumstances of this fire are being asked to please contact Crime Stoppers at (785)234-0007 or Toll Free at 1-800-222 TIPS (8477).

WICHITA, KAN. – A prosecutor said in court Monday that federal agents seized more than 220 pounds of methamphetamine in a drug trafficking case in the Kansas City, Kan., metro area. According to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister, 14 defendants are charged in the case.

“Opioids are often in the news,” McAllister said. “But methamphetamine remains our biggest drug problem in the Midwest.”

Investigators found the methamphetamine when they served a search warrant at a house in Kansas City, Kan., where one of the defendants lives.

The 33-count indictment, which was based on more than a year of investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, contains charges including conspiracy, distribution, possession with intent to distribute and interstate communications in furtherance of drug trafficking. Many of the charges carry potential penalties of 10 years or more in federal prison.

The following defendants have been charged:

Christopher Hite, 36, conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Yader Arita, 30, conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Luis Martinez-Carrango, 57, Kansas City, Mo., conspiracy, interstate communications in furtherance of drug trafficking, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Alfredo Rey, 34, Kansas City, Kan., conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Antonio Edder Calderson-Reyes, 31, conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine, interstate communication in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Raul Gutierrez-Zamaripa, 31, conspiracy.

Jose Rosa-Pacheco, 34, Kansas City, Kan., conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Carlos Rosa-Artia, 35: Kansas City, Kan., conspiracy.

Enrique Rodriguez, 42, conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Rusbein Galicia-Lopez, 31, conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, interstate communication in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Abraham Gutierrez-Ojeda, 36, conspiracy, distributing methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, interstate communication in furtherance of drug trafficking,

Jerry Taylor, 44, conspiracy, interstate communication in furtherance of drug trafficking, distributing methamphetamine.

Manuel Leyva-Quijada, 43, Kansas City, Kan., conspiracy.

Mary Cain, 38, Kansas City, Kan., conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

If convicted, the defendants could face the following penalties:

Conspiracy: Not less than 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $10 million.
Distribution: Not less than 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $10 million.
Possession with intent to distribute: Not less than 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $10 million.
Interstate communication: Not more than four years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two Kansas bank robberies and have to suspects in custody.

Just after 2:30 p.m. on September 16, police responded to a bank robbery call at at Fidelity Bank, 2111 N. Bradley Fair in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. Upon arrival, officers contacted employees who reported a suspect later identified as 28-year-old Stephanie Steele entered the bank and handed a note to a teller demanding money and indicating a gun. She took the cash and fled on foot.

On October 16 at 3:15 p.m., police responded to a bank robbery call at the same bank.

Upon arrival, officers contacted employees who reported a suspect later identified as 32-year-old Joshua Coster entered the bank and handed a note to a teller demanding money and indicating a gun. He took money and fled on foot.  Authorities determined he was wearing brown face paint. There were no injuries in either case, according to Davidson.

Through the investigation and a Crime Stoppers tip, investigators were able to determine Steele and Coster’s involvement and learned they were working together.

Police located them and made an arrest. Steele and Coster were booked into jail Monday morning and being held on requested charges of aggravated robbery.

 

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The name is still classified but President Donald Trump on Monday outed the military working dog that tracked down the head of the Islamic State.

We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi! pic.twitter.com/PDMx9nZWvw

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2019

Trump tweeted a photo of a Belgian Malinois that he said worked with a team of special forces in the capture of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a tunnel beneath a compound in northeastern Syria.

The name and other details about the dog remain a secret.

“We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!” the president tweeted.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told reporters earlier Monday that the animal “performed a tremendous service” in the Saturday night raid.

Al-Baghdadi set off an explosion that killed himself and three children and apparently wounded the dog.

Milley said the dog was “slightly wounded” but is now recovering and has returned to duty at an undisclosed location. Milley says the U.S. is protecting the dog’s identify by keeping any information about the canine classified for now.

The U.S. military commonly uses the Belgian Malinois to guide and protect troops, search out enemy forces and look for explosives. The breed is prized by the military for its intelligence and ability to be aggressive on command, said Ron Aiello, president of the United States War Dogs Association.

“That’s the kind of dog you want to lead a patrol like this,” said Aiello, a former Marine dog handler whose organization helps active duty and retired military dogs. “They are the first line of defense. They go out front.”

Trump gave a dramatic account of the raid, variously saying there was one dog and multiple canines involved in the raid. He said that as U.S. troops and their dogs closed in, the militant went “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” to his death.

“He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down,” Trump said.

By Nomin Ujiyediin & Dan Margolies
Kansas News Service

TOPEKA —

Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach agreed to legal sanctions to resolve a disciplinary complaint about his conduct in a voting rights case he lost last year.

As part of the resulting diversion agreement made public Monday, Kobach admitted that he did not properly supervise lawyers and others on his staff while contesting a lawsuit that challenged how he carried out a new voter ID law.

The Kansas Office of the Disciplinary Administrator said there was no finding of dishonest conduct on Kobach’s part.

Typically, referrals to the attorney diversion program are confidential. But in this case, the parties agreed to disclose that Kobach had entered into the diversion agreement on Oct. 10 and that Kobach had admitted to the two disciplinary violations — his failure to oversee his lawyers, and to supervise his other staff in the case.

