SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a series of weekend attempted-robberies or armed robberies and asking for help to identify suspects.

On Sunday officers responded to an attempted armed robbery at the Valero gas station in the 800 block of South Meridian in Wichita, according to a social media release. Police released pictures of the suspect.

Just before 1a.m. Saturday, officers were dispatched to an armed robbery to the Quik Trip in the 1600 block of east Lincoln in Wichita. The employee reports an unknown suspect entering the business and demanding money. The suspect indicated he had a gun. The suspect took cash and left the business.

If you have any information call Wichita police or Crime Stoppers.

FORD COUNTY — A Kansas man died in an accident just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday in Ford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Mazda 3 driven by Robert Cintron-Vazquez, 21 Dodge City, was westbound in the outside lane on U400 just east of U.S. 56 at a high rate of speed.

The vehicle passed a vehicle and got back into the outside lane. The driver overcorrected. The vehicle left the roadway to the right, entered the north ditch, struck a culvert and rolled multiple times.

Cintron-Vazquez was transported to the hospital in Dodge City where he died. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

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FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatality accident that occurred just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday in Ford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a vehicle was westbound in the outside lane on U400 just east of U.S. 56 at a high rate of speed.

The vehicle passed a vehicle and got back into the outside lane. The driver overcorrected. The vehicle left the roadway to the right, entered the north ditch, struck a culvert and rolled multiple times.

The KHP did release additional details early Sunday.

RENO COUNTY — A Kansas man serving time on numerous convictions was ordered to serve an additional 21 months on top of the seven years he’s already serving.

Matthew Gulick, 31, was convicted of criminal possession of a firearm and misdemeanor possession of marijuana for a case from Nov. 22, 2016. He reportedly had a Glock 9 mm handgun at the time of his arrest.

His attorney asked for a departure even though he has a criminal history score of “A” — which is given to those with an extensive history of criminal activity. According to the Kansas Department of Corrections website, he has 26 felony convictions for which he’s serving time. That includes numerous burglaries, thefts, distribution of drugs, and even aggravated intimidation of a witness.

District Judge Trish Rose denied the motion and, under Kansas law, the 1-year, 11-month sentence handed down Friday will run consecutively to the seven years he’s serving now.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a stabbing.

Just after 5:30a.m. Saturday, Stormont Vail Hospital notified Topeka Police of a 38-year-old man who walked into the Emergency Department with a stab wound to the chest.

Officers arrived and spoke to the white male, who was not forthcoming when answering the questions of officers.

He indicated the wounds were from a fall onto a glass bottle and would not provide a location in which the incident occurred.

Further investigation revealed the case address to be 3906 SE Freemont in Topeka Kansas.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Topeka Police.

By MADELINE FOX

With high numbers of children in the foster care system and not enough homes to care for them, one Kansas contractor is turning to a short-term housing option.

News last month that more than 100 foster kids had to sleep in offices over the past year while contractors worked to place them shed light on stresses in the system. The number of children entering foster care in Kansas has gone up by a third in the last five years, and more than 7,000 were in out-of-home placement at the end of August.

Another contributing factor is the decline in the number of beds at psychiatric residential treatment facilities, from 780 in March 2011 to 272 in August 2017. That drop has made it more difficult to place children who need acute psychiatric care.

In response, KVC Kansas, the foster care contractor for eastern Kansas, opened its first short-term crisis center in September in Hays. The crisis center is attached to KVC Wheatland Hospital, a children’s psychiatric facility. It can accommodate 20 children, with two beds to a room plus common spaces with TVs, couches and beanbag chairs.

Jenny Kutz, director of communications for KVC Health System, said in an email that while KVC is putting a “huge emphasis” on foster family recruitment, “any number of children sleeping in an office is too many.” KVC intends the crisis centers to provide “a safe, comfortable, child-friendly place to stay while waiting to be matched with a relative or foster family,” Kutz said.

KVC plans to open 20 additional beds in January by leasing additional space in its KVC Prairie Ridge Hospital facility in Kansas City, Kansas. It also is looking into opening another crisis center in Wichita.

Officials with Saint Francis Community Services, the foster care contractor in western Kansas, said they have been looking for ways to expand placements since 2014, and intensified efforts as the number of overnight office stays increase. Saint Francis has added 53 emergency shelter or other specialized residential beds since May.

Theresa Freed, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said the department has been involved “every step of the way” as KVC opened the crisis centers.

“It’s always our goal to make sure that children are placed as quickly as possible in a family foster home or in an appropriate facility, so we appreciate the work of our contractors to do so quickly,” she said.

