SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for possession of stolen documents in 7 Kansas cases.
On Saturday, a police officer on patrol in Wichita noticed a Toyota Corolla with a tag that had been reported stolen, according to officer Charley Davidson. The officer stopped the vehicle in the 1000 Block of South Ellis and made contact with the 54-year-old male driver and two passengers including a 37-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man.
Upon further investigation, officers located illegal weapons, drug paraphernalia, and multiple stolen documents including mail, debit cards, identity cards, Social Security cards and birth certificates. The documents came from six cases in 2017 and one from 2013, according to Davidson.
Police arrested the 37-year-old passenger identified as Danielle Tilcock, according to the Sedgwick County booking report. She was jailed for an aggravated weapons violation, seven stolen property violations and a drug violation.
The driver was arrested for a suspended license and a tag violation, according to Davidson. The other passenger in the vehicle was released.
Tilcock has 5 previous convictions for theft, burglary and battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
SALINE COUNTY— One person was injured in an accident during a chase just before 6p.m. Tuesday in Saline County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Chrysler Town & Country driven by Robert Austin Moore, 27, Spirit Lake, ID., was westbound on Interstate 70 at the Interstate 135 Junction being pursued by the Kansas Highway Patrol Units.
The KHP threw stop sticks and the driver lost control of the vehicle while attempting to avoid them.
The vehicle left the road and rolled into the ditch.
Moore was transported to the hospital in Salina. Moore was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP. Authorities did not released details on what prompted the chase.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect involved in a Thursday, February 1, police pursuit and have made an arrest.
On Tuesday, police reported the arrest of 50-year-old Jeffery Thomas Parsons in Wichita.
Parsons was the sought by the Topeka Police Department for numerous charges regarding his involvement in a police pursuit in which he drove the wrong way on the Interstate and struck a vehicle. He is also wanted several felony warrants through Shawnee County.
Parson’s criminal history includes convictions in Shawnee, Sedgwick, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee County for: Manufacturing of Narcotics, Forgery, Aggravated Assault, Fleeing and Eluding LEO, and Aggravated Escape from Custody.
A pair of Kansas shoe store employees were lauded for their actions after one of them found a 2-year-old locked inside a sweltering car in a Kansas City parking lot in July of 2015-photo of the rescue by Karamel Krissty
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas bill would legally protect Good Samaritans who break into vehicles to save overheating children and animals.
Lawmakers heard testimony Monday for the potential legislation.
The bill states it would provide immunity from civil liability when a vehicle is damaged by a person trying to aid a “vulnerable person or domestic animal” in situations where there is “imminent danger of harm” and law enforcement has been notified.
Greg Smith of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department says the bill could cause confusion with its definitions of a vulnerable person and of signs of impairment.
Carla Lewis of the Kansas Animal Control Association says the bill could increase public awareness about the dangers of leaving a child or pet in a car during dangerously hot weather.
RENO COUNTY — Investigators are working to determine the cause of a fire at a home in Hutchinson.
Just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, fire crews responded to 2713 Timber Lane in Hutchinson for a report of a structure fire, according to a media release.
Upon arrival, crews found a heavy smoke and flames coming from an attached three car garage. Fire crews were able to quickly contain the fire by mounting an aggressive interior attack. This allowed fire crews to stop the spread of the fire before the fire entered the interior of the home.
Crews were able contain the fire damage to the garage, however, some smoke damage was noted throughout. The garage sustained heavy damage.
The homeowner and family were home at the time of the incident and alerted by the sound of the smoke detectors.
Battalion Chief Rex Albright states that “yet this is another reminder that smoke detectors do work, make sure yours are operational.”
The owner reported seeing fire coming from the garage and called 911. The entire family evacuated safely.
Officials did not have an estimate on damage from the fire.
SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man for additional allegations of sexual battery at his home.
Just after 6:30a.m. January 28, police received a report from a girl in her late teens who told police she was inappropriately touch by 50-year-old Brian Hunter without her consent while she was sleeping at his residence in the 1900 Block of Glendale Road in Salina, according to Salina police captain Mike Sweeney.
Police booked Hunter on requested charges of Aggravated Sexual Battery; Victim is physically powerless.
Additional charges are now requested against Hunter for an incident that allegedly occurred at his residence in September of 2017, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.
The mother of a 16-year-old victim dropped the girl off at Hunter’s apartment. He gave the teen four beers and then offered for her to sleep in his bed while he slept on the couch.
The teen woke to Hunter sexually assaulting her, according to Forrester. The girl’s father reported the incident to police on January 31, according to Forrester.
Hunter is being held for Rape; Sexual intercourse with physically powerless victim, according to the Saline County booking report.
WABUNSEE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating former University of Kansas basketball player Brannen Greene on multiple charges.
Just before 9p.m. Saturday, the Kansas Highway Patrol arrested the 23-year-old Green following a traffic stop for speeding eastbound on Interstate 70 at Tallgrass Road in Wabaunsee County, according Lt. Adam Winters of the Kansas Highway Patrol.
