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Trial set for South Dakota men in fatal Nebraska ATV crash

HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A Sept. 11 trial start has been scheduled for a South Dakota man and his father on charges stemming from the death of a 21-year-old woman after an all-terrain vehicle crash in northeast Nebraska.

Cedar County District Court records say 26-year-old Derrik Nelson pleaded not guilty Monday to vehicular homicide, manslaughter and other charges. The June 29 crash last year near Fordyce killed Jessi Anderson, a South Dakota State University student.

The records say Nelson’s 65-year-old father, J. Douglas Nelson, has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor accessory charge.

The records say Derrik Nelson was driving the ATV after consuming alcohol for several hours before the crash. Prosecutors say his father disassembled the ATV after the crash in an effort to hide evidence.

The two men live in Yankton, South Dakota.

Woman accused of stealing from Lincoln business is sentenced

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A woman accused of stealing from her Lincoln employer has been sentenced.

Valerie Stevens, of Eagle, was given 15 months in a U.S. prison. The judge also told her at her sentencing Tuesday in Lincoln that she must serve three years of supervised release when she leaves custody and must pay more than $222,000 in restitution.

She’d pleaded guilty one count of wire fraud.

Court documents say Stevens was working as an office manager at Lincoln Family Wellness when she used business credit cards to obtain money and property for herself and others under false pretenses. The crime occurred between Jan. 11, 2011, and Oct. 17, 2016.

Authorities identify worker killed when grate fell on him

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a construction worker killed when a steel grate fell on him in northeast Lincoln.

Police identified the man as 27-year-old Cameron McThenia, who lived in Lincoln.

Authorities say McThenia was talking to a co-worker when the grate fell on him Monday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.

Boy arrested on suspicion of bringing gun to Bellevue school

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — School officials in a city just south of Omaha say a 15-year-old student was found with a handgun, less than a week after the start of the school year.

Bellevue West High School student brought the gun to school on Wednesday.

Bellevue Police Sgt. Andy Jashinske says school administrators were told that the student was armed and called police around 10:20 a.m.

Police say the boy told to officers that he had a handgun. He was taken to a juvenile detention center in Papillion and faces several charges.

Jashinske says there was no indication that threats were made or the boy had any plan to harm people at the school.

The first day of school in the district was Aug. 9.

Minnesota family sues Hy-Vee over pasta salad illness

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Minnesota family sickened by eating pasta salad contaminated with salmonella is suing the Iowa-based grocery store chain that distributed the food.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Hy-Vee Inc. The suit alleges a woman, her daughter and her grandson became ill after eating pasta salad bought at a Hy-Vee store in Winona, Minnesota. The lawsuit says the mother and daughter required a doctor’s care.

Hy-Vee issued a recall for the product on July 17. Federal health officials say 79 people across nine states were sickened, including 18 who needed hospitalization.

A Hy-Vee spokeswoman says food safety is the company’s top priority and that an investigation continues at the Nebraska facility where the pasta salad was made.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money for medical costs, pain and suffering, and wage loss.

Dismissal of ex-inmate’s suit over jail sex assault upheld

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Phelps County and county law enforcement officials filed by a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a county jail guard in 2012.

The woman says she was assaulted by former Phelps County jail guard Louis Campana during the five days she spent in the jail. Campana was later convicted of sexually abusing inmates and spent a couple of years in prison. The woman sued, but a lower court dismissed the county and officials from the suit.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal Tuesday, saying that while the woman was able to point to things the county could have done to prevent her abuse, its failure to equate Campana’s unprofessional behavior with unlawful actions “does not serve to establish a constitutional violation.”

The court also agreed the county sheriff and a jail official have qualified immunity.

The woman’s claim against Campana is still pending.

Man gets probation for hitting garbage collector

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A man has been given a year of probation for knocking down a sanitation worker with his vehicle during an argument in an Omaha suburb.

Sarpy County District Court records say 63-year-old Dennis Stenner also was sentenced Wednesday to 20 hours of community service. He’d pleaded no contest to assault.

Cellphone video recorded by a Bellevue sanitation worker shows Stenner behind the wheel of his sport utility vehicle last October and blocking a garbage truck on a Bellevue street. Witnesses say he was angry because the garbage truck was blocking a street.

Authorities say sanitation worker Jesse Witzke got out of the garbage truck and asked Stenner to move. The video shows Stenner briefly backing up the SUV, then lurching forward and hitting Witzke. Witzke suffered only minor injuries.

Mother sues Omaha over son’s stun gun death

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mother has sued Omaha police over the death of her son who investigators say was shocked at least a dozen times with a stun gun and punched repeatedly while in custody.

U.S. District Court records say Renita Chalepah filed the wrongful death action Monday. It alleges that police used excessive force in illegally detaining her son Zachary Bearheels and didn’t get him proper treatment for his mental illness.

Omaha City Attorney Paul Kratz said Wednesday that the lawsuit was expected and that his office plans “on vigorously defending the city.”

Police video of the June 5, 2017, incident shows an officer using the stun gun on the 29-year-old Bearheels and another officer punching Bearheels outside an Omaha convenience store after Bearheels was on the ground.

Discovery of zebra mussels leads to closure of Omaha lake

Zebra Mussel
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — State parks officials have confirmed an infestation of invasive zebra mussels at Glenn Cunningham Lake in north Omaha and have announced the lake’s closure.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission confirmed the discovery of adult zebra mussels at the lake two weeks ago. To prevent the spread of the mussels to other local water bodies, the lake will be closed beginning Friday to all watercraft for the remainder of the 2018 season.

Omaha’s parks and Recreation department says the decision to close the lake “has been a group effort” with the state commission, city of Omaha, the Nebraska Invasive Species Program and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Officials again urged boat owners to slow the spread of the mussels by cleaning, draining and drying boats after each use.

Man arrested, heroin seized in downtown Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was arrested after officers seized heroin found with him in downtown Omaha.

The Nebraska State Patrol says an investigator became suspicious of criminal activity after encountering the man Monday morning. Roughly 24 pounds (11 kilograms) of heroin was found after a search of a bag he had with him. The heroin’s street value was estimated at more than $400,000.

The man was arrested on suspicion of possession for sale. Douglas County Court records don’t show that he’s been formally charged.

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