OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man is scheduled to be sentenced in July for the traffic death of an off-duty Omaha firefighter.
Online court records say 31-year-old Jonathan Mumm has pleaded no contest and been convicted of misdemeanor vehicular homicide. Investigators say Mumm’s pickup struck a motorcycle driven by 37-year-old Scott Petersen around 12:20 a.m. on May 30 in western Douglas County.
Mumm faces up to a year in jail. His sentencing hearing is set for July 2.
MONROE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say three people were injured in a multi-vehicle wreck near Monroe.
The Platte County Sheriff’s Office says all three drivers in the Tuesday morning crash were taken to Columbus Community Hospital. Their conditions weren’t immediately known.
The drivers were alone in their vehicles at the time of the accident, which occurred near the intersection of Nebraska Highway 22 and 310th Avenue.
The Sheriff’s Office says the wreck occurred after two vehicles had stopped at a railroad crossing. Another vehicle struck one of the two vehicles from behind, causing it to hit the vehicle in front of it.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A grieving father has rented space on two Omaha billboards, hoping they will help authorities find and prosecute whoever killed his daughter and a man with her.
Johnnie Wofford said the billboards and the messages they carry are in northeast Omaha, not far from where his daughter, 23-year-old Johnnesha Brown, and 27-year-old Stephen Arps were shot in November.
Wofford says he hopes the billboards will “get Johnnesha and Stephen some type of justice; let both families, the Arps and the Woffords, get some type of closure.”
Authorities have not arrested and charged anyone with killing the couple.
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) — A Bridgewater State University student accused of sexually abusing two preschool boys at a campus day care center where he worked has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Wrentham, Massachusetts, resident Kyle Patrick Loughlin was arraigned Wednesday on charges of rape of a child and aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. Prosecutors say the boys are between 4 and 5 years old.
The 21-year-old Loughlin was arrested Tuesday night. He’s held without bail until a dangerousness hearing next week and can’t be reached for comment. It’s unknown who represents him.
University spokeswoman Eva Gaffney says Loughlin was one of several students working at the licensed center and had passed a required background check. She says parents have been informed and will receive assistance.
The state’s child welfare agency is investigating.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A judge says a 17-year-old Connecticut girl forced to undergo chemotherapy must remain in the hospital until she finishes treatment later this month.
The judge’s decision Wednesday also says the teen’s mother cannot visit her at the hospital while she is in temporary state custody.
The teen, identified only as Cassandra C., testified by teleconference during a closed hearing last month, asking to finish her treatments from home or have visits with her mother.
Doctors say her Hodgkin lymphoma, diagnosed in September, is in remission but she needs the remaining treatments. She says she is no longer fighting them.
The state was awarded temporary custody after the teen missed several medical appointments last fall and ran away. Her lawyers unsuccessfully tried to stop the treatment she opposed.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man convicted of first-degree murder in a shooting death at a party following a Miley Cyrus concert last year has been sentenced to life in prison.
24-year-old LaRon M. Jones was also sentenced Wednesday to two terms of 10 to 20 years on weapons counts. He was found guilty in January of the slaying of 21-year-old Brandon Samuels in March 2014.
Police say a fight broke out at a house party, and when the fight escalated, Jones and others got into cars to leave. They say Jones returned to the end of the home’s driveway and began firing shots into the air and then at the house.
At the sentencing hearing, Jones said he hopes the prison term makes him “better, not bitter.”
A federal court has issued a temporary restraining order blocking pilots at discount carrier Allegiant Air from a planned strike Thursday.
The Las Vegas-based airline had gone to court to block the strike, which would have grounded 250 flights and affected 33,000 customers.
The union says it will comply with the judge’s decision and Allegiant says all scheduled flights are expected to operate normally.
Thursday is one of Allegiant’s busiest travel days.
Allegiant is one of the most profitable airlines in the world, taking vacationers from smaller U.S. cities to warm destinations like Phoenix, Las Vegas and the Florida cities of Orlando and Tampa.
The airline’s pilots are upset over the company’s change in crew scheduling and a rollback in a disability program and other benefits.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Felony child abuse charges filed against a woman in connection with the December death of a 2-month-old girl who had been living in filthy conditions at a Bellevue home have been dropped.
The Sarpy County Attorney’s Office says four felony counts of child abuse against 30-year-old Kristin Lary have been removed. Some will be replaced with misdemeanor child abuse charges, and one felony count of possession of a controlled substance remains.
Officers who found little Jasmine Thompson at the house reported seeing several bags of garbage in the kitchen and said the house smelled of bleach and feces. Her cause of death was inconclusive.
Two others have also been charged in the girl’s death of four misdemeanor counts each of negligent child abuse.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal program administered by Goodwill has helped thousands of Omaha-area job seekers polish their resumes, learn skills, and pursue degrees and jobs.
Goodwill WorkOpps is a free federal program that helps adults find full-time employment. Since 2011, more than 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 participants have left the program with a job or a degree.
The program, which used to be known as the Adult Career Services Program, was started in the mid-1990s and was taken over by Goodwill in 2011. Goodwill partnered with the Labor Department and its Rapid Response team, which is usually deployed in cases of large-scale layoffs, to administer the program.
WorkOpps, which is short for Working Opportunities for Adults, is funded through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man whose body was found in a northeast Omaha yard.
Omaha police identified him as 30-year-old Leatrice Wallace. Officers and medics dispatched to the neighborhood found his body a little after 8 a.m. Tuesday.
His death is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been reported.
