Gathercole in a Dawson County Nebraska courtroom on Thursday- image courtesy KNOP TV
LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A man suspected of bank robberies in five states has pleaded not guilty to unrelated charges in Nebraska.
Station KNOP reports that Richard Gathercole entered the pleas Monday in Dawson County District Court to two counts of possessing stolen firearms and one of theft or receiving stolen property. A trial starting date of Aug. 12 was set.
Authorities believe Gathercole is the man they call “the AK-47 bandit,” who’s robbed banks in California, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington.
Nebraska court documents say Gathercole was arrested June 20 at a gas station near Lexington, Nebraska. A sheriff’s deputy had spotted a pickup truck there that Kansas authorities had reported stolen by a man who’d fired at but missed a state trooper.
GREENWOOD COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating alleged embezzlement.
On July 18, Sheriff’s deputies were called to Sonic Drive-In of Eureka to take a theft report. The restaurant, through their accountant, had discovered many daily deposits totaling several thousand dollars had not been deposited over the course of approximately a one month period, according to a media release from the Greenwood County Sheriff.
Deputies learned a specific manager was responsible for the daily deposits on all of the dates in question.
On Friday deputies executed a search warrant at a residence in the 300 block of S. Washington in Eureka.
They arrested Danielle Michael, 29, Eureka, and booked her into the Greenwood County Jail on multiple counts of theft and criminal deprivation of property.
Michael was released on a $100,000 bond.
Anyone with information on this investigation is encouraged to contact the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office at (620)583-5568.
Water distribution at the Lyon Co. fairgrounds during last week-photo Lyon Co. Sheriff
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Emporia residents no longer have to boil their water.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Sunday that a boil advisory had been lifted.
The advisory had been in place since Thursday, after a major water main break left the city of about 25,000 residents nearly waterless as temperatures soared. The break created the risk of possible bacteria contamination, although testing showed no evidence of such contamination.
As of Sunday, the boil advisory remained in effect for several smaller water supply systems in Lyon and Coffey and counties. Those communities include Admire, Allen, Hartford and Olpe.
COWLEY COUNTY – Authorities are investigating an alleged credit card scam.
Communications officers in Cowley County reported they have taken several calls regarding what is likely a scam, according to a social media report.
The targets of the alleged scam have received text messages claiming to be from Wells Fargo, requesting they call a phone number regarding a problem with their credit card.
Once the number is called, the target is asked for their credit card information. Authorities recommended you do not call the number if you receive a text message like this, as it is likely a scam.
Credit card companies do not typically contact customers by text message or phone and ask that they provide their card numbers.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Thousands of people remain without power in the Kansas City area after severe thunderstorms moved through the area overnight Saturday.
Utility officials believe the power outages will linger into Monday afternoon before everyone regains electricity. The storms that began Saturday generated winds gusts up to 70 mph that knocked down trees and power lines.
Our office windows are the only source of light in Pleasant Hill right now. That and all the lightning. pic.twitter.com/1EaP0nJgCZ
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — Colorado authorities say a person has died while inner tubing in the Platte River — the state’s third fatal tubing accident in a week.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday that a 43-year-old Castle Rock resident drowned near the Platte River campground.
Authorities say the man had been tubing Saturday afternoon with his fiance and friends when he apparently lost his tube and went into an area near the bank with bushes and tall grass.
A camper saw the man emerge face down. Several people pulled him from the water but attempts to revive him failed.
On Friday, a 48-year-old woman flipped off her inner tube and drowned near Golden. On July 16, a 31-year-old man died after falling out of his inner tube at the Animas River Whitewater Park in southwestern Colorado.
KANSAS CITY – A California man and woman were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute multi-kilos of methamphetamine and fentanyl (a synthetic form of heroin), which was confiscated during an interdiction at a Kansas City bus terminal, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Edgar Israel Reyes-Toscano, 44, and Vanessa Sanchez, 44, both of Bakersfield, Calif., were charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against both defendants on July 6, 2017.
