LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A 23-year-old Lincoln woman who misused personal financial information from a student lender’s database has been given a year and a day in prison.
A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says Jovita Benford was sentenced on Wednesday for unauthorized computer access. She must serve three years of supervised release when she leaves prison.
Federal prosecutors say Benford was working for the Lincoln-based student lender Nelnet when she accessed a database in October 2010 to help a borrower with his student loans. She copied his name and date of birth and those of other borrowers, then used them to try to borrow money online. She wasn’t successful.
In an unrelated state case, Benford was sentenced in November to 18 to 36 months for theft and criminal impersonation.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) – A Sidney man has been given prison time for threatening his wife and having weapons.
Court records say 37-year-old Mark Allsman was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 to 36 months.
Allsman had pleaded guilty to terroristic threats and being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors dropped another weapons charge in return for Allsman’s plea.
Court documents say Allsman loaded a gun and told his wife to “keep pushing and see what happens” during an argument on Nov. 14.
The Cheyenne County Attorney’s Office says Allsman was convicted of theft in Lancaster County in 2005.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Lincoln man charged with beating his ex-girlfriend to death has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
William Pereira was sentenced Tuesday in Lancaster County District. He pleaded no contest in March to second-degree murder.
The judge in the case said Pereira killed 19-year-old Alissa Magoon in December 2010 in a fit of jealous rage, suspecting her of seeing another man.
Prosecutors say Pereira, a 26-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, beat Magoon on the head with a piece of wood until her skull was exposed.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – The trial of a Grand Island man accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl has been delayed.
Twenty-six-year-old Abraham Richardson is suspected of abducting the girl from a Grand Island apartment last October and sexually assaulting her. His trial, which had been set for June, is now set for October in Hall County District Court.
Richardson is charged with first-degree sexual abuse on a child under age 12, kidnapping and first-degree assault.
Richardson also faces federal child pornography charges. A plea hearing in that case is scheduled for Wednesday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A man who cheated Medicare, Nebraska Medicaid and private insurers out of $1.3 million has been given three years in federal prison.
Mark Koehler, of Norfolk, had made a plea deal with prosecutors.
A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says that at Koehler’s sentencing on Tuesday, he also was ordered to pay restitution and serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison.
Koehler, the former business manager at Heartland Physical Therapy in Norfolk, was charged in December with bank fraud and health care fraud. Prosecutors say he submitted false claims for reimbursement between 2007 and 2010, and used phony billings to obtain a $500,000 operating loan from BankFirst in Norfolk.
Koehler also must pay back the $500,000.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Lincoln police are looking for a robber who forced his way into a house and took marijuana and two vacuum cleaners.
The robbery happened Monday night near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Police say the suspect rang the doorbell and when a man answered, the suspect forced his way inside.
Police the robber took nearly $600 worth of pot and drug paraphernalia, plus the vacuum cleaners.
The victim’s roommate called police.
Authorities cited and released the victim for possession of drug paraphernalia that was still in the house.