Court report

DISTRICT COURT

Judge Daniel Creitz

Civil cases filed:

James J. Daniels and Lisa D. Daniels, divorce

State of Kansas, ex rel DCF, vs. Jeremy A. Poore, other domestic

Cortney Shaw vs. Jacob S. Shaw, divorce

Ciara R. Dobson vs. Craig Trester, protection from abuse

 

MAGISTRATE COURT

Judge Tod Davis

Convicted of no seat belt and fined $30:

Joseph W. Martin, Independence

Drew A. Shepherd, Moran

Daryan K. Yeager, Fall River

Zachary M. Davis, Fort Scott

Richard E. Huston III, Iola

Convicted of speeding:

Melissa L. Mato, Farmersville, Texas, 78/65, $171

Carmilita K. Reynolds, Tulsa, Okla., 89/65, $249

Kenny J. Gonzales, Houston, Texas, 85/65, $213

Myrtha B. Davis, Houston, Texas, 88/65, $240

Jessica M. Minear, Lawrence, 75/65, $153

Robert L. Gilreath, Tulsa, Okla., 98/65, $348

Athena J. Wilson, Dallas, Texas, 84/65, $207

Frank Peterson, Warrensburg, Mo., 75/65, $153

Donald R. Freeman, Overland Park, 75/65, $153

Tanner D. Bybee, Linn Valley, 65/55, $153

Carrie A. Mock, Chanute, 80/65, $183

Luke C. Kingsley, Tulsa, Okla., 75/65, $153

Timothy J. Pennell, Lafayette, Ind., 83/65, $201

Jessica M. Figgins, Garnett, 52/30, $231

Christian M. Shaw, 81/65, $189

Marissa Purraz, Kansas City, Kan., 84/65, $329

Convicted as follows:

Sara B. Scott, Yukon, Okla., no registration, $228

Maria J. Valencia Franco, Tulsa, Okla., 80/65, no driver’s license, $303

Crystal D. Dyke, Le Roy, no seat belt, no child safety restraint, $198

Jerry D. Lindsey, Muskogee, Okla., 65/55, no seat belt, $183

Juramurod Begnazarou, Brookly, N.Y., driving left of center, $183

Debra L. Foley, Lenexa, failure to yield to emergency vehicle, $303

Failed to appear:

Christopher L. Olds, Moran, no insurance, $230

Criminal cases filed:

Charles L. Wilson, Yates Center, counterfeiting U.S. currency, theft

Cameron S. Shifflett, Iola, abuse of a child

Lyslie A. Shifflett, Iola, abuse of a child

Contract cases filed:

Security Credit Services LLC vs. Brandon Bell

UPDATED: Alice Hood

A memorial service for Alice Irene Hood, age 94, of Iola, will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, at Wesley United Methodist Church.

Memorials can be made to Humanity House.

Alice Irene Hood, age 94, of Iola, Kansas, passed away on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019 at Allen County Regional hospital, Iola.

She was born Jan. 11, 1925, on her grandparents’ farm in Milford, Iowa, the daughter of Chester and Valborg (Nelson) Blunt. Alice graduated from Terrill High School, in Terrill, Iowa, then attended the American Institute of Business before finishing her higher education at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a liberal arts degree.

Alice married Donald F. Hood on Aug. 11, 1946, at Grace Methodist Church in Des Moines, Iowa. This union was blessed with three children.

She was a member of United Methodist Church and held officer positions in Wesley United Methodist Women. She was also a lay speaker in United Methodist Church and has presented sermons at more than 20 churches in the Kansas City and Southeast Kansas area. Alice was a member of Sorosis Club, Pride Committee, City of Character, Friends of the Bowlus, charter member, former president of Allen County Regional Hospital Auxiliary, Allen County Historical Society, and former president of Friends of the Library.

Alice was a homemaker and very involved with church activities. She taught Bible School, Sunday School, and sang in the church choir. Three times she joined her husband in visiting the Holy Land.

She enjoyed writing poems and sharing them with her friends. While raising her children, she sewed their clothes and baked homemade bread and cookies. She also enjoyed doing arts and crafts.

Alice was preceded in death by her parents, Chester and Valborg Blunt; husband, Donald Hood in 1995; one son, Douglas Hood in 2007; and two brothers, Gordon Blunt and Clarence Blunt.

