News – Page 1433 – North Platte Post Archive

Local newsman busted for giving female juvenile drugs

Posted on May 10, 2012May 10, 2012

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post) – A North Platte news reporter has been arrested on drug charges.
According to the North Platte Police Department, 19-year old Dillon Daigger, reporter for the North Platte Bulletin, allegedly gave illegal drugs to a female juvenile from Frontier County. Investigators contacted Daigger at his residence and could smell marijuana coming from inside his home. After obtaining a warrant and the subsequent search, Daigger was arrested and charged for Possession of a Controlled Substance (Class IV felony), Possession of Legend Drugs, (pharmaceutical drugs requiring a prescription- Class III misdeameanor), Possession of Marijuana Less than an Ounce and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (both infractions.)
Daigger remains in the Lincoln County Jail. No bond is listed. The investigation continues.

The following is a statement from North Platte Bulletin publisher George Lauby:

Dillon has been a good employee. He’s worked well every work day for nearly a year. He’s been conscientious, fair and thorough in the way he’s approached his work and done his job.

George Lauby

Publisher

Authorities ID Nebraska man fatally shot in Miss.

Posted on May 10, 2012

BATESVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Authorities have identified a Nebraska man who died after being shot while driving on Interstate 55 in north Mississippi.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Joey Miller said the man is 74-year-old Thomas K. Schlender of Raymond, Neb.

Miller said five shell casings were found on the interstate after the shooting early Tuesday morning in Panola County. It’s not clear if the shots were fired from another vehicle or from the side of the interstate.

Schlender’s car crashed into a divider in the median. He was alone in the car and no other motorists were hurt. The shooting happened Tuesday about 1:40 a.m.

His body has been sent for an autopsy. The investigation continues.

Sex offender imprisoned for Nebraska violation

Posted on May 10, 2012

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 27-year-old Sudanese man has been given 21 months in federal prison for not registering as a sex offender in Nebraska.

A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says Koang Tang must serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Tang was convicted in Nebraska’s Hall County of attempted sexual assault and sentenced in February 2010 to five years of probation. Gilg’s office says Tang was taken to Des Moines, Iowa, for deportation proceedings. When Sudanese officials refused to accept him, in August 2010 he returned to Nebraska,

Gilg’s office says Tang didn’t register as required when he began living in Omaha.

Friend charged in death of Doane football player

Posted on May 10, 2012

CRETE, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old driver has been charged with manslaughter for the death of a friend who’d fallen from the back of a truck near their college in southeast Nebraska.

Authorities say Cody Barnes faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday in Saline County Court.

Police say 20-year-old Cody Fanning and some other friends were riding in the back of the truck around 3 a.m. on April 25 when Barnes turned. Fanning fell from the truck, striking his head on the street. He died at a hospital.

The accident occurred near Doane College in Crete, where Barnes and Fanning were both students.

A public phone listing for Barnes could not be found. A phone listed for his lawyer wasn’t answered on Thursday morning.

Virginian sentenced for beating hitchhiker in Neb.

Posted on May 9, 2012

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — A 31-year-old Virginia man has been given 30 to 40 years in a Nebraska prison, convicted of severely beating a hitchhiker in western Nebraska.

Justin Adolph, of Lynchburg, Va., was sentenced on Tuesday in Cheyenne County District Court to consecutive terms of 15 to 20 years. He’d been convicted of attempted first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit attempted first-degree assault.

Authorities say Adolph beat a hitchhiker that he and a traveling companion had picked up in North Platte on June 1 last year. The hitchhiker, Tommy Crawford, later was found badly beaten alongside Interstate 80 about 130 miles west. He has since recovered.

Court records say Adoph’s companion, 33-year-old Stephanie O’Neal, of Clarksville, Tenn., was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of compounding a felony. She is awaiting sentencing.

Nebraska mom jailed for leaving infants unattended

Posted on May 9, 2012

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old La Vista woman who left her young children alone in a home so she could go drinking at a friend’s house has been given six months in jail.

Sarpy County court records say Michelle Polan was sentenced on Monday to two terms of six months, to be served at the same time. Polan was given credit for six days already served. She was convicted of two counts of negligent child abuse.

Police say Polan admitted she left the children alone in her sister’s basement in September. Polan’s sister called police after she came home to find the 9-month-old twins crying in the basement.

Nebraska man gets 5-8 years in teen sex case

Posted on May 9, 2012

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A 40-year-old western Nebraska man accused of sending sexually explicit texts and videos to a 14-year-old girl has been given five to eight years in prison.

James Jay, of Bridgeport, was sentenced last week and given credit for 104 days served as he awaited trial.

Jay had made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of attempted enticement by electronic communication device. They dropped another charge.

Court documents say the girl told her mother about the communications. An investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol later used the girl’s cellphone to electronically pose as her.

Authorities say Jay was arrested last July after he showed up for a sexual encounter the investigator had set up.

GOP US Senate candidate Stenberg to tour Nebraska

Posted on May 9, 2012

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Stenberg will visit 13 Nebraska cities over the next two days in his final push for supporters before next Tuesday’s GOP primary election.

Stenberg, the state’s treasurer, will fly to Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, Scottsbluff and Chadron on Wednesday. On Friday, he’ll visit South Sioux City, Norfolk, Columbus, Fremont, Beatrice and Hastings.

Stenberg’s campaign says his message in the last week of the primary campaign will center on “his lifelong conservative record and willingness to stand up to both Republican and Democrats leaders in Washington.”

Lake McConaughy below capacity and falling

Posted on May 9, 2012

OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — Lower water levels at Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska could be the new normal.

The lake is Nebraska’s biggest, supplying water for a variety of uses, including recreation, irrigation and power generation.

The water supply is tied to the snowmelt. It was nearly full last year, thanks to an above-average snowpack in Wyoming and a late melt.

It won’t happen this year. The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District says Tuesday that an early melt from a well-below-normal snowpack is to blame.

The district says the lake is at 82 percent of capacity and falling. The lake’s lowest reading of 18 percent was in 2004 as drought gripped the region.

District engineer Cory Steinke says the lake is in decent shape now, but future levels are uncertain.

Nebraskan gets prison for Social Security fraud

Posted on May 9, 2012

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 57-year-old Grand Island man has been given a year and a day in prison for Social Security fraud.

Jesus Chavez-Flores was sentenced in Omaha by U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon. Chavez-Flores must serve three years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Prosecutors say that in April last year, Chavez-Flores used the name and Social Security number of a Texas resident to apply for benefits at the Social Security Administration office in Hall County.

The fraud was discovered when the Pasadena, Texas, resident applied for benefits in July.

Prosecutors say Chavez-Flores had bought the Texas man’s identification documents in Chicago in the mid-1980s and had used them to get jobs in several states.