RENO COUNTY — Formal charges have been brought against a Kansas man arrested June 4, in the alleged beating and rape of his girlfriend.
Victor Pedraza, 20, is charged with two counts of rape, kidnapping, arson, battery-domestic violence, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal damage.
Pedraza, a former Hutchinson Community College student from Texas, is suspected of beating and raping a foreign exchange student who attended HCC.
Police were contacted and asked to check on the victim who is a foreign student from Japan. Apparently the two had been staying with each and had ongoing issues, according to police.
Officers say they learned that the victim had been tied to a bed, beaten and forced into sex twice after telling him no.
Pedraza also allegedly burned her passport and other papers that would allow her to go back to her native country. He’s also accused rubbing feces on her face according to testimony in court Monday.
Pedraza is being held on a bond of $207,000. His next court appearance is set for June 28.
JEFFERSON COUNTY – Game Wardens were busy on the water over the weekend in Kansas.
They made three boating under the influence arrests at Perry Reservoir Saturday night, according to a social media report.
In addition, one warden and his boat holder saw an overturned kayak and a person without a life jacket struggling in the waves from the 35 mph wind gusts on Perry Reservoir.
They were able to get a lifejacket to the woman and using a rescue bag get her on board the patrol boat.
TOPEKA, KAN. – Two Kansas men were sentenced Monday on federal drug and gun charges, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Seth Allen George, 26, Salina, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of brandishing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Tyler Lee Shea, 21, Salina,was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Shea, Tyler Lee – Failure to appear (3 Counts)
In their pleas, both men admitted they were members of a drug trafficking organization operating in the Salina area in 2016.
Co-defendants include Kyle Allen Palmer, who was sentenced to 180 months, and Jason Lars Sheets, who is set for sentencing July 10.
BARTON COUNTY — A former Kansas high school coach was sentenced Monday in a case of phone sexting.
Todd E. Kaiser, 54, was placed on probation for 36 months with an underlying sentence of 32 months of confinement. He was ordered to register as a sexual offender, and is subject to lifetime post-release supervision if he is confined for a violation of his probation.
Kaiser was also advised that he could not possess firearms as a result of his conviction.
In April, Kaiser pleaded no contest to sexual exploitation of a child after a nude picture of a minor was found on his cell phone.
Kaiser was employed by USD 428 as Eisenhower Elementary School’s Physical Education instructor. Kaiser also served as the head coach for the Great Bend High School cross country and track and field teams.
Rep. Jim Ward (D-Wichita) is the Kansas House Minority Leader.
After 113 days of legislative business, the Kansas legislature adjourned on Saturday night having finally completed our work on school finance, taxes, and budget.
While it lasted longer than anyone would have preferred, the outcomes were positive.
Below are highlights of some of the 2017 legislative accomplishments that Democrats strongly championed.
Ended the Brownback tax experiment and returned tax fairness to Kansas … this important action resulted in Moody’s upgrading the state’s credit rating from negative to stable
Restored middle class tax credits for child care, mortgage deductions, property tax deductions, and medical expense deductions
Passed gun safety legislation to keep guns out of our mental health institutions, hospitals, and nursing homes (this bill still needs the Governor’s signature)
Obtained pay increases for state employees, the first increase many have seen in nearly a decade
Increased funding for safety net clinics and community mental health centers
Restored funding of the Senior Care Act and Meals on Wheels
Rewrote the K-12 finance formula
While the ultimate decision on school finance remains uncertain, significant steps were made to return to per pupil funding with additional dollars for special needs students, all-day kindergarten, and at-risk four-year-old instruction. These are improvements to the formula that will long benefit Kansas children. The bill is waiting for the Governor’s signature. Once signed, it will be sent to the Kansas Supreme Court for their review.
I anticipate the Court will find the legislature did not adequately fund our obligations. The levels of funding in the bill for 2018 are less than we provided schools for instruction during the year of 2009. We have more work to do and could be called back for a special session to address funding levels.