She is survived by her two daughters, Julie Heim of Springfield, Mo.; Caroline Cole of Iola; six grandchildren, Chris Cason, Carrie Cason, Jandy Bingham and husband, Brent, Jessica Hood, and Dillon Hood; six great-grandchildren; one sister, Margaret Winter of Marshalltown, Iowa; and several nieces and nephews.

Cremation has taken place and services will be held at a later date.

Condolences for the family may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Paroled Kansas killer charged in homicide

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A convicted Kansas killer has been charged with another homicide just months after he was released on parole.

Thirty-nine-year-old Ahmad Khaasanouva Bey was charged Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court with first-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Melinda Sprague, whom police said he had dated. Bey is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, The Wichita Eagle reports.

Another suspect, 34-year-old Vanessa Lynne Waner, is charged with interference with law enforcement by concealing, destroying or altering evidence of a murder.

Police have said a coworker reported Sprague missing  when she didn’t show up for work on Dec. 24. Her vehicle was found two days later behind a business with her body inside.

Prosecutors allege the killing was domestic violence.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show that Bey was paroled in July after serving about 20 years in prison for second-degree murder in the 1999 killing of 19-year-old Victor Lee Conger in Pittsburg.

He is jailed in Sedgwick County on $500,000 bail on the new murder charge and $100,000 on another case in which he is charged with failing to register as an offender. Waner is jailed on $100,000 bail.

Bey’s attorney, Casey Cotton, and the public defender’s office, which is representing Waner, didn’t immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press.

Humboldt shuts down water plant

HUMBOLDT — Contaminated water — spilled from the scene of an early morning fire at Mid-West Fertilizer in Iola — has prompted Humboldt to suspend operations at the city’s water plant.

Humboldt city officials announced shortly before noon today they were shutting down the plant because of possible contamination in the Neosho River.

With the shutdown, the city has issued a water conservation notice, noting the city’s water supply is contained to what is stored in its water towers.

“The amount of water currently in storage tanks is limited and water supplies are starting to decline,” the city announced in a press release issued this afternoon.

Residents are asked to limit water consumption, and avoid such things as doing laundry, washing dishes, washing cars or watering houseplants until the water supply can be restored.

The City is advising residents to limit water usage to drinking and sanitary purposes.

Firefighters worked feverishly with Iola farmer Doug Strickler to contain the water runoff incurred while they battled the blaze, but it was not enough to keep the water from reaching the river.

The water likely reached the river south of Iola’s intake location, meaning water service is unaffected for customers in Iola and Gas.

The shutdown affects the City of Humboldt as well as Rural Water Districts No. 9 and 10.

Crews from the Kansas Department of Transportation were awaiting test results to determine whether the contaminated water has cleared.

 

German investigators point to sky lanterns in fatal zoo blaze

BERLIN (AP) — Three women are under investigation in Germany for launching paper sky lanterns for the new year which apparently ignited a devastating fire that killed more than 30 animals at a zoo, officials said today.

The three local women — a mother and her two daughters, ages 30 to 60 — went to police in the western city of Krefeld on New Year’s Day after authorities held a news conference about the blaze, criminal police chief Gerd Hoppmann said.

The women are being investigated on suspicion of negligent arson, prosecutor Jens Frobel said. The offense can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.

Many Germans welcome in the new year legally with fireworks at midnight. Sky lanterns, however, are both illegal and unusual in Germany. The mini hot-air balloons made of paper have been used in Asia for centuries.

The fire started in a corner of the ape house’s roof in the first minutes of the new year and spread rapidly. The zoo near the Dutch border says the ape house burned down and more than 30 animals — including five orangutans, two gorillas, a chimpanzee and several monkeys — were killed, as well as fruit bats and birds. The animals either burned to death or died from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

Hoppmann said the women had ordered five sky lanterns on the internet and told authorities that they had believed they were legal in Germany. He added that there was nothing in the product description showing that they were banned.

Hoppmann described the women as “completely normal people who seemed very sensible, very responsible” and said it was “very courageous” of them to come forward, saving authorities a tricky investigation. He added that they feared reprisals and authorities limited the details given about the suspects.

