OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A University of Nebraska at Omaha dorm that was heavily damaged by fire earlier this year has been rebuilt and is ready for new students.

University officials say students will begin moving in to the rebuilt Scott Village dorm on Sunday, when students begin moving in for the new academic year.

The Feb. 26 fire destroyed the roof and third floor of the three-story building at UNO’s Scott Village. No students were injured. Investigators say the fire was caused by a discarded cigarette on an apartment balcony.

FAIRBURY, Neb. (AP) — A Fairbury man has died in a hospital three days after being injured in a crash.

Authorities say 56-year-old Darrell Parker died Wednesday at a Lincoln hospital. He’d been transferred there from Jefferson Community Health Center, where he was taken after Sunday’s accident.

Police say Parker was a volunteer firefighter who was headed to a fire when his pickup left a roadway, went into a pasture and struck a tree.

Fairbury Police Chief Chad Sprunk says it’s suspected that Parker suffered a medical problem before the crash.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A trial judge has stood firm on the $300,000 award to a man wrongly convicted in a 1985 murder.

James Dean was among six people wrongfully convicted in the rape and murder of Helen Wilson of Beatrice.

Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a $500,000 award to JoAnn Taylor, who had spent nearly 20 years in prison for Wilson’s murder. But the high court reversed Dean’s award, saying it was improperly based on the fact that he had spent less time in prison than Taylor.

Judge Daniel Bryan Jr. on Friday ruled that Dean’s $300,000 will stand. Beatrice radio station KWBE says the judge explained that the $500,000 cap set by state law for those wrongly convicted applies only if the person’s actual damages exceed $500,000.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 17-year-old boy has been accused of molesting a 7-year-old girl at a public swimming pool in Lincoln.

The teen was charged Thursday with first-degree sexual assault in connection to the alleged incident on July 31 at Irvingdale Pool.

The girl told police that the teen approached her at the shallow end of the pool and put his hand down the front of her swimming suit and rubbed her.

The teen was later taken to a youth detention center after a juvenile probation officer evacuated him.

The Associated Press generally does not name juveniles accused of crimes.

PENDER, Neb. (AP) — A Walthill man has been given eight to 16 years in prison for a drunken driving crash in northeast Nebraska that killed his passenger.

Twenty-year-old Miguel Tapia was sentenced on Wednesday in Thurston County District Court in Pender. He’d been convicted on May 21 of vehicular homicide and drunken driving, second offense.

The case stemmed from a Nov. 23 crash in which 20-year-old Princess Morris died. The Macy woman was traveling with Tapia when he lost control of his pickup. The truck rolled after it left a county roadway near Walthill, landing on Morris.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A 32-year-old Milford woman has been given three years of probation and some jail time in a perjury case.

Betsy Smith was sentenced for attempted perjury. She’d pleaded no contest to the charge after prosecutors lowered it. Smith also was sentenced to 150 days in jail, which can be waived if Smith complies with probation conditions.

Prosecutors say Smith had sought a protection order against a York man, saying he was going to slit her throat. The order was granted and remained in place for a year. She later acknowledged under oath that the man had never threatened to hurt her.

Prosecutors also say Smith lied in a deposition for a criminal case and provided police with false information so they’d start a criminal investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of a former Omaha middle school teacher accused of molesting and enticing female students.

Shad Knutson was a social studies teacher at Nathan Hale Magnet Middle School in 2010 when he was accused of having inappropriate relationships with girls ages 13 to 15 starting in 2008. A Douglas County jury convicted him last year of child abuse and using a cellphone to entice a child, and he was sentenced to 9 to 14 years in prison.

Knutson appealed, arguing that some of the charges against him should have been tried separately and that his cellphone records should not have been used as evidence in his trial.

On Friday, the state’s high court said it found no merit to Knutson’s arguments.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Adams County authorities say a county jail inmate found dead in his Hastings cell on Saturday had hanged himself.

The body of 39-year-old Matthew Arterburn was found in his cell around 6:30 a.m. Saturday. County Attorney Donna Fegler Daiss (deyes) released her ruling on Wednesday in her role as county coroner.

Sheriff Gregg Magee says the jail had been waiting on paperwork to send Arterburn to a state prison so he could serve his time there on convictions for child pornography.

Fegler Daiss says state law requires grand juries to investigate whenever someone dies in custody or while being arrested.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The chief curator of the Marquette University’s art museum in Milwaukee has been named the new director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Sheldon Museum of Art.

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced this week that Wally Mason will take over the post on Oct. 15.

Mason replaces Jorge Daniel Veneciano, who resigned in December to become director of El Museo del Barrio in New York.

Mason earned a master of fine arts degree at Indiana University. Before joining Marquette in 2007, he directed galleries at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, the University of Idaho and the University of Maine.

He has organized more than 60 exhibitions and was selected to the Nebraska post following a national search.