OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have released the names of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of man believed to have stabbed or cut three women at a homeless shelter this week.
Police said Saturday in a release that the officers now on administrative leave are 39-year-old Eric Henka, 45-year-old Timothy Bauman, 30-year-old Jared Grayson and 30-year-old Kyle Graber. Henka and Bauman are eight-year veterans on the force; Graber has four years’ service and Grayson has two years.
Police say the officers fired Wednesday on 54-year-old Stephen Caldwell at the Siena-Francis House when he refused to drop a knife. Police say Caldwell stabbed and injured two women in the shelter’s parking lot before taking a third hostage inside the building and holding a blade to her throat.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man convicted of a 1988 double killing in western Nebraska is seeking to reopen the case by using new technology to identify fingerprints left at the crime scene, even as a new documentary series nearing completion calls into question his guilt.
Jeff Boppre, who is serving two life sentences, has maintained for three decades that he was framed for the killings of Richard Valdez and his pregnant girlfriend, Sharon Condon, in a Scottsbluff home. The Nebraska judicial system has upheld his 1989 conviction numerous times.
But a renewed effort by Boppre’s lawyers — coupled with a documentary reminiscent of the popular 2015 Netflix series “Making a Murderer” that explored a Wisconsin case — promise to bring fresh attention to Boppre’s conviction.
Producer Douglas Thornton with Middle West Studios said work began nearly a decade ago on what was intended to be a 90-minute documentary. It has ballooned into a series of seven to nine episodes set to wrap up late this year. The piece is being licensed to a TV network, though Thornton wouldn’t say which one.
The work was never intended to prove Boppre’s innocence, Thornton said, but it’s clear he believes Boppre has been wrongfully convicted.
“The evidence does not — and never will — line up to Jeff Boppre,” he said.
On Thursday, lawyers for Boppre, 55, and the Nebraska attorney general’s office made arguments for and against analyzing fingerprints found at the crime scene — that did not match Boppre or the victims — using the new technology.
Latent fingerprint technology developed since Boppre’s 1989 trial can make matches from low-quality fingerprints or even a single finger. Previously, investigators typically needed quality prints from all 10 fingers to make a match. The FBI has recently used the technology to identify human remains — some that had remained a mystery for more than three decades.
Lawyers in the Boppre case hope to use the technology to show that another man — John Yellowboy, a cousin of Condon’s who is serving a prison sentence in Colorado for unrelated crimes — had been in the house and is the likely killer.
Backing this claim are defense affidavits from at least eight people who were associated with Boppre, Yellowboy and the victims. They include the affidavit of a woman who said she hid under a bed in the home as the killings took place and that she believed Yellowboy was the killer. Another woman says Yellowboy confessed to her.
Yellowboy is in prison in Canon City, Colorado, for convictions of kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and robbery. Colorado prisons spokesman Mark Fairbairn said prison policy would not allow for Yellowboy to comment to a reporter. There is no attorney currently representing Yellowboy.
Boppre’s lawyers contend that the new fingerprint technology is akin to the advent of DNA technology. A 2001 Nebraska law requires the state to test DNA evidence in cases where someone has already been convicted if it’s likely to produce evidence that someone else committed the crime.
“Legally, constitutionally and ethically, the fingerprints should be analyzed,” Boppre’s attorneys argue in court documents. “The real question in this regard is, why not? What harm is done by doing a routine check of the fingerprints, the same as is done in literally hundreds of thousands of daily occurrences when an individual is arrested?”
Prosecutors argued in a one-page brief that Nebraska law doesn’t “create a postconviction remedy.”
“This case has been challenged before several judges in several courts over many years, and each time the conviction has been confirmed,” the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office said in a written statement.
Iowa attorney Thomas Frerichs, who joined Boppre’s defense team about a year ago, said the ultimate goal of the defense team is to exonerate Boppre. He believes the evidence uncovered by attorneys and the documentary will prove Boppre is innocent.
Prosecutors remain unconvinced, noting that police found letters spelling out parts of Boppre’s name written in grease on the floor and on a door near where Valdez’s body was found. Investigators said Valdez wrote Boppre’s name moments before dying.
Prosecutors said Boppre shot the couple during a night of heavy drug use, then tossed the gun near Gallup, New Mexico. Police said the gun was recovered with help from two acquaintances, Kennard Wasmer and William Niemann, who testified against Boppre.
Boppre has made several bids over the years to have his case reconsidered. All of his previous appeals have been denied, and the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 1993, 1997, 2004 and 2010.
