BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in Gage County say a man has been killed in a tractor accident.
Officers and medics were dispatched around 7:45 p.m. Thursday to the scene seven miles east-northeast of Beatrice. Authorities say the tractor had rolled over and pinned the man. He was pronounced at the scene.
The man’s name hasn’t been released.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say the coach of an Omaha youth football team was ticketed after the coach grabbed a 10-year-old player from a team that had just overwhelmed the coach’s team.
Boyd Waldmann was cited for assault. Prosecutor Matt Kuhse says Waldmann also might be cited for disorderly conduct. Waldmann didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press. Court records don’t list an attorney for him.
Witnesses told officers the teams were exchanging high-fives after the lopsided flag football game Saturday when Waldmann grabbed an opposing player by the shirt and lifted him nearly off his feet. Waldmann later said he was angry because the boy slapped his hand too hard.
A league official says the coach has been banned from league events.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the jury award of more than $100,000 to a woman who successfully argued that Omaha’s Metropolitan Utilities District discriminated against her.
The opinion Friday came in the case of Kristina Hartley, who successfully sued the gas and water utility for gender discrimination. The jury last year agreed with Hartley that MUD wrongly passed her over for promotion to give the job to a less-qualified man.
MUD appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict and that the trial court should have allowed post-promotional performance evaluations of Hartley. It also said attorney fees of nearly $57,000 awarded to Hartley were excessive.
But the state’s high court dismissed those arguments Friday, adding that Hartley presented lots of evidence the jury found compelling.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police investigating the death of an infant say the baby girl was tossed from a second-story apartment window immediately after her teen mother gave birth to her.
Police say they were called to the eastern Omaha apartment shortly after 4 a.m. Friday, where they found a woman administering CPR to the infant. The baby and 16-year-old were taken to a hospital, where the baby was pronounced dead.
Investigators say the teen was alone in her bedroom when she went into labor and gave birth to the premature baby. Police say she then threw the infant out the window and told her mother.
The woman ran outside, found the baby in the grass and called 911.
Police say autopsy results are expected in several days, and that charges are pending.
LOUISVILLE, Neb. (AP) — A county prosecutor says an unarmed 23-year-old Louisville man killed by a Cass County deputy during a traffic stop last week had charged the deputy before he was shot.
Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox said in a written release Thursday that 25-year-old Deputy Tyler Reiff shot Austin Baier five times on Sept. 21 after Baier ignored Reiff’s commands to stop.
Cox says the deputy had stopped Baier’s vehicle in Louisville shortly after 7 p.m., because it matched the description of a vehicle being driven recklessly. A Nebraska State Patrol investigation says Baier got out of his car and ran at Reiff.
Cox says Baier wasn’t holding a weapon, but that a hunting knife was found on the dashboard of his car.
The deputy remains on administrative leave.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a gun charge for shooting up a Lincoln home last November, killing a Plattsmouth man and leaving a Bellevue man injured.
Brandon Benson said in Lancaster County Court on Wednesday that he intended to scare the people inside the home.
Authorities say Benson fatally shot 19-year-old Richard “Ricky” Randall Jr. in connection with a drug deal Nov. 29, 2015. Eighteen-year-old Angok Wal was wounded.
Benson’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 30. He faces a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
Two other men entered guilty pleas Wednesday in the incident.
Twenty-one-year-old Joseph L. Bratt pleaded no contest to attempted robbery.
Twenty-two-year-old Joshua Lock pleaded no contest to being an accessory for providing the long gun used.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — It was a mystery that many thought might never be solved: Who savagely stabbed to death the 11-year-old son of two medical doctors and the family’s housekeeper in 2008 in one of Omaha’s most affluent neighborhoods?
More than eight years later, a former doctor is standing trial for those deaths, as well as the 2013 killings of another Omaha doctor and his wife. Prosecutors say the crimes were motivated by Anthony Garcia’s long-simmering rage over his 2001 firing from a Creighton University School of Medicine residency program.
The case has been marked not only by the brutality of the crimes, but courtroom sparring that has seen one Chicago defense attorney kicked off the case and prosecutors having to defend themselves from accusations of misconduct.
Opening statements are expected Monday.
gaveGRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities won’t file criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man in Grand Island.
Marvin Rafael was pronounced dead at a hospital after the shooting in his home around 2:30 a.m. Aug. 7.
The autopsy shows he died of a gunshot wound to his head. Deputy Hall County Attorney Nancy Berger-Schneider says the shooting “appears to have been accidental.”
The weapon was a handgun.
SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) — County commissioners have decided to beef up security at the Colfax County Courthouse in Schuyler.
The board voted 3-0 Tuesday to accept a nearly $8,700 bid for a security system that will let judges and other courtroom personnel remotely lock the building exits if a prisoner tries to escape.
The Columbus Telegram reports that (http://bit.ly/2cYlpF8) Sheriff Paul Kruse said the board’s action was prompted by an incident last summer. Kruse says a defendant stepped outside a courtroom to chat with his attorney but instead bolted from a deputy and fled through an unlocked door. The man was soon captured, and no one was hurt.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say two of three dogs riding in a car died when the driver crashed on an accident-prone road in northwest Omaha.
The crash happened early Wednesday morning on Blair High Road. Investigators say a woman driving the car eastbound lost control, went through a wooded area, then hit a tree.
Police say the woman was able to crawl from the wreckage and back toward the road. Another driver then spotted her and called 911.
Police say the woman suffered broken bones and cuts. Officers found two of the three dogs dead at the scene. The condition of the third dog is not known.
Police are investigating whether excessive speed contributed to the crash.