In the meantime, I’m back home in southeast Wichita trying to get caught up on my law practice and my sleep! As always, I appreciate your support, encouragement, and input.
In Memory of Representative Patsy Terrell, District 102
The Kansas legislature was shocked and saddened by the sudden departure of our Democratic colleague Rep. Patsy Terrell of Hutchinson.
The memorial cartoon pictured here by Richard Crowson of The Wichita Eagle is a fitting tribute to the joyous person Ms. Terrell was and her unrelenting commitment to her district and Kansas.
We are going to miss her presence in the legislature, but remain deeply appreciative for the time we had with her. As you may have heard me say, she cast a bright light and touched all who knew her.
Rep. Jim Ward (D-Wichita) is the Kansas House Minority Leader.
MILFORD – Authorities say a Fort Riley soldier drowned Sunday while swimming with his family at Milford Lake.
Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf confirmed the victim was Xavier Joseph Harden, 23, Fort Riley. The incident occurred in a cove in the Farnum Creek area. Wolf said authorities were called about a possible drowning about 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Wolf reported, “It was in the cove along Acorn’s Resort. There was a man, a woman and a three-year boy who were playing in the water. They were playing on some store bought flotation devices. The wind apparently got ahold of the female half and the child, and blew them a little bit farther away from the shore than what they were comfortable with.” Wolf said
Harden was floating on another flotation device and was going to jump down off of his device, grab both of them and pull everyone back into the shore. “He jumped off his flotation device and struggled a few seconds and went straight down. According to the wife she advised us right away he was unable to swim and that was the reason he was unable to stay up top.”
Wolf said authorities went into a recovery mode but Harden never resurfaced. A dive team from Shawnee Mission, Kansas came into provide assistance along with Junction City Fire / EMS, Geary County Rural Fire, Geary County Sheriff’s Department, and Kansas Wildlife Parks and Tourism. The body was located about 5:15 p.m. “We have scheduled an autopsy but right now everything looks to be….it was a drowning.”
The hometown of the drowning victim is not yet known. Wolf confirmed the victim’s wife and child are being taken care of by the military.
Lawmakers in the House watch a vote board in suspense Saturday evening. The fate of the budget bill became unclear when some members voted against it or abstained. A procedural move forced the abstaining lawmakers to vote, and the bill passed. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
ByJIM MCLEAN, CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN, STEPHEN KORANDA, SAM ZEFF & MEG WINGERTER
It took 113 days instead of the scheduled 100, but Kansas lawmakers finally ended their 2017 session Saturday.
Their final act was to approve a two-year budget plan that supporters say will start the process of repairing damage done by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts. But the session’s climatic moment occurred a week earlier when lawmakers overrode Brownback’s veto of a bill that largely reversed those cuts.
A group of moderate Republicans and Democrats elected since the passage of the tax cuts in 2012 helped lead the charge, but even some lawmakers who initially supported the cuts joined the override effort.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning voted in 2012 for the cuts, hoping they would provide the Kansas economy with the shot of adrenaline that Brownback promised. But weary of perennial budget struggles, Denning said before the override vote that the time had come to admit the cuts hadn’t worked as advertised.
“I’ve always backed up and mopped up my mess. That’s what I’m doing now,” said Denning, an Overland Park Republican.
Moderate-leaning Republican Stephanie Clayton, also from Overland Park, said reversing the tax cuts was a “major step” toward fixing the state’s budget problems.
“We have turned things around and we are headed in the right direction,” Clayton said.
The $1.2 billion tax increase passed over Brownback’s objections raises individual income tax rates and restores a third tax bracket eliminated by the 2012 bill. It also repeals a controversial tax exemption given to more than 300,000 business owners and farmers.
The rollback of his signature policy legislation is an embarrassing political defeat for Brownback, who has been the subject of numerous reports saying he is likely to resign before the end of his term to accept a presidential appointment.
