NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post) – North Platte Police are investigating the theft of prescription medication from Buffalo Bill Manor.
On Monday evening, police responded to a complaint of a burglary at 1200 South Oak. The victim reported that they were missing prescription medications from their home, but there was no sign of forced entry. An investigation led to the arrest of 40 year old Vicki Arriola, who was not an employee of Buffalo Bill Manor, but an assistant who had been issued keys.
Arriola was charged with burglary. She remains in the Lincoln County Jail on $20,000.00 bail. The investigation continues.
SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) – Not-guilty pleas have been entered for Nebraska Panhandle man who is accused of killing his live-in girlfriend.
Forty-six-year-old Craig Johnson said nothing as the court entered the pleas on Tuesday. Johnson is charged with second-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. No trial date has been set.
Johnson is accused of killing 42-year-old April Smith at the home the two shared eight miles west of Sidney. Authorities found Smith’s body Dec. 12 with her hands and legs bound by wire and rope. An autopsy showed she suffered a blow to the head. There were signs she was choked, and there were cuts and bruises on her face and body.
Johnson remains held in the Cheyenne County jail on $1 million bail.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – A registered sex offender has been accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in Lincoln County.
Twenty-two-year-old James Hobbs III was arrested on Monday and faces two counts of sexual assault.
Authorities say the girl reported that Hobbs forced her to have sex with him twice in rural Lincoln County on Oct. 22.
Hobbs has acknowledged being with the girl but has denied having sex with her.
The Nebraska Sex Offender Registry says Hobbs is on probation for sexual assault of a minor in Red Willow County. He was convicted in February 2010.
He remains in Lincoln County custody. His attorney from the Red Willow County case didn’t immediately return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post) – Early Sunday morning, a North Platte Police Officer witnessed a vehicle traveling southbound in the northbound lane of North Jeffers. The driver refused to pull over and led the officer on a chase to West Highway 30 (mm 165) before being stopped by “spike strips.”
The driver was identified as 29 year old Ryan Holechek of Ogallala. Holechek was arrested and charged with 2nd offense Driving Under the Influence, Flight to Avoid Arrest, Willful Reckless Driving, and other traffic offenses. His passenger, 40 year old Carlos Ayala was uncooperative at the scene and taken to jail for Resisting Arrest.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post) – A one-car rollover accident has left a woman hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
A news release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says 21 year old Emily Levasseur was traveling east on North River Road about three miles east of North Hershey Road. Levasseur’s 2003 Dodge Dakota pickup left the road and rolled several times. Levasseur had been ejected.
She was transported to GPRMC and later Creighton University Medical Center for further treatment. Her condition is unknown at this time.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post) – A police investigation into two burglaries over the weekend has led to the arrest of four North Platte men.
Around 2:25 a.m. Saturday, North Platte police were searching for 25 year old Clarence Alspaugh who was suspected of driving with a suspended license. After finding and following the vehicle, police found footprints belonging to Alspaugh and 23 year old Aaron Tuenge. Later Saturday morning, the footprints were found to match those at a burglary case reported in the 1400 block of William Avenue. Stolen property associated with Alspaugh was also found.
Both men were arrested. Alspaugh is charged with Obstructing an Officer, Burglary and Driving Under Suspension. Tuenge faces Obstructing an Officer and Burglary charges. Both remain in the Lincoln County Jail.
Ryan MarkwardtThomas Keefer
At 4:05 a.m. on Saturday, North Platte police observed suspicious activity in the 100 block of Rodeo Road. The suspects fled but were caught by officers. They were identified as 27 year old Ryan Markwardt and 22 year old Thomas Keefer. The two men were also believed to be connected to a break-in on the 1300 block of North Bailey. Markwardt is charged with Burglary, Theft by Receiving Stolen Property, and Resisting Arrest. He also had an active local warrant. Keefer is charged with Burglary, Possession of Burglary Tools, and Theft by Receiving Stolen Property. Markwardt and Keefer are in police custody.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska state senator plans to withdraw his proposal to make unwanted mouth-kissing a sex crime.
Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery was scheduled to pull his bill Tuesday after questions arose about how authorities would enforce it.
The measure (LB797) would have counted mouth-kissing without consent as sexual contact for purposes of filing a sexual assault charge.
Avery said earlier this week that the bill sought to address a serious matter. He proposed it after a man approached one of his constituents while she was mowing a lawn, offered her water, and then kissed her on the lips without permission.
The female’s family members later learned that the man was a sex predator, but authorities could only charge him with disturbing the peace.
MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) – A father and son convicted of causing a crash that injured four people in southwest Nebraska have been sentenced to prison.
Fifty-three-year-old Leslie Sides and his son, 26-year-old Eric Sides, had pleaded no contest to two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of assault. In return, prosecutors dropped several charges.
The two were sentenced on Monday. Eric Sides was given a combined 11-to-15 years in prison. His father was sentenced to a combined six-to-nine years.
Prosecutors say the Sides got into their trucks on Aug. 19, 2010, and chased a vehicle that had driven through the horseshoe driveway at the Sides’ home in rural Bartley. The vehicle was knocked into a spin, and it overturned.
Four people in it were injured.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – Some Nebraska wheat farmers have been worrying about the warm, dry winter.
Crop specialist Bob Klein says that planting conditions were perfect in fall for dry land winter wheat. The most recent federal survey shows about 74 percent of the Nebraska wheat crop is in good or excellent condition, far above the 42 percent in good or excellent condition reported in the survey a year ago.
But Klein says dry soil warms up easier than wet soil and that January plant growth could hurt the harvest in July.
Plus, the likely ground freeze and thawing can be hard on wheat plants.
Klein says area wheat fields could use “a good blanket of wet snow. That would be the ideal situation.”
OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a 26-year-old Ogallala man has died from injuries suffered in a crash on Christmas Eve.
Nebraska state trooper Aaron Watson said that Colt Lintt died last week at a Scottsbluff hospital.
Watson says Lintt was driving on U.S. Highway 26 in Keith County when his pickup left the road near mile marker 146. Watson says Lintt over-corrected and the truck went off the other side of the highway and rolled.
Lintt was taken to Ogallala Community Hospital, and then flown to Scottsbluff.
