WICHITA – A former deputy with the Hamilton County Kansas Sheriff’s Department was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in federal prison for lying to investigators about a missing machinegun, according to U.S. Attorney Stephan McAllister.

Robert W. Doty, 60, Guymon, Okla., pleaded guilty to one count of lying to a federal investigator. In his plea, Doty admitted that in March 2018 he was interviewed by an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The agent was investigating a report by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office that an Uzi machinegun was missing from its inventory.

Doty told the agent that he had cleaned the machinegun, taken it to the range to shoot it and then returned it to the Sheriff’s office. In fact, Doty did not return the machinegun. He took it to a third party’s house and left it there.

According to the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, Doty’s certification as a law enforcement officer has been revoked.

RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities successfully located a man missing in flood waters in Reno County after a jet ski broke down.

According to the Reno County Sheriff, three men with jet skis went around barricades and entered flood waters in attempt to retrieve farm animals in the 3300 Block of N Pennington.

Deputies made contact with two of the riders when they returned to their vehicle.

A search and rescue for the third began after it was reported his jet ski broke down and he was possibly stranded at unknown location with no phone on hand.  Authorities reported overnight the man had been located and he was in good condition.

The sheriff’s department reminded followers on social media, the search for the man was about trying to locate a missing person and not about punishing anyone rescuing animals in flood water.

Dozens of roads in Reno County remain closed due to flooding.
 

JOHNSON COUNTY — Overland Park police have arrested a suspect in a hit-and-run collision that killed two students.

According to booking records, Bradley Edwin Woodworth, 45, Olathe,  was arrested Thursday on suspicion of failing to stop after an accident resulting in death.

Police say the crash on Saturday killed 18-year-old Matthew Bloskey, of Overland Park, and 20-year-old Samuel Siebuhr, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Overland Park police say a van belonging to the suspect may have hit Siebuhr’s car as both vehicles were driving east.

Siebuhr apparently lost control, clipped another vehicle, then crashed head-on into a vehicle driven by Bloskey. Both drivers died at the scene.

Siebuhr was studying Kansas City Kansas Community College. Bloskey was a senior at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

RENO COUNTY— After nearly two hours of deliberations on Wednesday, a jury found a Kansas man  guilty in a series of robberies that occurred over two years.

Jeffrey Howell, 60, who according to the Kansas Department of Corrections has previous convictions for burglary, theft, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, criminal threat, aggravated escape from custody and contributing to a child’s misconduct can add kidnaping and multiple counts of aggravated robbery to his criminal record.

The the latest convictions were for the robbery of Hutchinson area businesses in October of 2016 and in August and September of 2017.

Howell declined to participate in his trial. His attorney sat alone at the defense table.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 16.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for attempted murder after an altercation

Just after 5p.m. Wednesday, police responded to reported of a wanted suspect at the Union Rescue Mission in the 2800 Block of North Hillside Street in Wichita, according to officer Paul Cruz.

Officers made contact with a suspect with an active warrant from the Kansas Department of Corrections identified as 53-year-old Darren Hutcherson.   As officers approached, Hutcherson grabbed a butter knife from a nearby table and stabbed the officer in the chest just below his neck, according to Cruz.

The suspect dropped the knife and ran.  Police arrested him after a brief foot pursuit.

The knife did not penetrate the officer’s vest and he was not injured, according to Cruz.

Hutcherson was booked for attempted murder of an officer, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and the KDOC warrant.

Hutcherson has two dozen previous convictions for burglary, theft, aggravated assault and DUI, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita school’s officials are raising concerns about trains stalling for long periods of time on nearby tracks, which is leading students to crawl under boxcars and across the couplings to get home.

Hamilton Middle School Principal Justin Kasel says that trains traveling just north of the school sometimes are stopped for up to an hour, tying up traffic.

“It can be stuck there between five and even over 60 minutes,” Kasel said.

More than two-thirds of the school’s 600 students don’t qualify for a bus, so they either walk or get rides.