In addition to speeding, Greene was booked on requested charges involving an expired registration, driving without a valid license and distribution of marijuana, according to Winters.
Greene bonded out of the Wabaunsee County jail Sunday, according to their booking report
The Wabaunsee County attorney’s office is waiting for a report from the Kansas Highway Patrol before a decision on possible charges.
Greene played three season at the University of Kansas. In March of 2016 he announced he was leaving school to play professional basketball, according to the team roster.
The Delaware 87ers originally selected the 6-foot-7 Greene in the October 2016 NBA Development League draft. He played a handful of games for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies during the summer league. He also briefly played for Salt Lake City in the NBA G-League last fall, according to the league web site.
The annual Township Fire Protection meeting was held on January 26. The contracts have been signed by the respective township board members for the Great Bend Fire Department to provide service to the surrounding area of Great Bend.
City Clerk Shawna Schafer says each year, the contracts with the four townships that the Fire Department provides fire protection to are renewed at the same price.
Shawna Schafer Audio
The Great Bend Township’s cost is $60,147 this year, Liberty Township at $17,969, South Bend at $22,718, and the Buffalo Township is charged $27,872. The township has to pay 50 percent of the total sum on or before July 15th and the other 50 percent on or before December 15th.
The Great Bend Fire Department will make all reasonable efforts to attend fires in the townships when notified.
Great Bend Human Resources Director Randy Keasling brought rough drafts before the Great Bend City Council Monday night on the revised social media policy and the whistleblower policy for city employees. The existing policy focuses on public relations and those employees who manage social media sites for the city. The revised policy adds information for all staff related to their use of personal social media and posts or comments pertaining to their job or the City of Great Bend.
Keasling says it is good to have employees know there are consequences if they negatively talk about the city.
Randy Keasling Audio
The revised policy states, “…if any of your conduct adversely affects your job performance, the performance of fellow employees or otherwise adversely affects members, customer’s suppliers, people who work on behalf of the City or those who have legitimate business interest, may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
Keasling says the policy will hopefully keep issues away in the future.
Randy Keasling Audio
The city council approved the revised social media policy and approved the addition of the whistleblower policy which allows city staff and volunteers to anonymously turn in any questionable situation at the workplace.
Susan Fout, a state behavioral health commissioner, presents data about psychiatric residential treatment facilities to the Child Welfare System Task Force. Fout’s testimony frustrated task force members, who wanted more analysis. MADELINE FOX / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Troubles in the Kansas foster care system might stem in large part from a shortage of places that can help children in psychiatric crisis, say some lawmakers and child advocate groups.
Since 2013, the number of psychiatric residential treatment facilities in Kansas has dropped from 11 to eight, with 222 fewer available beds.
That left many kids who can’t get the care they need sleeping in the offices of foster care contractors when beds aren’t available. The issue came under scrutiny Friday at a meeting of the Child Welfare System Task Force.
Even the boys and girls placed successfully in psychiatric facilities sometimes stay too briefly in residential care, say social workers, lawmakers and contractors.
Child welfare advocates have raised alarm bells that kids’ stays are shorter than they used to be, meaning children return home before they’re ready and are at greater risk of returning to a psychiatric ward in the future.
Since the state’s KanCare program started in 2013, Kansas’ three Medicaid health plan providers have determined whether and for how long children in state custody need psychiatric residential treatment.
Lawmakers and child welfare advocates learned Friday that the length of stay varies widely from provider to provider. Members of the task force said that state officials seemed to lack a good explanation for the variances.
Foster kids whose treatment was managed by one provider, Sunflower, stayed an average of 60.9 days in 2016, compared to 85.9 with United and 103.1 through Amerigroup.
Officials from the two state agencies that regulate psychiatric care and oversee Medicaid couldn’t explain the varying ranges to the task force.
Members of the panel said they were frustrated. If the differing patterns between the companies have existed since KanCare was born six years ago, they wondered, why isn’t there an explanation?
Sen. Barbara Bollier questions state officials about psychiatric residential treatment facilities. Bollier pressed the officials to examine data to ensure the state’s Medicaid providers were meeting kids’ psychiatric needs. CREDIT MADELINE FOX / KANSAS NEWS SERVIC
“I don’t understand why it’s six years in and you’re caught like a deer in the headlights,” said Sen. Barbara Bollier.
Susan Fout, the behavioral health commissioner for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, suggested measuring the effectiveness of residential treatment stays not by the number of days, but by how many people had to be readmitted. That idea was also championed in a report released last month by a governor’s mental health task force.
Neither KDADS nor the Kansas Department of Health & Environment had data on readmission rates. That also angered Bollier. She said the task force’s frustration at so many unanswered questions might jump-start the agencies’ efforts to get more numbers, and to better explain what those numbers mean.
“These are kids’ lives,” she said. “We have to do better.”
Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox
