HUTCHINSON– A Kansas man is in jail after an accident on Saturday in Reno County.

Just after 7p.m. a pickup driven by Gerald Young, 59, Hutchinson, crashed into the Kwik Shop at 27th & Main Street, according to Hutchinson police.

There were several people in the store, according to police including a 13-year-old.

The child was standing near where the impact happened but was not injured, according to police.

The pickup driver was wearing flip-flops and stepped on some glass when he exited his truck.

He was taken to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center to be tested for possibly being under the influence of prescription drugs and then arrested and taken to the Reno County Correctional Facility for allegedly being under the influence and having no driver’s license.

Hutchinson Fireman responded to the scene to assess the structural integrity of the building after the crash.

This is the second time in recent weeks that someone has crashed into this same store.

By Meg Wingerter

If someone you loved had a psychiatric emergency, would you know what to do?

Because many people wouldn’t, Kansas mental health advocates are pushing for the state to recognize psychiatric advance directives to guide care for patients in crisis who are unable to communicate.

Patients most often use advance directives to specify the treatments they want at the end of life, but people with mental illnesses could use a similar document to outline psychiatric crisis treatments, said Mike Burgess, a member of the Kansas Mental Health Coalition. The issue is new in Kansas, although some other states have laws on advance directives for mental health care.

A psychiatric advance directive could clarify medications that have worked or caused serious side effects in the past and specify the mental health providers or family members who can make decisions for the patient, Burgess said.

“If your family is a huge trigger (for symptoms), you can say ‘Whatever you do, don’t call my mom,’” he said. “It helps (patients) get the right care a lot more quickly.”

Patients could use the existing legal framework for medical advance directives to cover psychiatric care, Burgess said, but having a template specifically for mental health would raise awareness and ease the process.

In the legislative session that starts Jan. 9, the coalition will push Kansas lawmakers to adopt a framework for psychiatric advance directives similar to one in Virginia, Burgess said. People with mental illnesses wouldn’t be required to complete an advance directive, but he said some might find it helpful to sit down and think through their options when they aren’t in a stressful situation.

Download The Document: Virginia Advance Directive For Health Care

Virginia combined psychiatric and medical care in its 2009 law on advance directives so patients could easily lay out their preferences for multiple situations, said Heather Zelle, an assistant professor with the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.

That includes a designated guardian who can make decisions about care if a patient is in crisis, she said, although that provision only kicks in if two physicians determine a patient isn’t competent.

“It’s not just sort of a carte blanche to ignore a person’s ‘no,’” she said.

Under Virginia law, health care providers can be held liable if they know a patient has an advance directive and choose not to follow it, though they can make changes if a patient’s condition requires it, Zelle said. Virginia doesn’t require a lawyer or notary to sign a patient’s plan, but two adult witnesses must attest that the patient wasn’t coerced, she said.

The number of Virginians who have filled out advance directives is unclear, and some patients and providers still are confused about the process, Zelle said. Some people reported that completing an advance directive helped them strengthen their supports and avoid a crisis, but the state hasn’t collected data on patients’ experiences, she said.

If Kansas decides to implement psychiatric advance directives, it should put some resources into training case managers and peer support specialists to help their clients navigate the process, Zelle said.

“A lot of health care providers don’t have a lot of time, sometimes hours and hours, to go through a form with someone,” she said.

Meg Wingerter is a reporter for KCUR’s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach her on Twitter @MegWingerter.

DOUGLAS COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Douglas County are investigating an accident involving a suspected drunk driver that injured two police officers.

Just after 2 a.m. on Saturday, two Lawrence Police Officers partnered in one vehicle assisted on a traffic stop in the 1500 block of West 23rd Street, according to a media release.

One of the officers remained inside the patrol vehicle. During the traffic stop, a maroon Dodge pickup truck struck the rear of the patrol vehicle while the officer was inside causing significant damage to the rear of the patrol vehicle. The pickup truck fled the scene and a vehicle pursuit ensued.

The pickup truck drove westbound on West 23rd Street then turned southbound on 59 Highway traveling at high rates of speed. The pursuit ended in Franklin County when the driver of the pickup truck lost control near I-35 and 59 Highway.

The driver, who continued to resist arrest, was then taken into custody. A second Lawrence Police Officer received minor injuries while the process of attempting to arrest the suspect.

The officer who was inside the vehicle when the collision occurred received medical treatment for non-life threatening injuries at an area hospital and since has been released. The second officer declined treatment for his injuries.

The 50 year old suspect, identified as Nelson L. Higgins, has been taken into custody on multiple charges.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas judge is giving attorneys for a man accused of sexually attacking a woman before setting her on fire more time to have him mentally evaluated.

KAKE-TV reports 28-year-old Cornell McNeal of Wichita already has been evaluated twice, with the last one recommending that he be found competent to stand trial. Sedwick County Judge Warren Wilbert reviewed those findings but deferred ruling Friday on McNeal’s mental fitness.

McNeal is charged with capital murder in the November 2014 death of 36-year-old Letitia “Tish” Davis, who was a mother of four.

Davis was found at Fairmount Park near Wichita State University by a neighbor who heard her screaming and discovered her on fire. Davis sustained burns on more than half of her body and died eight days later.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man faces up to two years in federal prison after having admitted his role in what authorities say was a $3.5-million identity theft scheme involving credit cards.

Justin Alan Vanley of Rose Hill pleaded guilty Friday in Wichita to one count of aggravated identity theft. His sentencing is scheduled for March 24.

