OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The City of Omaha is on trial in the fatal shooting by police of a television crew member who worked on the law enforcement show “Cops.”
The Omaha World-Herald reports that 38-year-old sound technician Bryce Dion was killed in August 2014 when police responded to an armed robbery in an Omaha restaurant.
A lawyer for Dion’s family said Wednesday that officers fired at robbery suspect Cortez Washington as many as 39 times. One of those bullets inadvertently hit Dion.
Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer testified that the police response was justified and that Washington “never stopped” being a danger to responding officers.
Dion’s family says in a wrongful-death lawsuit that police had a duty to protect him.
A Douglas County district judge is expected to take the case under advisement.
Nicholas BridgmonOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska sheriff’s deputy charged with sexually assaulting a woman more than a decade ago now is linked to at least five other victims before he joined the department in 2015, according to court records.
Nicholas Bridgmon, a Seward County sheriff’s deputy, is charged in Johnson County with forcible sexual assault, which allegedly occurred Dec. 1, 2006. Bridgmon has been placed on administrative leave, and his attorney didn’t return a message Thursday from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Authorities have said the assaults are alleged to have occurred in several unspecified counties.
A court affidavit in support of the charge says an investigation began when he was applying for a job with the Nebraska State Patrol, and a pre-employment lie detector test in November showed some deception on his part.
A patrol investigator says in the affidavit that Bridgmon later acknowledged that when he was 19, he’d had sex with two girls who may have been under the legal age of consent. He also said he’d had sex with women who’d slept heavily or passed out after drinking alcohol.
Bridgmon’s boss, Sheriff Michael Vance, said Thursday that Bridgmon was given a polygraph test before his hiring in November 2015. He doesn’t know what questions the two polygraph operators asked or what questions may have tripped up Bridgmon on the state patrol exam.
A lie test isn’t fail-proof, Vance said, but it can be useful in making hiring decisions.
“It helps, especially with people you don’t know,” said Vance, who became sheriff after his election in November. He also said there have been no allegations of criminal conduct against Bridgmon since his employment by Seward County.
State patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said he couldn’t share what questions the patrol polygraph operator asked.
The court affidavit includes a woman’s recounting of what she said was her rape by Bridgmon when he was 19 and she was 17 in or around July 2007. She said he groped her in his car as they drove away from her parents’ home and then raped her at a remote location outside the Johnson County community of Cook. The village sits about 51 miles south of Omaha.
TOBIAS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a driver was killed in a rollover crash off a highway in southeast Nebraska’s Saline County.
The accident occurred a little after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on Nebraska Highway 74 on the north end of the village of Tobias. The Saline County Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Tobias resident Samantha Isack was driving alone and headed east when her car ran off the roadway and rolled, ejecting her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A former treasurer has been sentenced for stealing from the Jewish Federation of Lincoln.
Federal prosecutors say Jennifer Rosenblatt, of Overland Park, Kansas, was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln to six months in a residential re-entry center and six months of home confinement. She also was ordered to pay nearly $107,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors say Rosenblatt, formerly of Lincoln, was treasurer of the federation from 2009 through June 2016. They say Rosenblatt made payments to her personal credit card accounts from funds in the federation’s bank accounts.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $1.2 million to a Lincoln firefighter who claimed the city’s fire department retaliated against him after he reported a female recruit had been harassed.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports firefighter Troy Hurd wasn’t in the Omaha courtroom Tuesday afternoon when the jury announced its decision. Hurd still works for Lincoln Fire and Rescue and was on duty Tuesday.
Hurd filed a formal complaint alleging that firefighter trainer Eddie Mueller treated firefighter Sara Khalil differently because she’s a woman born in Iraq. After the complaint, Hurd says he was passed up for promotions and written up for issues that didn’t lead to discipline for others.
After an investigation, the city concluded the department had retaliated against Hurd, prompting the city to conduct two training sessions and remove the disciplinary actions from Hurd’s file.
At the trial, a city attorney disputed that Mueller, who is now a captain, treated Khalil different and argued the fire department had only been inconsistent in its discipline.
Acting City Attorney Chris Connolly says the city was reviewing its options.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An assistant U.S. attorney has denied allegations that federal agents and prosecutors wrongly kept a man arrested in an August immigration raid from seeing his attorney.
A law firm hired to represent Eric Beringer, a supervisor for Elkhorn River Farms in north-central Nebraska’s Holt County, made the allegations earlier this month. John Berry says a lawyer from his firm was told he couldn’t see Beringer until the day after the Aug. 8 raid. Berry is moving in court to suppress anything Beringer said to federal agents or prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods says in a court filing that Berry had called her office that day but didn’t say who his law firm would be representing. Woods also says Beringer didn’t indicate he wanted an attorney present after being read his rights and agreeing to speak.
Woods says the lawyer from Berry’s firm was told he couldn’t speak with Beringer because other suspects were being processed and for “security and logistical concerns.”
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska mayor is warning that his city could lose property tax revenue if county officials move ahead with their choice for the site of a new mental health crisis center.
Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike tells The Omaha World-Herald that the nearly 7-acre (2.8-hectare) property would be better used for private development, and that the city would loses out on potential revenue because the crisis center will be tax-exempt.
Sarpy County Board Chairman Don Kelly says he plans to meet with Hike on Thursday to discuss the issue.
The board selected the site last week. The center would serve as a short-term emergency facility where people can get voluntarily mental health and substance abuse assessments. Officials hope the center will alleviate burdens on hospitals and the county jail.
VESTA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one person has been killed in a southeast Nebraska house fire.
The fire was reported around 5:20 a.m. Sunday in Vesta, which sits about 7 miles (12 kilometers) west of Tecumseh in Johnson County. Fire officials think the person who died in the fire lived in the home. The person’s name hasn’t been released. An autopsy was ordered.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha school district’s policy on reporting suspected abuse differs from state law that requires all school employees to report abuse to law enforcement.
The Omaha World-Herald reports the district’s policy is being scrutinized because an Omaha elementary school principal has been charged with failing to report suspected abuse by a teacher.
The district policy requires staff members to report abuse to the principal but it’s somewhat unclear on who reports the incident to authorities.
Prosecutors in Douglas and Sarpy Counties told the newspaper that it’s not enough to report an incident to a supervisor.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say the father of a Nebraska Supreme Court justice was pronounced dead at the scene of a traffic accident in Lincoln.
Police say 79-year-old Thomas F. Funke was driving his sport utility vehicle west on Nebraska Highway 2 around 9:35 a.m. Thursday when it rammed into the rear of a semitrailer that had halted.
Funke is the father of Nebraska Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Funke. The elder man lived in Nebraska City.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The City of Omaha is on trial in the fatal shooting by police of a television crew member who worked on the law enforcement show “Cops.”
