LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 57-year-old Grand Island man has been found guilty of receiving and distributing child pornography following a three-day trial in Lincoln’s federal court.
U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Deborah Gilg says James Haugh faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced.
Federal prosecutors say Haugh received and distributed videos of child pornography on different occasions from Jan. 3, 2009, to Dec. 28, 2012.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Authorities say a man lured two brothers, ages 5 and 8, from their yard in south Mississippi and took them to his camper trailer, where he sexually abused them and slashed the older boy’s throat.
Don Bass, chief deputy with Hancock County sheriff’s office, says the boy is expected to survive the Wednesday attack.
Bass says the older brother escaped the suspect’s trailer Wednesday evening and ran to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor called police.
Bass says the children were abducted from a residence in Pearl River County.
Bass identified the suspect as 41-year-old James Smith.
Officials and court records say Smith was released from prison to house arrest in June after serving a few months of a lengthy sentence for racketeering.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a 57-year-old man is facing charges after returning to a convenience store he is suspected of robbing to buy something.
Police say the robbery of a Kum and Go in north-central Omaha was reported shortly after 3 a.m. Thursday. Witnesses say a man entered the store and demanded money.
A few hours later that same man returned to the store and made a purchase. Police say a store employee followed the man to his home when he left and called police.
Officers arrested Laverne Brightman on suspicion of robbery.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — President Barack Obama has pardoned an Omaha resident who was sentenced to probation and home confinement for a drug conviction in 1996.
The White House said Thursday that Chris Deann Switzer was one of 21 people who received clemency.
Switzer was sentenced to four years of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service after being convicted of conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. Switzer also was required to undergo drug and alcohol treatment.
Obama pardoned 13 people for various crimes. He commuted the sentences of eight people he said were serving unduly harsh sentences for drug crimes.
The prisoners with commuted sentences were sentenced under a system that treated convictions for crack cocaine offenses harsher than powder cocaine.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man severely injured in a camping trailer fire in Beatrice is improving at a Lincoln hospital.
54-year-old David Hogan is was listed in fair condition Thursday at Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center.
He had been flown to the hospital after a fire Monday morning at a trailer court in north Beatrice that killed his wife, 59-year-old Vernia Hogan.
Firefighters believe the fire was caused by clothes that ignited after being placed too close to a space heater.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Secret Service says it is investigating a credit- and debit-card data theft at Target stores.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary confirms the agency is investigating, but declined to provide further details.
Minneapolis-based Target Corp. did not respond to requests for comment. A MasterCard representative referred questions to Target.
Target has 1,797 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man will face trial in May on a second-degree murder charge that accuses him of stabbing a friend to death.
47-year-old Ivan Fourhorns waived his right to a speedy trial at a hearing Tuesday, and his public defender requested time to prepare for trial.
The judge set trial for May.
Fourhorns faces 20 years to life if convicted of murder, and another one to 50 years if convicted of a weapons count.
Rescue workers were called to a Lincoln apartment July 23 and found 58-year-old Joe Solomon, who wasn’t breathing. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police say Solomon and Fourhorns got into an argument after drinking alcohol with others at the apartment.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 30-year-old man who drew a pellet gun on a Lincoln police officer has been sentenced to prison.
Carlos Sisneros was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months to 30 months in prison for convictions of third-degree assault on an officer and obstructing an officer.
Police say that on the night of July 30, a Lincoln police officer confronted Sisneros in a city park after receiving a report of a man sitting in a tree with binoculars. Police say that when the officer moved to search Sisneros, Sisneros reached for his waistband, yelled, “I have a gun,” and pulled out a realistic looking pellet gun.
The 50-year-old officer disarmed Sisneros, tossed the pellet gun and the two scuffled before Sisneros was arrested.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating after a female Lincoln Southeast High School student reported being grabbed, pulled into a boy’s restroom and thrown against a wall by a teenage boy.
The girl told authorities the attack happened Tuesday when she went to her locker during her lunch period.
The girl says she screamed when she grabbed while she was in the empty hallway, then pulled into the restroom and thrown to the ground. Her attacker then fled.
Police have labeled the incident an attempted sexual assault, and believe a student was the assailant. School officials, however, say there is no evidence of sexual contact.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The mother of a Council Bluffs high school student has been arrested for a Facebook post that made reference to a school shooting, but the woman’s attorney says she was simply venting frustration that her son is being bullied at school.
Police say 39-year-old Teri Pallat was arrested Monday on suspicion of making terroristic threats and first-degree harassment. Her arrest came after she posted a message on her Facebook page that said “this is exactly why” school shootings happen.
Pallat’s attorney, Michael Murphy, said Pallat’s son has been the target of bullying and at least one assault at school, and that school officials have done nothing to stop it.
Lewis Central High School Principal Joel Beyenhof says the school looks into every bullying accusation.