As part of his plea, Vanley admitted that one of roughly a dozen co-defendants gave him a U.S. Postal Service roster with personal information for two postal service employees.

Authorities say Vanley used the identity of one of the workers to apply for a credit card with a $32,000 credit limit, waited for the card to arrive and intercepted it before it reached the victim.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a shooting and have made an arrest.

Just after 8 pm on Friday Topeka Police Officers were dispatched to a local hospital on the report of two subjects arriving by private vehicle with non-life threatening gunshot wounds, according to a media release.

The subjects reported that the shooting occurred somewhere in the area of 14th and Western in Topeka.

After conducting interviews detectives arrested Herman Basquine, 19, Topeka, in the 1300 Block of SW Polk.

He is being held on charges of attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated battery.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and top Kansas lawmakers are not on the same page about ending an income tax break for farmers and business owners.

The GOP-controlled Legislature opens its annual session Monday and must close projected budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019.

Legislative leaders said this week that they see bipartisan support for repealing the tax break, which was enacted in 2012 and benefits more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.

Senate Majority Leader and Overland Park Republican Jim Denning predicted that even though Brownback championed the tax break, he’d allow a bill to repeal it to become law without his signature.

But in comments to reporters this week, Brownback defended the tax break as a pro-growth policy that particularly helps small businesses.

MOUNDRIDGE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a California mother and her 8-year-old son visiting Kansas relatives died after being pulled from an icy pond.

KAKE-TV reports that investigators have not publicly identified the victims of the drowning Friday afternoon at Pack Park in central Kansas’ Moundridge.

The woman’s 43-year-old husband managed to stay above the water and ice and was rescued. He was treated at a hospital.

Ron Blaylock, Moundridge’s fire chief, said rescue efforts were slowed by the fact his volunteer fire department didn’t have a boat and had to summon one from elsewhere.

Details of why the victims were on the pond were not immediately disclosed.

JEWELL COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Jewell County continue to investigate a suspect for alleged child abuse.

Cody Michael Showers, 26, Mankato, scheduled court appearance this week was moved to February 1, according to Jewell County Attorney Darrell Miller.

Julie Effenbeck is representing Showers.

On December 21, deputies arrested Showers for allegedly shaking a 7-week-old baby and causing “great bodily harm” during an incident on December 15, according to a media release.

Showers remains jailed on a $100,000 bond, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s office.

The baby was hospitalized in Wichita.

By Dan Margolies

The Kansas Federal Public Defender says federal prosecutors have failed to turn over all attorney-client phone calls that were recorded at the pretrial detention center in Leavenworth to a special master looking into their legality.

In a court filing this week, the public defender identified recorded calls to at least two attorneys that were not disclosed by prosecutors.

“The Special Master should be given authority to determine why these telephone calls were not included in the material provided by the government, and whether there are still recorded calls in the USAO (U.S. Attorney’s office) possession or knowledge that should have been disclosed,” the filing states.

In October, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson appointed David Cohen, a Cleveland attorney, as special master to investigate whether and to what extent the pretrial detention facility had turned over privileged video and audio recordings of attorney-client meetings to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas.

The issue arose as part of a wide-ranging criminal case in which inmates and corrections officers at the facility have been charged with distributing drugs and other contraband within its walls. Initially, six defendants, including two inmates, were charged. In its filing Wednesday, the public defender says the government has since identified 95 additional detainees who may be subject to indictment.

The underlying criminal case, however, has largely been overshadowed by the revelations last summer that the private operator of the facility, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), had been recording attorney-client phone calls and meetings and, in some cases, turning the recordings over to prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas.

In a report last month, Cohen identified 229 recorded calls made to known attorney phone numbers. The public defender now says that some recorded calls were not identified by Cohen because prosecutors had failed to turn them over to him.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office did not return a call seeking comment. Lawyers with the Federal Public Defender could not be reached for comment.

Cohen, reached at his Cleveland office, said he did not know why the government might not have produced some recordings.

“I don’t think one of those reasons is that it’s in the court’s vault and I didn’t come across it. I don’t think it’s because I didn’t see something that’s there,” he said. “What that reason is could be any number of things. I just don’t know.”

The public defender and U.S. Attorney’s office have been at odds since the initial revelations of the tapings. That mutual antagonism has spilled over into a dispute over the scope of Cohen’s investigation. The public defender wants him to examine whether CCA routinely recorded attorney-client meetings and turned them over to the government. The U.S. Attorney wants Cohen’s investigation limited to editing out and retaining privileged attorney-client matters.

The public defender’s suspicions have been heightened by what it says are other discrepancies in the government’s production of information to Cohen.

For example, it says, the government told the court in August that it was unaware CCA had recorded, and not simply monitored, attorney-client meetings. Yet two weeks later, it says, the government told the court that it had obtained 18 terabytes of surveillance footage from CCA, including recordings of attorney-client meeting rooms.

“Both of these statements cannot be true,” the public defender says.

Find Dan Margolies on Twitter @DanMargolies.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating an armed robbery.

Just before 8:30 p.m. on Friday police were dispatched to Plato’s Closet clothing store at 1580 SW Wanamaker in Topeka after report of a robbery, according to a media release.

The store staff told officers an unknown black male wearing khaki pants, black leather jacket, his face masked and using a pistol entered the store demanding money.

After the robbery, the suspect fled the store on foot. Police and a K9 tracked the suspect to where witnesses say they saw him enter a silver passenger car and leave the area.

No arrests have been made.