But the contractors’ efforts to respond to the shortage of placements has not assuaged lawmaker concerns about problems in the foster care system or DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore and her department’s supervision of it.

House Minority Leader Jim Ward reiterated his past calls for Gilmore’s firing, while state Rep. Stephanie Clayton took it a step further on Twitter.

“From what DCF employees have told me, nothing gets better until everyone at the administrative level is gone,” Clayton tweeted. “It’s never just the Secretary.”

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Hutton also called for a leadership change at DCF in a statement Friday, citing concerns that Gilmore did not appear to be aware of the disappearance of three sisters in Tonganoxie from the foster care system in August.

Police announced Tuesday that three sisters, all under age 16, who went missing from a Tonganoxie foster home had been found safe, though an additional 62 children were missing from the two contractors’ care as of last week.

“It is time for accountability in our state government,” Hutton said. “The continued failures at the Department for Children and Families are unacceptable, with the most vulnerable among us paying the price, and it’s time that the Brownback-Colyer administration do something about it.”

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, who is in position to take over for Gov. Sam Brownback when he leaves for a position in the Trump administration, has declined to comment on whether he intends to keep Gilmore on as DCF secretary.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.

OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old Kansas man has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide charges for the crash deaths of four Iowa residents in western Nebraska.

The North Platte Telegraph reports that Jeser Cisneros-Hernandez, of Liberal, Kansas, entered the pleas Friday in Keith County District Court.

Cisneros-Hernandez is charged with four counts of motor-vehicle homicide, reckless driving and driving left of the center of the road. Prosecutors say hit two motorcycles carrying two people each on July 1 near Ogallala.

Authorities say 54-year-old Sheila Matheny a

nd 61-year-old James Matheny, from Bedford, Iowa, were on one motorcycle. The other riders were 58-year-old Michal Weese and 59-year-old Jerolyn Weese, who lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Cisneros-Hernandez’s next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 8.

 

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Wichita Police Department (WPD) officer was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail Friday evening on charges of misdemeanor official misconduct and stalking.

The arrest was made by Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office after WPD requested them to investigate potential criminal conduct by the officer, according to a media release from officer Charley Davidson.

The officer arrested 46-year-old Joshua Price, according to the Sedgwick County booking report is a 21-year veteran of the WPD and, per department policy, is on paid administrative leave.

WPD officials requested the matter be investigated by the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, as part of a collaborative agreement made earlier this year to ensure transparency and avoid conflicts of interest.

SUMNER COUNTY— The U.S. Geological Survey reported four small earthquakes in portions of Kansas and in northern Oklahoma.

The most recent of the quakes was a pair of 2.5 quake southwest of Caldwell in Sumner County Kansas at 2:15p.m. and at  11:03 a.m. Saturday. The agency initially rated the temblor at 3.2.

No injuries or damage are reported.

The survey also recorded a magnitude 2.7 quake near Byron, OK., at 7:54 a.m. Saturday and a magnitude 2.6 temblor at 11:51 p.m. Friday northwest of Guthrie.

Thousands of earthquakes have been recorded in Oklahoma in recent years, with many linked to the underground injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas production operations. Oklahoma regulators have directed oil and gas producers to close some wells and reduce injection volumes in others.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas reports that its unemployment rate dropped slightly to 3.8 percent in September but the state saw a small decline in the number of private-sector jobs over the previous year.

The state Department of Labor says the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was lower than August’s rate of 3.9 percent and the 4.3 percent rate for September 2016. Monthly unemployment rates this year have remained below those for last year.

But the number of private-sector, non-farm jobs was 5,000 lower in September than in September 2016. The decrease was 0.4 percent.

It was the sixth consecutive month with lower private-sector job numbers than in 2016.

But Department of Labor officials said Friday that the state is maintaining a healthy labor market that was stronger in September than in August.

GRETNA, La. (AP) — Trial for the suspect in last year’s shooting death of former NFL player Joe McKnight has been scheduled for Jan. 16.

Fifty-five-year-old Ronald Gasser faces a second-degree murder charge in McKnight’s death on Dec. 1, 2016.

Authorities have said McKnight and Gasser drove erratically and yelled at each other in a traffic confrontation before the shooting. They say the confrontation took place as they traveled over a Mississippi River bridge in New Orleans and onto roads in a neighboring district.

Prosecutors have cast Gasser as the aggressor. Gasser’s attorneys say he shot in self-defense.

New Orleans news outlets report the trial had been set next month but both sides requested more time to prepare.

McKnight played three seasons for the New York Jets and one with the Kansas City Chiefs.