Kasel said stalled trains blocked several intersections both before and after school on Tuesday, which led to at least 150 students being a half-hour late for school. But he said that children crawling through or underneath stalled trains are far more worrisome than the delays.

Kasel held assemblies Wednesday to warn students about the dangers of crossing railroad tracks. He also planned to send a notice to parents about the issue.

Tom Wilcox, a school employee, posted a video to Facebook after witnessing students taking dangerous risks Tuesday when a train stalled. The video was later taken down but prompted the school to issue a warning.

“It was terrifying. The train would move back and forth all of a sudden, and one of those couplings could crush a kid,” Wilcox said. “That could have been a tragedy.”

The tracks and crossing near Hamilton Middle School belong to Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad, which didn’t return a request for comment Wednesday. It’s unclear what caused the hour-long delay on Tuesday.

A Texas-based railroad company, BNSF Railway, is currently challenging a Kansas law that bars railroads from blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes.

TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating after two officer involved shooting incidents occurred Thursday morning in Topeka.

According to a media release, just before 10a.m., the Topeka Police Department requested the KBI conduct an officer involved shooting investigation. It was the second shooting incident that occurred on Thursday involving officers of the Topeka Police Department and a male subject. However, the subject is believed to have only suffered injuries during the second shooting incident.

Preliminary information indicates that at approximately 9:45 a.m. officers from the Topeka Police Department, and a KBI agent, were investigating the initial shooting scene at SW 32nd St. and SW MacVicar Ave. when a subject appeared matching the description of the suspect who had fired at officers at around 3 a.m. When officers attempted to question him, he ran away which prompted them to pursue him on foot nearby Jardine Elementary and Middle School property.

As officers chased the subject, gunfire was exchanged between the subject and three officers in a parking lot of the Briarwood Condominiums, located west of the intersection of SW MacVicar Ave. and SW Briarwood Plaza. The subject was struck multiple times by gunfire. Officers secured the subject’s gun. No law enforcement officers were injured during the shooting.

EMS responded and transported the subject to a local hospital where he underwent surgery. He is expected to recover. The subject has now been identified as 23-year-old Trevon L. Brown of Topeka.
The KBI will complete a thorough and independent investigation into this incident. Once completed, the findings will be turned over to the Shawnee County District Attorney for review.

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SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating and searching for a suspect who shot at officers.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Two men have been charged in a string of suburban Kansas City robberies that led to one of the suspects exchanging gunfire with an officer.

23-year-old Pedro Antonio Torres and 18-year-old Mario Jimenez were charged Wednesday with five counts of aggravated robbery. Jimenez also was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Torres had an additional felony theft charge. Their attorneys didn’t immediately return phone messages.

Olathe, Kansas, police say officers stopped a vehicle after four convenience stores were held up early Monday.

Police say Torres was arrested after a short chase. But Jimenez is accused of firing at an officer before he was arrested hours later after a manhunt that caused some schools to be locked down. No one was hurt.

By MADELINE FOX

The five candidates for Kansas governor faced off at a forum Tuesday night in Wichita.

It was a rare opportunity for Independent Rick Kloos and Libertarian Jeff Caldwell to share a stage with the three major candidates — Republican Kris Kobach, Democrat Laura Kelly and independent Greg Orman.

Caldwell has advocated for legalizing marijuana and using tax revenue from that to shore up the state budget. Kloos talked about being a “frustrated Republican,” describing himself as pro-gun rights and anti-abortion.

The forum setup strayed from more straightforward descriptions of each candidate’s policy into more of a debate as candidates traded jabs on education funding, guns and Medicaid.

GUNS

Kelly leaned into the Second Amendment, saying law-abiding citizens should have a right to concealed carry and to hunt. However, she said Kansas should enact “common sense” policies restricting gun access.

Kobach reiterated his support for gun rights and said he wants to see the age for concealed carry lowered from 21 to 18.

