JUNCTION CITY — Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte said Tuesday’s snowstorm set a modern-day record for heaviest single snowfall event.
Otte has maintained snowfall records in Geary County since the winter of 1992-93.
He said this week’s storm was measured in west Junction City at 10.5 inches. That beats the previous record established on Feb. 9 and 10, 2001, when 10 inches of snow was deposited on Geary County.
HUTCHINSON — Tony Mendez, a former CIA operative and author, will be the first speaker for the 2014 Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series at Hutchinson Community College.
Mendez will speak at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 11 at Hutchinson Sports Arena. The lecture is open to the public. Cost to attend the lecture is $10; students will be admitted free.
Mendez was played by Ben Affleck in the Oscar-winning film “Argo,” a retelling of an event during the Iran hostage crisis in 1980. The screenplay was based on “The Master of Disguise,” authored by Mendez.
Mendez will speak on his experiences in the CIA and his role in the rescue of hostages from Iran. He also is scheduled to speak at a luncheon immediately following his presentation.
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WICHITA (AP) — A federal judge has reset a date to hear arguments over the government’s request to limit who can see some evidence in the case of an alleged suicide bomb plot at a Wichita airport.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Tuesday scheduled a Feb. 11 hearing in the case of Terry L. Loewen, a 58-year-old avionics technician facing terror-related charges.
Prosecutors are seeking an order restricting handling of evidence. The government has requested a hearing under the Classified Information Procedures Act, and also wants the case designated as “complex” to ease speedy trial concerns and give the parties more time to prepare for their cases.
Loewen has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida.
PITTSBURG (AP) — State troopers are investigating the potential role of winter weather in a collision that killed two people in southeast Kansas.
Highway Patrol Maj. John Eichkorn says the wreck happened shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday on U.S. 69, just south of Pittsburg and one mile north of U.S. 400.
Eichkorn says the two-car collision killed the driver of one vehicle and a passenger in the other. The second driver was taken to a hospital. Names were not immediately released.
The patrol says no precipitation was falling at the time, but investigators will study if conditions created by Tuesday’s winter storm were involved.
The crash closed U.S. 69 for about two hours.
Office of the Kansas Governor
Governor Sam Brownback praised the work of the Kansas Department of Emergency Management, Department of Transportation, Kansas Highway Patrol and local agencies in their response to today’s winter weather. The winter storm is expected to have lingering effects through at least Wednesday morning.
The Governor also declared a State of Disaster Emergency for the entire state in response to the storm, which continues to move through the state. The declaration authorizes state resources to assist local communities and residents as needed in the aftermath of this storm.
“Our state agencies did a great job today protecting Kansans during these difficult weather conditions,” Governor Brownback said. “We will be working to identify residents and communities in need of assistance and KDOT will be on the roads dealing with blowing snow due to windy conditions.”
A decision on when State offices in Shawnee County, which are closed through 6 a.m. Wednesday, will reopen will be made later this evening based on forecast weather and road conditions.
MANHATTAN – Kansas Farm Bureau President Steve Baccus on Tuesday welcomed final passage of the farm bill.
“This bill gives Kansas farmers and ranchers the certainty they need,” said Baccus, an Ottawa County grain farmer. “It strengthens crop insurance, helps stockmen who’ve been hammered by natural disasters and improves conservation programs.”
Baccus acknowledged the final bill is not perfect.
“While there are certainly programs or titles for which Kansas Farm Bureau might have selected a different path, the uncertainty and unpredictability surrounding farm programs has become extremely burdensome for our farmers and ranchers and has begun to impede everyday business opportunities,” he said.
“Once the bill becomes law, Kansas Farm Bureau looks forward to working with Congress to ensure Kansas farmers and ranchers can continue to feed, fuel and clothe an ever-growing population and strengthen our rural communities.”
TOPEKA (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback is getting a firsthand look at the state’s efforts to clear highways amid the winter storm that has closed schools and state government offices.
Brownback hopped aboard a Kansas Department of Transportation snowplow Tuesday afternoon to observe snow removal on Interstate 70 west of Topeka.
Forecasters were predicting up to a foot of snow in northeast Kansas. Brownback said his decision on whether to reopen state offices Wednesday will rest partly on whether winds are causing snowdrifts.
Brownback said he rode the KDOT plow to observe snow removal firsthand. He planned to travel about 15 miles on I-70 to the exit for the town of Maple Hill, then return to Topeka for a late-afternoon briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center.
ATLANTA (AP) — A new report shows fewer children are dying in traffic accidents, and officials say that’s because more young kids are buckled up.
Over a decade, the number of children 12 and younger who died in crashes dropped by 43 percent. Health officials say increased use of car seats and booster seats drove the decline.