Kobach, who is campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

But a former spokeswoman for Kobach’s gubernatorial campaign and the Kansas Secretary of State’s office, Danedri Herbert, said in an email, “As the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator stated, ‘There was no finding of dishonest conduct on the part of Mr. Kobach.’ That was the central allegation of the complaint, which was obviously politically motivated.”

At least two people filed disciplinary complaints over Kobach’s conduct during the voting rights trial: Topeka resident Keri Strahler and Overland Park attorney Matthew Hoppock.

Stan Hazlett, who heads the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, said the diversion agreement came in response to Strahler’s 2017 complaint.

“It’s an alternative to the traditional disciplinary process,” Hazlett told the Kansas News Service. “If the diversion is successfully completed, then the case is dismissed.”

Hazlett declined to state what the diversion program would involve, citing confidentiality. He also declined to say whether his office investigated Kobach’s conduct in additional lawsuits.

The League of Women voters and others sued Kobach in his role of secretary of state after he led a drive to enact a strict voter registration law in Kansas requiring documentary proof of citizenship.

After a two-week-long trial, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson found the law unconstitutional. Kobach, a Yale Law School graduate who once taught constitutional law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, acted as lead attorney for his office in the case.

Robinson also sanctioned Kobach, who helped lead President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded voter fraud commission, by ordering him to take six hours of legal training on the rules of evidence for “repeated and flagrant violations of discovery and disclosure rules.”

Robinson also held Kobach in contempt for failing to fully register and notify eligible voters that he’d blocked their registrations.

Before that, a federal magistrate judge fined Kobach $1,000 after finding he had deceived the court about the nature of documents he was photographed taking into a November 2016 meeting with then-President-elect Trump.

Strahler said she wanted “some public acknowledgement that there was misconduct.”

“And even if it’s just a diversion, it’s still a public acknowledgement that he was wrong and he needs to get help,” she said.

Hoppock, an immigration attorney who had no involvement in the trial but followed news accounts of the case, said last year he was duty-bound to file his complaint as an officer of the court.

In a series of tweets at the time, Hoppock claimed Kobach had violated at least four Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct.

“I was shocked by what I read about what happened in that trial,” Hoppock said. “And so I think it was important to me that if did rise to the level of misconduct, that official channels were gone through, so that something could be done about it.”

Hoppock said that, other than getting a notice from the disciplinary administrator that his complaint had been docketed, he has not heard what has become of the complaint.

Nomin Ujiyediin reports on criminal justice and social welfare for the Kansas News Service.  Follow her on Twitter @NominUJ or email [email protected].

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

GRANT COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue to search for the driver of a vehicle involved in a double-fatal weekend accident in southwest Kansas.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Kenworth truck was westbound on Grant County Road 10 three miles north of U.S. 160.

The driver failed to yield right of way to a southbound 2012 Chevy Silverado driven by Kevin Jay Coyle, 57, Turpin, Oklahoma, at the uncontrolled intersection. The Kenworth entered the intersection directly into the path of the Silverado.

Coyle and a passenger Gerald Lee Coyle, 81, Turpin, Oklahoma, were pronounced dead at the scene.

While a witness to the crash was working to assist the victims, the driver of the Kenworth truck drove away in the witness’s pickup, according to KHP Trooper Michael Racy.

Authorities have located the stolen pickup in a Haskell County field. They have not found the driver, who is facing criminal charges, according to Racy. Anyone who witnessed the crash or who might have information is asked to call Technical Trooper Michael Racy at 620-276-3201.

BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges after a weekend arrest.

Just after 3:30p.m. Saturday, a police officer stopped a subject at 16th and Holland in Great Bend for a traffic infraction, according to a media release.

The officer confirmed through Barton County Communications that the driver, 19-year-old suspect Brayden Powell-Rand, had warrants for his arrest.

During the traffic stop, Great Bend Police Department’s K-9 Menta was used and she indicated an odor of an illegal drugs coming from the vehicle.

Police searched Powell-Rand and the vehicle and located methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, according to police.

Powell-Rand was booked into Barton County jail with a $10,000 bond. He has a previous drug conviction in Barton County, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Salina Post

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on child sex allegations after an arrest.

Just after 4p.m. Friday, police were dispatched to the 800 block of Elmhurst in Salina for the report of a naked man running around the area, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

Police located the subject later identified as Michael J. Breit, 61, of Salina,  in the trees behind the Crossroads building of Central Kansas Mental Health Center,.

While investigating the incident, officers made contact with a 12-year-old boy who told them that Breit, who was naked at the time, made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature while the boy and his mother were in a nearby parking lot, according to Forrester. The boy’s mother witnessed the incident.

Police arrested Breit on suspicion of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child and lewd and lascivious behavior. Breit also allegedly smelled of alcohol, according to Forrester.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Fire crews continue monitoring  portions of the Hutchinson Correctional Facility after a Monday  gas line break.

According to Reno County 911, a work crew hit a gas line just before 9:30 a.m.

Evacuations at the facility ended quickly and fire officials were allowing reentry into buildings at the discretion of the prison.

The fire department is on standby at the prison while the area of the break was secured. No injuries have been reported.  There’s no word on who was evacuated during the incident or where on the prison grounds the break occurred.