‘Turn around’ budget
The budget plan reverses some of the spending cuts approved in recent years to make up for shortfalls in state revenues. It also includes approximately $30 million for state employees, who haven’t had an across-the-board pay increase since 2008.
Employees who have worked for the state for five or more years will get a 5 percent bump. Others, including all employees in the state’s court systems, will get a 2.5 percent increase.
“Even though state employees and judicial employees may not be thrilled with the level of the raise they’re getting, it’s the first time I’ve been able to vote for a raise for them for quite some time,” said Republican Sen. Vicki Schmidt of Topeka. “I hope it’s the beginning of restoration of several things.”
The budget plan authorizes state general fund spending of $6.4 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $6.3 billion the following year. Those spending levels wouldn’t have been possible without the tax increase that lawmakers approved.
Moderate Republicans and Democrats said a more cordial atmosphere at the Statehouse helped make the bipartisan agreements on taxes and the budget possible.
“It was a very collegial process and collaborative process that brought us to this point,” said Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka.
Still, conservatives fought the tax and spending increases to the end.
“What we’re doing is fleecing our constituents on the false premise that it must be done,” said Sen. Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover.
Sen. Dennis Pyle, of rural Hiawatha, compared his colleagues to city-dwellers who have never lived on a farm and don’t know where their food comes from.
“Sometimes I wonder if legislators don’t understand where the dollars come from,” he said. “From hard-working people. Small businesses.”
Senator Carolyn McGinn, the Sedgwick Republican who led the budget-crafting process in her chamber, shot back at accusations of wasteful spending, charging that conservatives resorted to budget tricks to balance the budget when they controlled the Legislature.
“This body has had four years to cut this budget. And that didn’t happen,” McGinn said. “Instead, the way we balanced the budget, the way this body balanced the budget in the last four years, was by stealing from KPERS, stealing from KDOT, stealing from fee funds, stealing from the water fund, and I could go on.”
Final day drama
A last-minute dispute threatened to derail the collegial feel and the budget deal Saturday.
At the urging of the chamber’s Democrats, the House budget plan included $17,600 to repay an 84-year-old woman for cash seized by the Kansas Highway Patrol in 1995 when they searched her car for what they suspected was illegal drug money. The woman, Barbara Reese, who was never charged with a crime, insisted she earned the money selling used cars.
Lawmakers advocating for the return of the money said the incident probably would not have happened if Reese wasn’t African-American.
House members believed that Senate budget negotiators had agreed to the payment. But when the conference committee report arrived on the House floor for a final vote it didn’t include the money, touching off a skirmish that for a while threatened passage of the budget.
“I will not join this highway robbery,” said Valdenia Winn, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., who called the item’s last-minute removal from the budget “arbitrary” and “draconian.”
When it came time to vote, about 30 Democrats initially abstained, leaving the bill several votes short of the number needed to pass. But after a few tense moments, most relented and voted for the bill, which ultimately passed 88-27.
Lawmakers will return later this month for the ceremonial end to the session. At 114 days, it will tie the record-long session in 2015.
Unfinished business
One of the thorniest issues of the session remains unsettled. Lawmakers have completed their work on a new funding formula for public schools, but Brownback hasn’t signed off on it and neither has the Kansas Supreme Court.
The high court ruled in March that public school funding in Kansas was constitutionally inadequate and that more money must be put into the system.
The bill that lawmakers passed provides $284 million in new money over the next two years, including $184 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Sen. Carolyn McGinn answers questions about the budget in a GOP caucus meeting Saturday ahead of the vote. CREDIT CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
However, it’s anyone’s guess whether that will be enough to satisfy the court, which could shut down schools June 30 if a constitutional formula isn’t in place, meaning one that has been signed into law and approved by the court.
If the court rejects the plan, lawmakers could find themselves called back to the Statehouse for a special session in July.
Medicaid expansion gets a vote
The Legislature’s health agenda this session largely focused on two issues: expanding KanCare to adults earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line and exempting public hospitals from having to allow concealed handguns.
