OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man has died in a three-vehicle crash in north-central Omaha.
Police say the crash happened Wednesday morning at Maple and 94th streets when a sport utility vehicle began weaving, went over a curb and crossed two lanes of traffic and across a center median before hitting a pickup truck and a car travelling the opposite direction.
Forty-nine-year-old Kenneth Evans of Omaha, who was driving the SUV, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are investigating whether a medical condition suffered by Evans led to the crash.
The driver of the pickup suffered a knee injury, and the driver and a passenger in the car were uninjured.
Michael KleinLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Scottsbluff High School golf coach has lost an appeal of his sentencing for sexual assault.
The Nebraska Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected 63-year-old Mike Klein’s appeal of his 24- to 32-year sentence. He’d been given six to eight years on each of the four counts and was ordered to serve them consecutively. The court says the sentences imposed by the Scotts Bluff County District Court judge are on the low end of the statutory sentencing range.
Klein, of Mitchell, was sentenced Nov. 20 after pleading no contest to the four counts of sexual assault on two girls he’d coached. Several other counts were dropped in exchange for his pleas.
The appellate court also rejected Klein’s arguments that his counsel had been ineffective.
Frank FoelA man is facing charges after he allegedly made threats with a fake gun during a dispute.
On October 29, at around 4:07 p.m., North Platte police received multiple 911 calls reporting that there was a physical altercation in the parking lot of Dollar Tree, 201 East Leota. It was reported that one of the subjects involved in the disturbance had pulled a gun.
Officer Beth Kerr says a truck driver who was in the area and was a former corrections officer, was holding the suspect with the gun, 51-year-old Frank Foel, down on the ground when officers arrived and took him into custody.
Further investigation revealed that the gun was an airsoft gun and that the argument had started after a semi ran over a bicycle.
Kerr says that as officers were speaking to witnesses, Foel was making threats to kill them.
Foel was taken to the Emergency Room at Great Plains Health where he was treated and released. He was then jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center on charges of terroristic threats, resisting arrest, tampering with witnesses and use of a weapon to commit a felony.
Two North Platte residents are in jail after they allegedly sexually assaulted a child over a period of several years.
According to the North Platte Police Department, an officer responded to a disturbance in the 2300 block of East Philip at around 5:28 p.m., on October 12.
As the officer was speaking with the family involved in the disturbance, a male minor child told the officer that he had had sexual contact with an adult male.
Soon thereafter, the child was interviewed at the Bridge of Hope Child Advocacy Center.
During the interview, police say the child disclosed that he had been “subjected to sexual penetration” over a period of five years, from 2012 to 2017, by 32-year-old Jeremiah Kisner. Additionally, the child told authorities that he had been sexually penetrated in 2012 by 53-year-old Janet Dewey.
On October 29, 2018, investigators interviewed both Kisner and Dewey.
It was determined that there was probable cause to arrest both Kisner and Dewey and charge them with 1st-degree sexual assault of a minor.
Both were jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
Joshua PantherTroopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested three men and seized hundreds of pounds of marijuana and other THC products during two traffic stops this weekend.
On Saturday at approximately 3:20 p.m. a trooper observed an eastbound Nissan Altima speeding near mile marker 159 on Interstate 80 near Sutherland. During the traffic stop, the trooper detected criminal activity and conducted a search of the vehicle. The search revealed 45 pounds of high grade marijuana and 1,732 THC oil vape cartridges.
The driver, Joshua Panther, 31, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was arrested for possession of marijuana – more than one pound, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, possession of THC oil with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp. Panther was lodged in Lincoln County Jail.
On Sunday at approximately 12:30 p.m. another trooper observed an eastbound Nissan Rogue following another vehicle too closely near Dunbar on Highway 2 in Otoe County. The trooper detected criminal activity during the traffic stop and performed a search of the vehicle.
The trooper, with assistance from Otoe County Sheriff’s deputies, found 164 pounds of high grade marijuana, 500 units of THC shatter, 500 units of THC oil, and 4,700 units of THC blunts.
The driver, George Wood, 36, of Gibsonton, Florida, and passenger, Travis Hardin, 30, of Wimauma, Florida, were arrested for possession of marijuana – more than one pound, possession with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp. Both men were lodged in Otoe County Jail.
Jose Regalado-MendezLEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A December trial has been scheduled for a man charged with murder in south-central Nebraska’s Dawson County.
Dawson County District Court records say 42-year-old Jose Regalado-Mendez, of Lexington, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the October 2016 slaying of 37-year-old Jose Hernandez. Prosecutors say Regalado-Mendez shot Hernandez and hid the body near a farmhouse north of Lexington. The remains were found Dec. 12, 2016.
The records say Regalado-Mendez has filed notice that he intends to rely on an insanity defense. He’s been found competent to stand trial.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha Tribal official who admitted using federal funds to give himself a bonus has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.
Former council member Doran Morris Jr. was given five years of probation at his sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. Morris was ordered to pay restitution of more than $13,400. He’d pleaded guilty to misapplication of health care benefit program funds.
Prosecutors say nine former and current officials misused federal funds by awarding themselves nearly $389,000 in bonuses. Officials say the bonuses were paid from Indian Health Service funds meant to provide health care to members of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, who reside on the Omaha Reservation in Macy in northeastern Nebraska and in western Iowa.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln’s mayor says the city didn’t win $1 million grant it wanted for an autonomous shuttle project but will continue looking for ways to pay for the idea.
Mayor Chris Beutler said Monday that Nebraska’s capital was not among the nine cities awarded $1 million by Bloomberg Philanthropies in its 2018 Mayors Challenge.
Under an earlier $100,000 Bloomberg grant , Lincoln refined its shuttle idea and tested driverless shuttles on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Innovation Campus. More than 1,500 riders participated and provided feedback for the project team.
Beutler says the city is still in the running for a $5 million grant from a U.S. Department of Transportation program.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha school district has built an “ACT culture” to aid students in doing well on the college entrance exam.
The Millard Public Schools district already was giving the test to all students before the state dropped a battery of assessment tests in favor of the ACT.
Heather Phipps is the district’s associate superintendent for educational services and she told the Omaha World-Herald that the district is “several years into building what we are calling an ‘ACT culture.'”
When Millard first started giving the ACT, teachers took old ACT exams so they knew what the tests look like and what kind of questions students were being asked. Phipps says the goal was not to teach to the test but rather to ensure teachers understood.
The district has also brought in an ACT preparation consultant who emphasizes the rewards of high scores and gives test-taking tips such as running around during test breaks to get the students’ blood flowing.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 78-year-old Hastings man died in a collision west of Hastings.
John “Jack” Osborne (OZ’-burn) was the younger brother of former Nebraska congressman and football coach Tom Osborne.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says Jack Osborne was headed south on a county road Sunday around 7:50 p.m. when he didn’t halt at a stop sign and collided with a westbound vehicle on U.S. Highway 6.
Authorities say the other driver, 19-year-old Dariana Burr, of Juniata, wasn’t seriously injured.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man has died in a three-vehicle crash in north-central Omaha.
