FINNEY COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities are again investigating another report of a ransom-scam. On Thursday, police in Garden City indicated in a social media report that members of the public were receiving phone calls from a person stating that they have kidnapped family members or loved ones and are requesting ransom for their return.

In May, police reported residents in Garden City were receiving phone calls from phone numbers in Mexico. When answered a woman was crying and claiming she did not know where she was. Then a man’s voice said they have kidnapped the family’s daughter. The caller had known the first and last name of the victims.

In December of 2015 Riley County police reported instances of a caller saying they had taken a family member hostage and asking for money for their release.

In March of 2014, the Johnson County sheriff’s office reported deputies were contacted by a resident who was on the phone with someone claiming to be holding the someone’s brother hostage

Johnson County deputies were able to listen to the call and get the phone number, which they learned had been used in similar scams in other parts of the country.

Police advised, if you get such a call confirm with your family that they are okay and contact the police if you feel it is necessary.

By DAN MARGOLIES

A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday refused to reconsider his order fining Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach $1,000 for misleading the court.

U.S Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara said the reconsideration request raised arguments that Kobach should have made earlier.

O’Hara last month fined Kobach after finding that he had deceived the court about the nature of documents he was photographed taking into a November meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump.

O’Hara imposed the sanction in a case challenging a Kansas law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate or passport when they register to vote. Kobach is a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that the law violates the National Voter Registration Act, popularly known as the motor voter law. The plaintiffs, including the League of Women Voters of Kansas, had asked that Kobach turn over the documents shown in the photograph, arguing they bore on the question of whether – as Kobach maintains – voter fraud is rampant.

The documents appeared to be a proposal by Kobach to amend the motor voter law. Kobach, however, told the court that the documents were unrelated to that.

O’Hara found that Kobach “made patently misleading representations to the court about the documents, which at the time had not been produced to either the court or plaintiffs, such that the court was required to take defendant at his word.”

Kobach raised two new arguments in asking O’Hara to reconsider his $1,000 fine.

First, he argued that if he must sit for a deposition in the case, as he has been ordered to do, he may be precluded from acting as counsel in the case because of the potential conflict of interest that entails.

Second, he claimed that he had no intent to deceive the court. Rather, he argued, his misrepresentations were due to “last-minute editing to meet page limitations, which led to the deletion of language that more fully explained the point Defendant was making.”

O’Hara dismissed both arguments, saying Kobach should have raised them in prior briefings.

“In any event,” O’Hara wrote of the second argument, “this new excuse lacks credibility based on its late assertion (which appears to be an attempt at a second bite at the apple) and lack of supporting documentation.”

Mark Johnson, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in the case, said O’Hara’s denial of Kobach’s motion for reconsideration was “perfectly within the bounds of the law. I don’t see anything there that’s grounds for reconsideration.”

Kobach could not be reached for comment.

Wednesday night, Kobach filed a motion asking the presiding judge in the case, Julie Robinson, to overrule O’Hara. The motion, in part, stated that O’Hara “clearly erred in ordering sanctions against Defendant for lack of clarity caused by an editing mistake and refusing to consider Defendant’s explanation.”

O’Hara issued his ruling as Kobach, a Republican, defended his work as co-chair of a national voter fraud commission established by Trump. Kobach’s request of all 50 states for voter roll data, including the last four digits of registered voters’ Social Security numbers, has encountered resistance from some state officials, who have balked at providing all or some of the information, citing voter privacy considerations.

Kobach has been a vocal supporter of stricter voting laws and has echoed Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of people voted illegally in the presidential election.

Kobach’s voter roll data request has triggered lawsuits by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Dan Margolies is KCUR’s health editor. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Former state Rep. Jan Pauls has died at the age of 64.

The Elliott Mortuary says Pauls, of Hutchinson, died Wednesday at St. Francis Select Specialty Hospital. A cause of death was not immediately available.

Pauls, a former judge and attorney, served in the Kansas Legislature beginning in 1991. She represented the 102nd district as a Democrat until switching to the Republican party in 2014 to advocate for conservative social issues.

Pauls lost her bid for re-election last November to Democrat Patsy Terrell, who died last month near the end of her first legislative session.

Funeral arrangements for Pauls are pending.

SALINE COUNTY- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 8p.m. Wednesday in Saline County.

The Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan reported a 2017 Polaris Ranger UTV driven by Cherielynn Mahoney, 22 Salina, was traveling near Gypsum Valley Shooting Sports in the 7200 Block of South Niles Road.

The  driver took a sharp turn, the UTV rolled and pinned passenger Katrina San Nicolas, 21, McPherson, according to Soldan.

First responders transported San Nicolas to Salina Regional Health Center for a broken leg.

Mahoney was not injured.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and asking for help to identify a suspect.

Just before 6 a.m. Thursday, police responded to report of robbery in the 1500 Block of SW Wanamaker in Topeka, according to a media release. The suspect described as a black male in his 20s wearing grey clothing and a ski mask entered the store with a baseball bat and demanded money.

The clerk gave him an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspect left on foot eastbound from the north side of the business.

Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to contact Topeka police.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been ordered to spend at least 50 years in prison for sexually attacking two 7-year-old children in 2013.

Forty-five-year-old Eric Landeo was sentenced Wednesday in Johnson County to two life sentences on two convictions of rape of a child and of aggravated indecent liberties of a child.

Landeo must serve at least 25 years on each life sentence, and a judge ordered him to serve each sentence one after the other.

Landeo was convicted in May of the sexual attacks that authorities say happened while he had been living with friends who had children. He was arrested in July 2013.

RENO COUNTY — One of two people arrested on January 28 after a trailer was stolen in Hutchinson waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday and entered guilty pleas to three charges

Christopher Bauck, 39, admitted to burglary, possession of stolen property and felony flee and elude. As part of a plea agreement, the state dropped a charge of felony theft, interference with law enforcement and driving while suspended.

The case started with the report of an enclosed trailer being stolen on West 13th Street in Hutchinson. Law enforcement spotted the truck pulling the trailer at Hendricks and Nickerson Boulevard.

They tried to stop the truck, which led to the chase that ended near 10th and Cheyenne in the rural area of Reno county. Bauck apparently ran from the vehicle, but was quickly captured. It was learned that the truck he was driving was also stolen in Wellington.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 18. He also faces a probation violation in Barton County.

TOPEKA – The Kansas Highway Patrol gave more DUI and speeding tickets over the Independence Day Holiday than in 2016. The KHP reported no fatality accidents.

KHP’s holiday weekend activity. “I am thankful we avoided the needless loss of any lives over the holiday,” said COL Bruce. pic.twitter.com/Y8To3P4toa

— KS Highway Patrol (@kshighwaypatrol) July 5, 2017

The patrol assisted with 1333 motorists over the holiday. The reporting period ran from 6p.m. Friday June 30, through 11:59p.m. Tuesday July 4.

SALINA – Two people were injured in an accident in a crosswalk Wednesday morning in Salina.

Salina Police Sgt. James Feldman reported a 2002 Ford Ranger driven by Donald Weers, 82, Salina, was eastbound on Walnut Street attempting a turn north onto Santa Fe.

The pickup struck a motorized wheelchair operated by a 61-year-old woman with a 9-year-old passenger that were in the crosswalk.

The woman complained of pain in her hip, back and face and possibly had several broken ribs, according to the accident report. The boy had abrasions and a possible broken right clavicle. They were both transported to Salina Regional Health Center.

Weers was cited for failure to yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk, according to Feldman.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The family of a man who was killed during a home invasion four years ago in Topeka is offering a $25,000 reward for information that could solve the case.

Twenty-nine-year-old Juan Solis was killed in September 2013 when assailants broke into his home in the Oakland neighborhood. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  witnesses said three black men wearing masks shot Solis in the chest.

His brother, Marco Solis, says there’s been no leads in his brother’s death. He says the family wants people to remember his brother and help bring the killers to justice before they hurt someone else.

In 2015, the family used billboards to remind people of the murder.

Juan Solis was an 11-year employee of Boss Hawg’s and Pigskins restaurants and left behind a wife and three young children.

DOUGLAS COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatality accident and asking the public for  help.

Just after 9p.m. Sunday, a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy found a body inside a burning vehicle just northeast of Lawrence. It had apparently left the roadway and struck an unoccupied farm truck.

According to a social media report, deputies are attempting to contact the white male driver of a red pick-up truck involved in a verbal conflict with two young men driving a blue Hyundai Sonata on Sunday July 02, 2017, between the hours of 6pm and 9pm in the North Lawrence area.

The Sonata was involved in the accident later in the evening and deputies are attempting to establish a timeline of the events and need to speak to the driver of the red truck.

Authorities have not released the identity of the body or determined what caused the vehicle to leave the roadway.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The latest government report shows the winter wheat harvest is wrapping up in many parts of the state.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Wednesday that about 73 percent of the wheat in Kansas had been harvested. The report covers the week that ended Sunday.

Areas in Kansas where the harvest began were nearly done with harvest activity. Wheat crops in south-central Kansas were 97 percent cut, while southeast Kansas was 94 percent finished.

Northwest Kansas where cutting begins much later was just 21 percent done while just 47 percent of wheat crops in west-central Kansas were cut.

For wheat still in the field, the report rated 47 percent in excellent to good condition with 31 percent in fair shape. About 22 percent was in poor to very poor condition.

SALINE COUNTY- Three people are recovering from injuries in an accident just after 7p.m. Tuesday in rural Saline County.

A 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 driven by 30-year-old Ashley Stern, Salina, was westbound on Schilling Road, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.

The pickup clipped an eastbound Chevy Silverado driven by Kyle Came, 18, Salina, at the on a hill at intersection of Brownhill Road.  The collision caused the Chevy to roll onto its top in the road.

Came was transported for treatment of broken bones in his back, according to Soldan. A passenger in the Chevy Macala Base, 15,  Salina, had a broken collar bone.

Sterns told authorities that due to the glare of the sun, she did not see the oncoming truck until the last second when she tried to avoid the accident.  She was transported to treatment of arm pain, according to Soldan.