Still, a third of the 650 children who died in 2011 were not buckled up. That was the case in almost half of the black and Hispanic deaths compared to a quarter of white deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., issued the following statement today upon learning of the death of Glenn Mull; his wife, Elaine; their daughter, Amy Harter; and granddaughter, Samantha Harter.
The Mull family was traveling to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show in Nashville, Tenn., when their Gulfstream 690C crashed during a landing attempt Monday.
“My heart goes out to the entire Mull family during this difficult time,” Moran said. “Glenn was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. Both he and his wife Elaine were well-known for their generous spirit and commitment to improving Pawnee County. Glenn, Elaine, their daughter Amy and granddaughter Samantha will be greatly missed.
“I ask all Kansans to join me in keeping their family and friends in our thoughts and prayers during the days ahead.”
Related story: Victims of Tennessee plane crash identified as Kansas family.
WICHITA (AP) — Southwest Airlines received $2.52 million in subsidies from the state’s Affordable Airfares program to help underwrite losses from its service out of Wichita.
Southwest Airlines began service in June from Wichita. The carrier, which has daily flights from Wichita to Dallas, Chicago and Las Vegas, received the subsidies for service it provided during July, August and September.
Southwest is eligible for up to $6.5 million each fiscal year to help underwrite losses on its Wichita service.
Chris Chronis, Sedgwick County chief financial officer, told the Wichita Eagle that Southwest hasn’t applied yet for funds for service after September.
Kansas allocates $5 million a year for its Affordable Airfare program, which was formed to provide more flight options, competition for air travel and more affordable airfares.
By DAVE RANNEY
KHI News Service
OSAWATOMIE — Two multiple murder cases have been tied to men who were brought by police to the state hospital here because of their threatening behaviors but were released several days later after hospital officials deemed them no danger to themselves or others.
The ensuing tragedies have left many wondering what went wrong and whether the state’s mental health system and the way it works with law enforcement is adequate.
Prosecutors said the two cases — which left families sundered and emotions raw in the small towns where they happened — were unusual only because of the levels of violence involved and their proximities in time and place.
“You can go just about anywhere in the state and find cases that involve people who’ve been in one of the state hospitals and (subsequently) committed violent crimes,” said Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, who also is president of the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association. “I’m not saying they’re all homicides, but, yes, they are violent crimes.”
Wilkerson, a veteran prosecutor, said laws and policies that allow some patients to leave the hospital too soon or without proper local follow-up have long troubled him.
‘Stabilize them and turn them loose’
“The mental health system we have in Kansas is underfunded,” he said. “There aren’t enough in-patient places for people to go anymore. So, now, instead of taking the time and committing the resources to really treat people, we stabilize them and turn them loose. It just doesn’t make any sense. If someone’s been declared a danger to themselves or others, and then all we do is stabilize them, I wouldn’t say that’s enough.”
The man first brought to the hospital was 35-year-old Kevin Welsh of Eureka. Police brought him to Osawatomie in late August 2013 after he was charged with kidnapping 26-year-old Catherine Scheff and her two young children. Scheff was a former girlfriend of Welsh’s.
Welsh spent 11 days at the hospital and then was briefly returned to jail. There, he posted bail and was released on Sept. 10. Three weeks later, he shot Scheff and her parents at the parents’ home in Eureka.
Scheff survived multiple wounds, but her father, 54-year-old Keith Kriesel, and mother, 52-year-old Sheila Kriesel, were killed.
Welsh died two weeks later in a shootout with agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
The second man was 22-year-old David Cornell Bennett Jr. who was taken to the hospital after being picked up by Parsons police on Oct. 30, 2013 for what they described as murder-suicide threats posted on Facebook.
Bennett now is charged with the first-degree murders of 29-year-old Cami Jo Umbarger of Parsons and her three children, ages 9, 6, and 4.
‘We don’t go a day without talking about her’
Their bodies were found the Monday before Thanksgiving after Umbarger — who was known as a reliable employee at Good Samaritan Center, a Parsons nursing home — failed to show for work.
“She’d talked about how he’d been stalking her,” said Joanna Wilson, the nursing home administrator. “It was like he’d become obsessed with her.”
The murders were hard on the close-knit staff and still are, Wilson said.
“We don’t go a day without talking about her,” she said. “I haven’t gone an hour without thinking about her, day and night. Many of the staff are the same way.
“When Cami started working here seven years ago, her first child was a baby,” Wilson said. “She had two babies while she was working here, so in a lot of ways those kids were raised here. Everybody knew them. What we’re going through now is horrible.
“I know that the rights for mentally ill patients are very strong and that those rights stem from years and years of them not having any rights and being put away when they didn’t need to be,” Wilson said. “But when things like this happen, I wish, of course, that they’d found some way to keep him.”