The Legislature passed a bill exempting public hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and mental health centers from a concealed carry law, but Brownback hadn’t yet acted on it. Under state law, publicly owned health facilities must allow handguns or install metal detectors and armed security officers starting July 1. Officials estimated that securing the state hospitals for people with serious mental illnesses or developmental disabilities would cost about $12 million annually.
Lawmakers proved willing to put some money into health programs. The budget bill includes $4.7 million for the state to open 20 additional beds at Osawatomie State Hospital or to contract with another entity for beds. The hospital has been running at less than full capacity for more than a year because of a staffing shortage.
HODGEMAN COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities are investigating three suspects on drug charges.
On Saturday, Hodgeman County Undersheriff Jeff Channell and K-9 Kilo were on patrol and came across a vehicle setting in the roadway on 210 Road approximately a mile north of Kansas 156, according to a social media report.
Undersheriff Channell made contact with 3 male occupants. While speaking with the subjects and noticed a strong odor of marijuana. He detained all subjects and requested another officer.
Sheriff Walker arrived on scene and a search of the vehicle revealed a large amount of marijuana and paraphernalia in the vehicle. One of the juveniles was reported as a missing juvenile from Garden City PD.
He was taken into custody and turned over to Garden City authorities. No names are being released at this time due to it being a juvenile case. Charges have been filed and turned over to the county attorney.
Rescue crews on the scene of Sunday accident- photo courtesy Fox4KC.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Rescue teams have found the body of a 17-year-old boy who drowned in a small eastern Kansas lake.
The Kansas City Star reports that the teen was swimming in the Pierson Park lake early Sunday with friends when he disappeared beneath the water.
The other three teens called authorities around 2 a.m. Sunday to report the boy missing, and rescue crews began a search.
The boy’s body was found and removed from the lake around 2 p.m. Sunday. The teen’s name has not been released.
Capt. David Thaxton of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office says the teen’s friends heard him cry out for help but couldn’t find him in the dark. They swam ashore and called for help.
Friday’s crash under investigation -photo courtesy KWCH
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in south-central Kansas say they’ll rely on an autopsy to determine whether a man who died after his truck hit a tree had been shot before he crashed.
Wichita police were called to the crash around 6 p.m. Friday and found a 45-year-old man in a pickup truck that had hit a tree.
Police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the man was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Woodrow says there were reports of possible gunshots in the area and that the man may have been shot. Woodrow says an autopsy is expected to be completed early this week.
Police have not released the man’s name. Woodrow says no arrests have been made and that police are not currently looking for suspects.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on LGBT pride marches around the United States (all times local):
In Kansas and dozens of other U.S. cities, supporters of LGBT rights mobilized for marches and rallies Sunday, celebrating their gains but showing anger over threats to those advances.
Sign waving supporters marched along Douglas Avenue in Wichita Sunday. The centerpiece event, the Equality March in Washington, was endorsed by virtually every major national advocacy group working on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
Leaders of those groups have been embittered by several actions of President Donald Trump’s administration — including the rollback of federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.
The activists also complain that Trump, although he campaigned as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, has stocked his administration with many foes of LGBT-rights advances, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
Throngs of marchers, many thousands strong, paraded past the White House and toward the Capitol, trailing behind a giant rainbow flag near the head of the procession.
“We’re here, we’re queer, get that Cheeto out of here,” was among the chants directed at Trump.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Many Kansas legislators see their work toward complying with a state Supreme Court mandate on public school funding as unfinished.
They take that view even though lawmakers passed a bill last week that phases in a $293 million increase in spending over two years.
Some expect to be forced to return to the Statehouse this summer.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has until June 19 to act on the school funding bill and he and his aides haven’t hinted at his plans.
If it becomes law, the Supreme Court still must review it.
The justices ruled in March that the state’s current education funding of about $4 billion a year is inadequate. Even lawmakers who support the new plan fear at least parts of it won’t satisfy the court.