In some of those appeals, Boppre said Wasmer and Niemann framed him for the killings and that Wasmer killed Valdez and Condon. Then, in 2010, Boppre said new evidence pointed to Yellowboy as the killer.
CARTER LAKE, Iowa (AP) — An attempted murder charge against a Carter Lake woman has been dismissed at the request of her alleged victim.
The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports that the charge against 51-year-old Tammy Oberg was dropped Wednesday. Oberg was ordered to pay fees and expenses for court costs.
Oberg had been charged in May after being accused of trying to run over another woman on a bicycle in Carter Lake. Police say she told officers she did it because she believed the victim was riding a stolen bike.
Officers say they found the alleged victim’s bike and cellphone in Oberg’s home.
Carter Lake sits on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River surrounded by Omaha following an 1877 shift in the river, but it remains part of Iowa.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man fatally shot by officers after police say he stabbed and cut women at a Nebraska homeless shelter has been identified.
Omaha police say 54-year-old Stephen Caldwell was killed Wednesday after several officers fired their weapons at him. Four officers have been placed on administrative leave while an investigation into the shooting is conducted.
Police say Caldwell attacked two women with a knife in the Siena-Francis House parking lot, north of downtown Omaha. Police say Caldwell then entered the shelter office and took another woman hostage, holding a knife to her throat and barricading the office door. All three women were employees of the shelter.
Police say Caldwell was shot after refusing commands to drop the knife. They say the women were taken to a hospital and expected to recover.
BRADSHAW, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado damaged buildings and knocked down trees in York County.
The service says the twister struck a spot nearly 8 miles (13 kilometers) north-northwest of Bradshaw a little before 7:45 p.m. Monday and lifted after four minutes on the ground. It was rated an EF1 with a peak wind of 90 mph (145 kph).
It damaged a house and garage, some grain bins and snapped off several trees. No injuries have been reported.
The service says the tornado was part of a supercell system that heavily damaged area crops.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln woman has been imprisoned for causing her aunt’s death by swerving to throw her off a vehicle.
Lancaster County District Court records say 22-year-old Kacie Alatoree was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in prison. Alatoree had pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide. In exchange prosecutors dropped a charge of failing to stop and render aid.
Police say 36-year-old Autumn Rodriguez Hernandez died Nov. 12, days after she climbed onto the SUV Alatoree was driving. Police say Alatoree accelerated and swerved left and right to shake Rodriguez Hernandez off the vehicle, causing the older woman to fall and hit her head on a curb. Police say Alatoree then fled.
Police say Rodriguez Hernandez had lent the SUV to her niece three months earlier.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — The police chief in a southern suburb of Omaha is still being paid even though he hasn’t been to work in nearly 11 months.
Bellevue Police Chief Mark Elbert has received $108,285 since he was put on leave in September after receiving a no-confidence vote from the police union, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The city also continued to cover Elbert’s benefits and has paid nearly $25,000 in legal fees regarding his case.
“People are not happy,” Councilman Paul Cook said.
The union told the mayor, city administrator and City Council that it had lost confidence in Elbert because of a pattern of “dishonest and deceptive conduct.”
The union alleged Elbert tried to coerce union members to change the results of qualifications testing and evaluations. The organization also said it had audio recordings of Elbert telling a member of the Bellevue Police Department to hide information from the city and other department officials.
Elbert has said the allegations are false and make “gross mischaracterizations.” He asked to be placed on leave while he’s investigated.
Elbert released a statement saying that he “wishes to return to his official duties as soon as possible and would have hoped to have this process concluded months ago.”
Many Bellevue officials said they’re uncertain why Elbert’s leave has dragged on for months.
Councilman Don Preister said he understands taxpayers’ concerns about the growing costs as Elbert’s investigation is conducted. But he said it’s a personnel issue that the city council can’t easily resolve.
“It’s someone’s life and career here at stake,” said Mayor Rita Sanders. “Even though I’d love it go faster, it can’t.”
Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested a woman following a pursuit on Interstate 80 Wednesday afternoon.
The incident began at approximately 3:30 p.m. when an NSP Investigator responded to a crash on I-80 near mile marker 284. The crash occurred when a blue Pontiac G6 ran into the rear of a semi.
The investigator, driving an unmarked NSP vehicle, arrived on the scene quickly and began checking for injuries. While the investigator was checking on those involved in the crash, an occupant from the Pontiac stole the investigator’s vehicle and started traveling westbound.