According to recent news reports, Bennett is now in the Labette County Jail on $5 million bond, awaiting trial for the murders and related charges including rape and the threats that got him sent to Osawatomie State Hospital.
Details about the treatments and evaluations that Bennett and Welsh likely received at Osawatomie remain sealed from public view because of patient confidentiality rules and gag orders placed by prosecutors and courts.
State mental health officials and others involved declined to comment on any specific aspect of either case.
How the process works
But state officials and others agreed to describe the system, its rules and processes, as they apply in general.
John Worley, director of clinical services at Osawatomie, said evaluations of patients being considered for release, as a matter of routine, would take into consideration any dealings the patient had with law enforcement.
“They look at the major issues to be addressed for stabilization to allow discharge from the hospital,” Worley said, referring to teams comprised of nurses, psychologists, therapists and social workers.
“They’re asking things like: Is this individual a danger to (himself or herself)? Are they talking about killing themselves? Do they have a plan? Have they made an attempt? Do they have a history of making attempts? And, likewise, are they a danger to others? Have they made threats? Have they acted on those threats? Do they have a history of arrests or being involved with law enforcement?”
Each final discharge decision is made by one of the hospital’s staff psychiatrists.
Typically, patients are released with a three- to five-day supply of medications. A refill prescription is sent to the pharmacy of their choice. They also are given an appointment with a local community mental health center.
‘You do your best’
But it isn’t always easy to figure out how troubled a patient might be, Worley said.
“Forty-nine percent of our admissions involve patients who’ve had no prior contact with the mental health system,” he said. “So, essentially, we have no prior history on them.”
And many patients’ conditions are masked by “co-occurring disorders,” usually drug and alcohol abuse. “It can be an incredibly complex picture to try to unravel,” Worley said. “But you do your best.”
The majority of patients are treated and released to return to their homes, assuming they have one.
According to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the state hospitals, only about 5 percent of the patients released are facing some sort of criminal charge that requires them to be returned to a jail.
Generally, though there are exceptions — once a patient is released from the hospital or from the hospital and then jail — there is nothing authorities can do to compel a person to continue treatments.
“The vast majority of (community-based) behavioral health care in Kansas is voluntary, and that’s as it should be,” said Matt Atteberry, executive director of the Labette Center for Mental Health Services in Parsons. “I say that because in this country, all of us, I think, value personal liberty. But what does that mean?
“In Kansas, it means an individual has the right to decline services at a mental health center just like they have the right to decline care at a doctor’s office,” he said. “So absent very specific court orders ordering people into care, it’s a completely voluntary thing. And even with a court order — which is rare — how enforceable is it?
“People like to think that because someone is an expert in behavioral health, they can somehow compel someone to do whatever it is we want them to do,” he said. “But a community mental health center is not a law enforcement agency. We have no more ability to make someone seek care at our facility than the donut shop can make someone come in and eat donuts.”
‘This is about resources’
And there is the separate but related issue of having enough resources to adequately treat those willing to be treated.
“We’re never going to have a perfect system,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe. “But, really, this is about resources. We’re going to have to house these people somewhere. But as it is now, we have limited hospital-bed space, which is why the Johnson County Jail has become one of the largest — if not the largest — mental health facility in the state.”
The demand for mental health services, he said, has outstripped the abilities of the state hospitals and mental health centers to meet them.
“There are people who have a serious mental illness who, given the resources, are able to live successful and productive lives in the community,” Howe said. “That’s as it should be, but for that to happen those resources have to be there and they have to be adequate.”
“Those of us in law enforcement would say those resources are inadequate,” Howe said. “And they’ve been inadequate for a long time.”
KDADS officials said they don’t track how many state hospital patients are convicted of violent crimes after release.
But the Kansas Department of Corrections keeps track of how many of its inmates have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Agency officials recently announced that 38 percent of the state’s prison population had been diagnosed as mentally ill.
Since 2006, the number of mentally ill inmates in Kansas prisons has increased 126 percent, according to corrections department officials.
ROZEL — A man was hospitalized after a single-vehicle accident at 10:10 a.m. Monday in Pawnee County.
The Kansas Department of Transportation reported Carl J. Patterson, 77, Rozel, was southbound on 280th Road, 2 miles south of Rozel, when his 2001 Chevrolet Impala traveled left of center into the east ditch. The vehicle hit an embankment and rolled 1.5 times, coming to rest on its top.
Patterson was transported to Pawnee County Community Hospital, then flown at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita for treatment.
The KHP said he was wearing a seat belt.
HOXIE — The Kansas Department of Transportation has postponed a public meeting in Hoxie that was scheduled for Tuesday due to the winter storm forecast. The meeting was regarding the pavement replacement and closure of Kansas 23 from Hoxie to the U.S. 83/Kansas 383 junction.
A date and time to reschedule the meeting will be announced soon.