Investigators believe that just one lantern started the blaze. They found the other four later, with handwritten good wishes for the new year attached.

The destroyed ape house lacked fire detectors and sprinklers, which weren’t required when it was built in the 1970s. The zoo said, however, that it had passed a regular fire protection check a few months ago.

The building’s roof had been renovated after a hailstorm a few years ago and plexiglass was added, Hoppmann said. He said while investigators were confident the sky lantern was to blame, they will look at other factors that may have contributed to the blaze, such as dry fallen leaves on the roof.

Investigators plan to carry out tests to help find out why the blaze spread so quickly. Firefighters were only able to rescue two chimpanzees. The zoo said today it was satisfied with their condition.

Police chief apologizes

HERINGTON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas police department is apologizing after an officer admitted to making up a story that a McDonald’s employee wrote an expletive and the word “pig” on a coffee cup.

Herington Police Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news release Wednesday that he is “truly sorry for all unnecessary, negative attention and pain that this incident has brought to every person who was affected.”

The apology came after Hornaday announced Monday that the now-former officer “completely and solely fabricated” the allegation that he was handed the coffee cup with the expletive at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Junction City. Hornaday said then that the officer told him the incident was “meant to be a joke” and resigned.

The owner of the McDonald’s said the restaurant has security video that proves none of its employees wrote the words.

“We hope,” Hornaday wrote in the apology, “that this is always remembered as the act of one person and not that of the chosen few men and women who have the courage to boldly protect and serve the citizens of this great Nation.”

Couple slain

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deadly shooting of a man and woman at a hotel in Wichita.

Police said officers responded around 12:20 a.m. today and found the victims suffering from gunshot wounds at the Hotel at WaterWalk. Both victims died at the scene. They were in their 30s, but their names weren’t immediately released.

Police don’t have any suspects, although Nicholson says witnesses saw someone running away from the scene. No motive has been released.

Police say the shooting was not a murder-suicide.

Traffic jammed by tumbleweeds

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Some people spent part of their New Year’s Eve trapped on a Washington state highway after tumbleweeds blocked their route, authorities said.

YakTriNews reported that the Washington State Patrol announced via Twitter at about 6:30 p.m. that State Route 240 was closed in both directions near West Richland.

Trooper Sarah Clasen told KAPP-KVEW that vehicles were trapped in a pile of tumbleweeds that stood up to 15 feet tall.

The state Department of Transportation used snow plows to clear the scene.

Trooper Chris Thorson said it took about 10 hours to clear the road, which opened again around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Thorson says five cars and one 18-wheel semi truck where trapped in the tumbleweeds. No injuries were reported.

“People were still stuck at midnight and rung in the new year trapped under the weeds,” the trooper  said.

Thorson said Wednesday that troopers found one abandoned car that was trapped in the tumbleweeds at daylight but no one was still inside.

Coast Guard suspends search for missing crew

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The search for five crew members of a sunken fishing vessel in Alaska has been suspended, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The decision came after the service said it had exhausted all leads and considered the chances for survival.

Two other crew members of the Scandies Rose were rescued after the 130-foot crab fishing vessel from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, sank New Year’s Eve, the Coast Guard said. The ship’s last known position was 170 miles southwest of Kodiak Island.

“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Matthew Bell said in a statement late Wednesday evening. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”

The Coast Guard said the search for the five crew members lasted 20 hours and included four Jayhawk helicopters, two airplanes and a Coast Guard cutter.

The Scandies Rose sank at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday with seven crew members aboard, the Coast Guard said. It received a mayday distress call and immediately commenced a rescue operation.

Searchers saw a faint light and found two male survivors, ages 38 and 34, hypothermic but otherwise in good spirits. The men told rescuers they were the only two who made it into life rafts.

While they were able to get into survivals suits, they didn’t know if the other five were able to do so, the newspaper reported.

The rescue crews battled headwinds up to 60 mph and nearly no visibility when they arrived on scene about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

A faint light was seen in one life raft, but a medic lowered from a helicopter found it empty, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The Scandies Rose was carrying a load of crabbing pots for the start of the winter season, Dan Mattsen, a partner in the boat that is managed by Seattle-Based Mattsen Management, told the Seattle Times.