The indictment alleges that Reyes-Toscano and Sanchez participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl. In addition to the conspiracy, Reyes-Toscano and Sanchez are charged together in one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and one count of possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Reyes-Toscano and Sanchez were arrested on July 5, 2017, at a local bus terminal. They had traveled together, the affidavit says, on a bus that originated in Los Angeles, Calif. Reyes-Toscano’s bus ticket bore a final destination of St. Louis, Mo. A Kansas City police detective searched his duffel bag and noticed a white cardboard box secured with clear package tape. Upon opening the lid of the box, the detective observed a large bundle wrapped in clear cellophane wrap. The detective also found a gift-wrapped package in the duffel bag that contained three bundles wrapped in clear cellophane wrap. According to the affidavit, those packages were later determined to contain a total of 2,380 grams of methamphetamine and 3,540 grams of fentanyl
Another Kansas City police detective noticed Sanchez, carrying a bag on her shoulder, walk past while intensely staring at what was transpiring between Reyes-Toscano and the detective. The detective had seen Sanchez exit the bus with Reyes-Toscano, and noticed that the bag she carried over her shoulder appeared to have a heavy, rectangular-shaped box in it.
Sanchez entered the women’s restroom and when she came back out, her bag no longer appeared to have a heavy rectangular box within. Sanchez immediately exited the bus terminal, walked out to the loading platform and sat down on a bench. While the detective questioned Sanchez, a third detective searched the women’s restroom and found a rectangular gift-wrapped package in the trashcan. According to the affidavit, the package, wrapped in the same gift wrap as the package carried by Reyes-Toscano, contained three bundles wrapped in clear cellophane wrap for a total of 2,410 grams of methamphetamine.
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Dan Biles prodded the state’s lawyer Tuesday about $2 million set aside in the school funding formula for two Johnson County districts, though they have few low-income students. CREDIT ORLIN WAGNER / ASSOCIATED PRESS
By SAM ZEFF
If you weren’t paying really close attention to the oral arguments in the Gannon v. Kansas school funding case before the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, you probably missed a little question from Justice Dan Biles about a provision of the new school funding formula that exclusively benefits two Johnson County districts.
“Does the state really want us to strike the entire formula because $2 million went askew in the process?” Justice Biles asked.
There’s a provision in the formula that funnels extra money to the Blue Valley and De Soto districts as though they serve more students from low-income households than they actually do — $2 million of the $23 million intended to bolster programs for academically struggling children statewide.
Lawmakers boosted the funding for at-risk kids because, when the justices declared the previous school funding formula inadequate in March, they’d pointed to the disproportionate numbers of minority and low-income children who are behind in math and reading.
To qualify for the extra money, the new formula requires 10 percent of children in a district to be categorized as at-risk. Blue Valley and De Soto don’t meet that threshold. So, the bill’s sponsors said, to make the legislation equitable for all districts, they allocated $2 million to those two districts anyway.
In crafting the bill, lawmakers decided that if this piece of the school funding formula is declared unconstitutional, the whole formula will go down with it.
Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister told the court, momentarily stumped by Biles’ question about the provision: “I don’t think anyone, including the schools, wants to strike down the entire law and stop all funding of the schools.”
“So the state would very much like to avoid that outcome,” McAllister said.
Some Democrats suggested the provision had simply been a way to buy support for the school funding bill from the Johnson County delegation.
Not so, says Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Republican from Fairway. “It is an attempt to provide one more avenue of funding to put directly towards activities that will help those students.”
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, from Overland Park, says, “No doubt it was a Johnson County provision.”
But he also says it’s money the districts need to provide services to their students, so he’s happy with the provision.
“Now if that’s something they (the Supreme Court) want to reverse, we have to live with it,” Denning said.
JACKSON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal fireworks accident.
Just before noon Friday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from a victim of an apparent explosion at 15530 150th Road in rural Mayetta., according to a media release.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies entered the residence and found the caller and victim, 11-year-old Colby Harris dead.
Jackson County authorities asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Scene Team to assist with the investigation.
They determined that Colby Harris had been experimenting with fireworks and other minor explosive devices. He was home alone for a very short period of time prior to making the 911 call.
An autopsy was performed Saturday in Kansas City and the manner of death was determined to be accidental and the preliminary cause of death is due to massive blood loss caused by shrapnel.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former Lawrence school district para-educator has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for having sex with a student.
Thirty-four-year-old Teri Lynn Johnson, of Baldwin City, was sentenced Friday. She was convicted in March of unlawful sexual relations and sexual exploitation of a child, both felonies, and promoting obscenity to a minor, a misdemeanor. Johnson must also register as a sex offender.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the crimes occurred in fall 2015 when the victim — then 17 — was a student at the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center’s Day School. Prosecutors say the conduct lasted until December of that year.
