Esteban BuenoLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man has been found not guilty of charges that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy he met through a social networking app.
Esteban Bueno was acquitted at his second trial in Lancaster County District Court. His first trial ended in a mistrial.
His accuser told investigators Bueno sexually assaulted him after the two met on the Grindr app. The boy says he was looking for a friend, not sex.
Bueno consistently denied that anything sexual happened, saying he went to meet a person he had been texting in January 2017 and discovered he was just a boy. Bueno says the boy threatened to tell police that Bueno had done inappropriate things to him if he didn’t pay $100.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha elementary teacher accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old student faces new accusations of assaulting four other students at the school.
The news of the new investigations comes as the Omaha Public Schools district announced Tuesday that Fontenelle Elementary School Principal Eric Nelson has been placed on leave.
That announcement came a week after 30-year-old Gregory Sedlacek was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl. Sedlacek was arrested after other teachers reported seeing him molest the girl on the school’s playground.
Police say they are now investigating accusations that Sedlacek molested four other students, all 6 years old, this year. Sedlacek has taught at the school for three years.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska man has been sentenced for defrauding banks in Iowa and Nebraska.U.S. District Court records say 32-year-old Joshua Huffman, of Lyons, was given three months behind bars and five years of supervised release. He also was told at an Omaha hearing Monday to pay restitution to Washington County Bank in Blair and United Bank of Iowa in Ida Grove, Iowa. He’d pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say Huffman gave false and fraudulent financial statements to the banks to obtain loans for his farming operation from December 2014 through May 2015.
He defaulted on the loans, so United Bank of Iowa suffered a loss of about $320,000, and Washington County Bank suffered a loss of almost $14,000.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a 25-year-old suspect in the slaying of a man who died after being found on the steps of a southeast Omaha residence.
Police said Tuesday the man was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and use of a weapon in the slaying of 51-year-old Troy Giles. Online court records don’t show the suspect’s been formally charged yet.
Police say a woman walking her dog spotted Giles and alerted officers around 2:15 a.m. on Feb. 22. Paramedics sent to the scene performed CPR on Giles before sending him to Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Officials with the Omaha Fire Department say a body has been pulled from a lake on the city’s northwestern edge, three days after crews pulled a sport utility vehicle from the water.
The department says in a written release that crews responded Saturday night to a report of an SUV crashing into the water at 174th and Ida streets. Crews found the SUV submerged in the lake, but divers said a search of the vehicle and area around it did not turn up any victims.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the crash, requested another search of the scene Tuesday afternoon. Officials say a diver found a body in the water a short time later.
Officials have not released the name of the victim.
HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A South Dakota man accused of drinking alcohol before the fatal Nebraska crash of an all-terrain vehicle has been sentenced to 180 days in jail and five years of probation.
Cedar County District Court records say 27-year-old Derrik Nelson was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide and false reporting. Prosecutors dropped manslaughter and other charges in exchange.
The records say Nelson was driving the ATV after drinking for several hours before the June 2017 crash near Fordyce that killed his passenger, Jessi Anderson, a South Dakota State University student.
Prosecutors also dropped an accessory charge filed against Nelson’s father, J. Douglas Nelson. Prosecutors say he dismantled the ATV to hide evidence. He’d said he was merely repairing damage he’d noticed.
Brandee CurryLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 29-year-old Lincoln woman is accused of bilking nearly $98,000 out of her boyfriend.
Lancaster County Court records say Brandee Curry is charged with felony theft. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for her.
A police investigator says in court records that Curry met Michael Matthews, of Spencer, in May 2017 on an online dating website. Soon after they started dating he received $355,000 from the sale of some land. She began asking for financial help, which he provided between July 5 and Nov. 20 last year.
The investigator says Curry told Matthews various tales, including that she needed $14,000 for her son’s medical treatment and more money to pay her father’s gambling debt after his sudden death. The investigator determined that Curry lied about her son and that her father hadn’t died.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln trauma surgeon accused of unprofessional conduct with patients has lost his bid to have his medical license reinstated.
The Nebraska Board of Medicine and Surgery voted Friday to deny Reginald Burton’s request, saying it didn’t have “enough evidence to believe he can practice safely.”
The original petition filed with state regulators listed nearly 20 concerns from Burton’s former co-workers at Bryan Health. Several of the allegations deal with conduct involving young adult male patients and “fuzzy” prescribing practices. Burton denied the allegations.
He applied for reinstatement this past October, saying he had completed his suspension and fulfilled other state requirements.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a car driver died after her car collided with a sport utility vehicle just north of Omaha.
The accident occurred around 7:10 p.m. Sunday. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says the eastbound car crossed a center line and collided with the westbound SUV.
The car driver was pronounced dead at the scene. She was identified as 48-year-old Rhonda Harnett. She lived in Omaha.
The sheriff’s office says the SUV driver was taken to Nebraska Medical Center. The driver was identified as 36-year-old Jodi Bierman, of Blair. Two children in the back of Bierman’s vehicle and the lone passenger in Harnett’s car also were hospitalized.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man convicted of killing his wife has pleaded guilty to killing his parents and a niece and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Douglas County District Court records say 46-year-old John Dalton Jr. entered the pleas Monday to three counts of first-degree murder and four weapons counts, but he offered no explanation for his actions.
Dalton was sentenced to three life terms plus up to 230 years in prison.
“They’re looking for answers — and they’re asking lots of questions — but sometimes there are none. It’s just pure evil,” chief deputy Douglas County attorney Brenda Beadle said.
Prosecutors say Dalton shot 70-year-old John Dalton Sr., 65-year-old Jean Dalton and 18-year-old Leonna Dalton-Phillip in Omaha last December . Police say his 6-year-old niece was also present, but she hid under a couch and was able to identify John Dalton Jr. as the shooter. He was captured in Jackson, Tennessee.
Dalton pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1998 shooting of his wife, Shannon Dalton. He was imprisoned for 11 years, and paroled in 2010.
All three of the couple’s daughters were home during the 1998 shooting. Dalton’s youngest daughter, Alicia Dalton, said Monday that the deaths of her grandparents and cousin were devastating.
“In a matter of seconds,” she said, “everything I had was lost.”