“Why is it that we say somebody who’s 18 or 19 or 20 can carry a weapon in the U.S. military, but they can’t defend themselves in a dark parking lot at night against an attacker?” he asked.

Orman, by contrast, said concealed carry should be further restricted.

“In the state of Kansas, you need a thousand hours of training to legally wax an eyebrow, but now, because of the constitutional carry amendment, anybody can carry a concealed weapon — even onto some of our schools — without a minute’s worth of safety training,” Orman said.

MEDICAID

Kelly said she has pushed for Kansas to expand Medicaid for as long as that’s been an option.

“We’ve left $3 billion of Kansas taxpayers’ money back in Washington, D.C., for other states to provide services for their citizens and for them to expand their economies and for them to grow jobs,” Kelly said. “We need to change that.”

Kelly again hit at former Gov. Sam Brownback’s legacy, criticizing his 2017 veto of the Kansas Legislature’s attempt to expand Medicaid.

Kobach was the lone candidate against expanding Medicaid. He said Kansas taxpayers can’t afford it.

“What we need to do instead of imagining that money grows on trees, like my opponents do. is we need to think about where we spend the money and how to make it more efficient,” he said.

Orman said he’d expand Medicaid, but do so in a way that avoided costing the taxpayers money.

EDUCATION FUNDING

Kobach said that while state spending on K-12 education has increased, he thinks Kansas schools aren’t seeing improvement. He argued for spending 75 cents of every dollar on classroom instruction.

“I would say we need to look at where we’re spending the money before we start shoveling more money at the problem,” he said.

Orman said the best way to improve Kansas schools is by growing the economy and improving Kansas infrastructure. With a growing economy, parents have better jobs.”

Kelly has repeatedly described herself as the education candidate while campaigning. During the debate, she brought up Brownback’s tax cuts, saying the resulting cuts needed to balance the budget put Kansas schools in dire straights. She said voting for Kobach as governor would lead to new tax cuts and more problems for schools.

PROTECTIONS FOR LGBT KANSANS

Moderators asked the candidates whether they would reinstate an executive order from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that protected state employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Brownback rescinded the order early in his second term.

Four of the five candidates said they would reinstate the order, with Kelly adding that she’d take it to the Legislature to have those protections codified into law. Kobach was the lone dissenter, but didn’t explain his stance.

Kobach, Kelly and Orman will face off in Wichita again later this month at a conference for the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.

PAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on numerous charges after an arrest last week.

On Wednesday, James L. Perkins, 61 of Larned, made a first appearance in the Pawnee County District Court concerning a charge of harassment by telephone and separate felony drug charges, according to a media release from the Pawnee County Attorney.

On October 6, following a short chase which ended at his home in Larned, Perkins was arrested by the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Department and Larned police on a misdemeanor arrest warrant for the harassment by telephone charge, a felony bond violation, and a domestic violence probation warrant.

As a result of his alleged actions at the time of his arrest, he is now additionally charged with possession of between 3.5 grams and 100 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, felony Interference with law enforcement; and misdemeanor flee and elude.

The harassment by telephone is alleged to have occurred between September 24 and October 2. Perkins was convicted of Domestic Battery on September 24 and placed on twelve months probation.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for October 24. The defendant remains in the custody of the Pawnee County Sheriff with bond set on the new drug charge at $90,000 cash or surety. He is being housed in the Ford Detention Center.

At the time of his arrest, Perkins was on felony bond for a May 2018 arrest on possession of between 3.5 grams and 100 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school and battery of a County Correctional Officer. Those matters are still pending, according to the county attorney.

TOPEKA —Kansas National Guard has received a request from the state of Florida for aerial search and rescue, and air movement of personnel and equipment for Hurricane Michael response, according to a media release from the Kansas Adjutant General’s Office.

The Kansas National Guard will send one UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and six crew members to Florida.

The request was made through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a multistate agreement that expedites interstate support for disaster response and recovery operations.