LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The son of Sean Penn and Robin Wright has been arrested on drug possession charges in Nebraska.

A Nebraska State Patrol spokesman says the actors’ 24-year-old son, Hopper Penn, and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Uma Von Wittkamp, were arrested Wednesday afternoon after a trooper stopped their vehicle on Interstate 80.

Authorities say the trooper detected drug activity inside the vehicle and found 14 grams of marijuana, four amphetamine pills and 3 grams of mushrooms.

Von Wittkamp was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Penn was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana. Possession of a controlled substance is a felony.

They were both taken to the Hamilton County Jail.

Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) have arrested two people and seized 381 pounds of marijuana during two separate traffic stops in Hamilton County. The two stops happened within five minutes of each other in different parts of the county.

The first stop occurred at approximately 4:32 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, when a trooper stopped a 2018 GMC Yukon for speeding on Highway 14 in Aurora. The trooper determined there was probable cause to search the vehicle. During the search, troopers found 326 pounds of marijuana and 1.4 pounds of marijuana edibles.

The driver, Larry Guieb, 36, of Indiana, was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no Drug Tax Stamp.

Just a few minutes later, at approximately 4:36 p.m. troopers observed a vehicle fail to signal while traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 near Giltner at mile marker 322. During the traffic stop, an NSP K9 detected that presence of a controlled substance. A search of the vehicle revealed 55 pounds of marijuana inside the 2017 Nissan Rogue.

The driver, John Young, 51, of California, was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no Drug Tax Stamp.

The total amount of marijuana seized in the two traffic stops was 381 pounds, with an estimated street value of $1.14 million. Both men were lodged in Hamilton County Jail.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate whose state-required DNA test links him to four rapes more than 10 years ago in Omaha has been found guilty of those assaults.

A jury found 41-year-old Brandon Weathers guilty Tuesday of four counts of first-degree sexual assault following a weeklong trial. Immediately afterward, he was sentenced to 200 years in prison for the crimes. He is already serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.

A June 5 court order gave officials authority to use force to obtain Weathers’ DNA sample, which he’d refused to provide despite a Nebraska law requiring it of all prisoners. Guards held him down and took a sample from the inside of his cheek.

Authorities say the Nebraska State Patrol lab connected the sample to the four cases.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The state fire marshal has shut down a biker clubhouse in northeast Lincoln that authorities suspect has been operating as an illegal bar.

Fire authorities say the Zodiac’s Motorcycle Club clubhouse lacks a safe second exit. The two-story building once housed a gas station. A meat business is operated out of the rear of the building by the building owner, who rents Zodiac’s the main floor.

Zodiac’s does not have a liquor license. Operating an unlicensed bar is a misdemeanor that carries a $500 fine.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating a March 25 brawl at the club, but no arrests have been reported.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man who slipped and fell while delivering food at the State Office Building in Lincoln has won $60,000 from the state.

A Lancaster County district judge last week ruled in favor of Gerald Burkinshaw, whose right wrist was broken in the fall on Jan. 19, 2016.

A state attorney argued that Burkinshaw’s claim was barred because weather caused the fall — snow tracked inside the building melted.

But Judge Kevin McManaman said in his order that danger occurred inside the building and wasn’t out of the state’s control.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an 84-year-old woman died after her vehicle collided with a pickup truck on a weather-worsened roadway just outside Grand Island.

Authorities say the woman lost control of her vehicle Easter Sunday morning on U.S. Highway 30 on the northeast side of Grand Island.

The woman’s been identified as Ramona Senkbile, who lived in Grand Island. It’s unclear whether the pickup driver was injured.

DAVID CITY, Neb. (AP) — Court records say a David City man has been accused of mistreating his ailing wife and selling her painkillers.

Fifty-year-old Robert Smith is charged with felony abuse of a vulnerable adult. Smith’s attorney, Bryan Meismer, said Monday that it was too early in the legal process to make any statement.

The records say Smith’s wife has cerebral palsy and other ailments. She told a sheriff’s deputy last month that her husband had dumped her out of her wheelchair and had pushed it while her feet dragged on the floor, injuring her. She also says he’s withheld food and water so she wouldn’t have to use a bathroom.

The investigator says Smith acknowledged the mistreatment and says he’s been selling her opioid painkiller pills for $120 a month for three or four years to an Omaha woman.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two parents want the Millard school district to adopt a comprehensive policy on sex education instead of sticking to its pro-abstinence approach.

The parents urged the school board at its meeting Monday to mirror the Omaha Public Schools approach, which encourages abstinence but also teaches about contraception, abortion, gender identity and sexual orientation.

One of the two, Jennifer Day, told the board that research shows that comprehensive sex education is far more effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy than a pro-abstinence curriculum.

Board President Mike Pate says the pro-abstinence approach has worked for years and is accepted by the Millard district community in Omaha.

The board is updating the district’s health education curriculum, based on a framework adopted in 2016.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Concerns raised locally about an overseas campaign urging violence against Muslims on Tuesday prompted the Lincoln school district to send reassuring messages to Arabic-speaking families.

The “Punish A Muslim Day” campaign began in England and that authorities there have launched an investigation. News about those efforts has spread on social media.

Lincoln police spokeswoman Angela Sands says the department has no information to suggest violence will occur in Lincoln, but officers will patrol mosques and organizations that serve Muslim residents.

School district letters went to the families of the 1,415 students who list Arabic as their home language. It assures them district officials are taking the campaign seriously. The district doesn’t ask about religious affiliations.

The district’s Linda Hix says administrators had been getting calls from family members who’d heard about the threat and were worried.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Attorneys for a Nebraska death row inmate whose case inspired the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry” say he should be found ineligible for execution because he has the intellect of a child.

John Lotter was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 killings of Brandon Teena, a 21-year-old transgender man, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a farmhouse in Humboldt, about 75 miles south of Omaha.

Lotter’s lawyers filed a motion stating that recent IQ testing shows the 46-year-old Lotter is intellectually disabled and therefore can’t be put to death under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding the execution of the intellectually disabled.

Nebraska law says an IQ of 70 or below is presumptive evidence of an intellectual disability. Court records show Lotter scored a 67 last year, which would be the equivalent IQ of an 8-year-old.

The judge will need to grant an evidentiary hearing to consider the issue.