Troopers in marked NSP units arrived on the scene to assist with the crash and also pursued the stolen vehicle. The driver continued at a high rate of speed and refused to stop. Spike strips were utilized multiple times on the vehicle during the pursuit. The vehicle came to a stop in the north ditch near mile marker 253 and the female driver was taken into custody.
Toni White, 24, of Chariton, Iowa, was transported to the hospital to be checked for potential injuries. When released, she will be arrested for motor vehicle theft, felony flight to avoid arrest, and driving under the influence of drugs. Other changes may be added pending results of the initial crash investigation.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A large federal law enforcement operation conducted Wednesday targeted businesses in Nebraska and Minnesota that officials say knowingly hired — and mistreated — immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
The investigative arm of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — Homeland Security Investigations — led the operation that saw about a dozen businesses and plants raided and the arrests of 14 business owners and managers and more than 130 workers. Most of the arrests occurred in northern Nebraska and southern Minnesota. Several of the businesses were in O’Neill, Nebraska, a town of about 3,000 about 160 miles (260 kilometers) northwest of Omaha. Officials said they were still looking to take three owners or managers into custody as part of the operation.
Special agent in charge Tracy Cormier described the operation as one of the largest in Homeland Security Investigations’ 15-year history.
“I would say the amount of criminal warrants that are being executed will be one of the largest for HSI,” she said. “I’m not aware of a bigger one.”
Between 350 and 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officers worked together on the arrests, she said.
The focus of the operation is unusual in that it targeted business operators for arrest. Most immigration raids have targeted workers suspected of being in the country illegally.
“The whole investigation was initiated, basically, because we knew that these businesses were cheating these workers and cheating taxpayers and cheating their competition,” Cormier said.
The businesses engaged in a scheme that used fraudulent names and Social Security numbers to employ people in the country illegally, she said. The businesses used “force, fraud, coercion, threat of arrest and/or deportation” to exploit the workers, Cormier said. The business that hired out the immigrants also forced the workers to cash their paychecks with that business for an exorbitant fee, officials said, and withheld taxes from workers’ pay without paying those taxes to the government.
“It kind of reminds us of the revival of the old ‘company store’ policy, where it used to keep the coal miners indebted to the company for all kinds of services … like check cashing,” she said.
Dozens of workers suspected of being in the country illegally also were arrested, Cormier said. Some will be issued notices to appear before an immigration judge and released, while those with criminal backgrounds will remain in ICE custody.
The raids come as President Donald Trump’s administration has been carrying out high-profile enforcement actions against employers who hire illegal labor.
Dozens of workers were arrested at a meatpacking plant in rural Tennessee in April, followed by agents rounding up more than 100 employees two months later at an Ohio gardening and landscaping company.
Immigration officials have also beefed up audits of companies to verify their employees are authorized to work in the country. Officials opened 2,282 employer audits in the first seven months of this fiscal year, many after audits at 100 7-Eleven franchises in 17 states in January.
Civil rights organizations in Nebraska were quick to denounce Wednesday’s operation.
“The ACLU condemns this ongoing campaign of misery that targets immigrants, disrupts local businesses and separates families,” Rose Godinez, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, said in a written released Wednesday morning after news reports of a raid at O’Neill Ventures, which grows tomatoes in huge greenhouses.
Immigrant advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed released a similar statement saying, “Senseless raids like these today leave long-lasting damage across entire communities.”
Whether the operation targeted U.S. businesses hiring immigrants illegally in the country or the immigrants themselves, the effect is still the same, Nebraska Appleseed communications director Jeff Sheldon said.
“This is going to leave widespread fear and damage in the community,” he said. “You got businesses that are directly affected. You’ve got neighborhoods that are directly affected. You’ll have kids tonight coming home to a house where one or more of their parents are gone. This is pain that can last for generations.
Bailey BoswellLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s highest court has denied an attorney’s request to withdraw from a case involving a death row inmate who isn’t fighting the state’s efforts to execute him.
The Nebraska Supreme Court issued the ruling Tuesday after defense attorney Jeff Pickens argued that his duty to provide competent legal representation conflicts with his obligation to follow the wishes of his client, Carey Dean Moore.
Pickens says he could make multiple legal arguments to prevent the scheduled Aug. 14 execution, but Moore has ordered him not to file anything. Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 fatal shootings of two Omaha cab drivers.
Replacing Pickens with another attorney likely would have delayed the execution. A key drug in Nebraska’s lethal injection supply, potassium chloride, expires on Aug. 31.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have released the names of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of man believed to have stabbed or cut three women at a homeless shelter this week.
