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Pair plead not guilty to locking foster son in basement room

MACY, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska couple accused of locking their 10-year-old foster son in a basement room have pleaded not guilty.

Krista Parker entered her pleas Monday to charges of kidnapping, child abuse-neglect and false imprisonment. Charles Parker entered his pleas last week to the same charges.

A court document says officers with Omaha Nation Law Enforcement Services went to the Parkers’ home in Macy on Sept. 15 after receiving a call about a boy locked in a storage room. Officers found the boy locked in the dark basement room with no windows or ventilation. The room reeked of urine and feces.

Court records say accountant stole from and paid back church

WAKEFIELD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an accountant has been charged with stealing nearly $110,000 from a northeast Nebraska church — money that court records say he’s already more than paid back.

Dixon County District Court records say 45-year-old Michael Pommer, of Wakefield, is charged with 15 counts of theft. He didn’t immediately return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Pommer’s accused of taking the money from two bank accounts of Salem Lutheran Church without church officials’ authorization. The records say the bank account transfers occurred from June 24, 2016, to Sept. 5 this year.

A court affidavit says Pommer has since reimbursed the church nearly $115,000.

Man imprisoned for selling counterfeit sports trading cards

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been imprisoned for selling counterfeit Mickey Mantles and other trading cards online.

Federal prosecutors say 45-year-old Thomas Beatty Jr. was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha to 30 months and ordered to pay restitution of $142,000. He also must serve three years of supervised release after leaving prison.

Beatty had pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors say that from June 2017 through November 2017, Beatty advertised and sold online what were described as rare and valuable sports trading cards. Among them were two of former New York Yankees great Mickey Mantle, one of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Namath of the New York Jets and one of basketball legend Bill Russell.

Prosecutors say the cards were counterfeits worth less than $10 each.

Sheriff says man wounded when roommate’s gun went off

LOUISVILLE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was flown to Omaha for treatment after he was wounded in a shooting.

Cass County Sheriff William Brueggemann said in a news release that deputies responded Tuesday night to a report of a possible accidental shooting at a home in Louisville. He said 24-year-old Andrew Urban was handling his rifle inside the home’s living room when it fired. The bullet penetrated a wall and hit the side of the garage door opening.

The release says it appears debris from the bullet exiting the door opening struck Urban’s roommate, 24-year-old Lawrence Schram. He was flown to Nebraska Medical Center for treatment of his chest wound.

The case is being investigated.

1 man killed in 3 vehicle Halloween morning crash in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man has died in a three-vehicle crash in north-central Omaha.

Police say the crash happened Wednesday morning at Maple and 94th streets when a sport utility vehicle began weaving, went over a curb and crossed two lanes of traffic and across a center median before hitting a pickup truck and a car travelling the opposite direction.

Forty-nine-year-old Kenneth Evans of Omaha, who was driving the SUV, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are investigating whether a medical condition suffered by Evans led to the crash.

The driver of the pickup suffered a knee injury, and the driver and a passenger in the car were uninjured.

Man sentenced in Omaha Tribal Council bonuses case

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha Tribal official who admitted using federal funds to give himself a bonus has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.

Former council member Doran Morris Jr. was given five years of probation at his sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. Morris was ordered to pay restitution of more than $13,400. He’d pleaded guilty to misapplication of health care benefit program funds.

Prosecutors say nine former and current officials misused federal funds by awarding themselves nearly $389,000 in bonuses. Officials say the bonuses were paid from Indian Health Service funds meant to provide health care to members of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, who reside on the Omaha Reservation in Macy in northeastern Nebraska and in western Iowa.

Lincoln loses grant bid for autonomous shuttle project

Courtesy navya.tech

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln’s mayor says the city didn’t win $1 million grant it wanted for an autonomous shuttle project but will continue looking for ways to pay for the idea.

Mayor Chris Beutler said Monday that Nebraska’s capital was not among the nine cities awarded $1 million by Bloomberg Philanthropies in its 2018 Mayors Challenge.

Under an earlier $100,000 Bloomberg grant , Lincoln refined its shuttle idea and tested driverless shuttles on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Innovation Campus. More than 1,500 riders participated and provided feedback for the project team.

Beutler says the city is still in the running for a $5 million grant from a U.S. Department of Transportation program.

District builds ‘ACT culture’ to aid kids on college exam

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha school district has built an “ACT culture” to aid students in doing well on the college entrance exam.

The Millard Public Schools district already was giving the test to all students before the state dropped a battery of assessment tests in favor of the ACT.

Heather Phipps is the district’s associate superintendent for educational services and she told the Omaha World-Herald that the district is “several years into building what we are calling an ‘ACT culture.'”

When Millard first started giving the ACT, teachers took old ACT exams so they knew what the tests look like and what kind of questions students were being asked. Phipps says the goal was not to teach to the test but rather to ensure teachers understood.

The district has also brought in an ACT preparation consultant who emphasizes the rewards of high scores and gives test-taking tips such as running around during test breaks to get the students’ blood flowing.

Judge limits some testimony in former Omaha officer’s trial

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jurors at the trial of a former Omaha police officer charged with assault stemming from a deadly encounter with a mentally ill man will not learn that it led to the officer’s firing, a judge ruled.

Scotty Payne, 39, is charged with felony assault and use of a weapon in the June 5, 2017, death of Zachary Bearheels. Police said Bearheels, 29, was acting erratically at an Omaha convenience store and fought officers’ efforts to take him into custody. He lived in Murdo, South Dakota.

At a pre-trial hearing Thursday, Judge J. Russell Derr ruled that jurors won’t hear that Payne was fired for violating procedures, including the barred use of a stun gun on a handcuffed person. Derr also barred testimony about why Payne’s police body camera wasn’t turned on and why he rode in the ambulance with Bearheels, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Police cruiser video shows Payne using the stun gun on Bearheels and Officer Ryan McClarty dragging Bearheels by his hair and repeatedly punching him in the face. McClarty is due to stand trial in January on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said he decided against more serious charges because a coroner could not directly link the officers’ actions to Bearheels’ death. The coroner determined that Bearheels’ cause of death was excited delirium and other factors, including the stun gun jolts. Medical experts say excited delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death.

The judge barred the two sides from mentioning any possible link between the stun gun shocks and excited delirium, but the coroner will be able to testify about other issues, including whether Bearheels suffered pain from Payne’s actions.

The trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 26.

Man gets 5 years in Iowa prison for ramming police vehicles

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man accused of ramming police cars on a chase that began in Nebraska has been sentenced to five more years in an Iowa prison.

Woodbury County court records say 43-year-old Larry Johnson II pleaded guilty to felony eluding after prosecutors dropped an assault charge. His plea agreement says the sentence must be served after the remainder of his 15-year sentence for forgery. He was on parole when the chase occurred July 6.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a Nebraska trooper tried to stop Johnson’s pickup truck being pursued by South Sioux City police. Officials say the truck rammed the trooper’s car before crossing into Iowa.

Officials say the truck again rammed both the trooper’s car and a sheriff’s vehicle before becoming stuck on a median.

His Nebraska case is pending.

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