GREENWOOD, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska State Patrol says one person has been killed in a crash on Interstate 80 near the Greenwood exit.
First responders were sent to the scene around 8 a.m. Monday. The patrol says a westbound vehicle had crossed the median and flipped.
An 11-mile (17.7-kilometer) stretch of the interstate was closed from the Waverly exit east to the Greenwood exit.
The victim’s name and other details haven’t been released.
WACO, Neb. (AP) — Low temperatures and slick, snow-packed streets have prompted several eastern Nebraska school districts to cancel classes.
Omaha Public Schools and several suburban districts announced Sunday evening that they wouldn’t hold classes as temperatures plummeted. The National Weather Service said it was minus 7 (minus 22 Celsius) Monday morning in Omaha. The wind chill was minus 20 (minus 29 Celsius).
Nearly a foot (30.5 centimeters) of snow from the storm Saturday evening into Sunday was reported to the service from Ceresco and Weston. Interstate 80 and other highways closed for a time as motorists struggled in limited visibility to remain on the slippery roadways.
Authorities report four members of the Waco volunteer fire department were injured Saturday when their vehicle was struck by a semitrailer while responding to a multivehicle pileup on I-80 near York.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln has announced that a second Catholic school will close in Lincoln this year.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Sacred Heart Catholic School, which opened in 1928, will close in May because it is too expensive to operate. The school’s approximately 150 students in grades pre-K through 8 will consolidate with other Catholic schools in the area.
The diocese announced in December that St. St. Mary’s Catholic School, which has operated across the street from the state Capitol since the early 1900s, will also close this year.
The closings will not affect St. Mary’s or Sacred Heart parishes.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The president of Omaha firefighters union has been fired from the Omaha department following an internal investigation into allegations that he assaulted a woman in a downtown bar.
The Omaha World-Herald reported Friday that Omaha Fire Chief Dan Olsen fired Steve LeClair, citing the internal investigation.
Earlier this month, LeClair was ticketed for misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct. That followed a police investigation into accusations by a woman that LeClair punched her in her back in November after she ignored several sexually-charged comments from him and asked him to leave her alone. The woman, who is black, also says LeClair whispered the words “white power” in her ear before hitting her. LeClair has denied the allegations.
LeClair did not immediately return a phone message left for him Friday seeking comment.
A statement from the Professional Fire Fighters Association of Omaha says LeClair will be utilizing due process rights available to all Omaha firefighters who’ve been terminated.
Investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) have arrested a former Fremont police officer following an investigation into allegations of sexual assault of a child.
Austin Williams, 33, was arrested Friday for two counts of first degree sexual assault of a child, one count of attempt of a class 1 felony, and other charges. The investigation began last summer when NSP was notified by an advocacy center of a potential sexual assault.
At the time of the investigation, Williams was employed with the Fremont Police Department. His employment ended this week. Williams has been lodged in the Dodge County Jail.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been found guilty in one of two fatal shootings in August 2015.
A Douglas County jury found 29-year-old Marcus Short guilty Thursday of first-degree murder for the Aug. 8, 2015, killing of 19-year-old Garion Johnson. The jury found him found not guilty of the Aug. 6, 2015, killing of 23-year-old DePrecia Neelon. Short faces life in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date.
Short’s first trial in May ended in a mistrial amid accusations of jury tampering.
Police say Neelon was fatally shot after a fire was started at the back door of her home. When Neelon went out to pull her 4-year-old daughter away from the flames and douse the fire, she was shot seven times.
Johnson was killed two days later outside his girlfriend’s house.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The driver of a pickup truck from which a woman fell or jumped to her death in Lincoln has been sentenced for drunken driving.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 32-year-old Seth Noble on Thursday was given seven days of house arrest in lieu of jail time, was fined $500 and lost his license for six months. He’d pleaded no contest.
A police report says the pickup Noble was driving ran over 25-year-old Amanda Terrell on Sept. 5 after she jumped off or fell north of the Nebraska Innovation Campus in north Lincoln. She died later at a hospital.
Prosecutor Ashley Bohnet says Noble was intoxicated at the time he was driving, but investigators couldn’t find any evidence that his being under the influence was what led to Terrell’s death.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker is looking to help a southeastern county pay a $28 million federal judgment owed to six people wrongfully convicted for a 1985 slaying.
Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams is a former chairman of the Gage County Board. The county has had to raise its property tax by more than 30 percent to pay for the judgment.
Dorn asked the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Thursday to consider a bill that would allow a political subdivision facing a federal judgment for wrongful conviction or imprisonment to file a claim with the state.
Dorn is also pursuing options that would allow counties facing a federal judgment to impose a sales tax or receive a state loan.
The six people were wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson. DNA evidence cleared them in 2008.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The City of Omaha is on trial in the fatal shooting by police of a television crew member who worked on the law enforcement show “Cops.”
The Omaha World-Herald reports that 38-year-old sound technician Bryce Dion was killed in August 2014 when police responded to an armed robbery in an Omaha restaurant.
A lawyer for Dion’s family said Wednesday that officers fired at robbery suspect Cortez Washington as many as 39 times. One of those bullets inadvertently hit Dion.
Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer testified that the police response was justified and that Washington “never stopped” being a danger to responding officers.
Dion’s family says in a wrongful-death lawsuit that police had a duty to protect him.
A Douglas County district judge is expected to take the case under advisement.
Nicholas Bridgmon, a Seward County sheriff’s deputy, is charged in Johnson County with forcible sexual assault, which allegedly occurred Dec. 1, 2006. Bridgmon has been placed on administrative leave, and his attorney didn’t return a message Thursday from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Authorities have said the assaults are alleged to have occurred in several unspecified counties.
A court affidavit in support of the charge says an investigation began when he was applying for a job with the Nebraska State Patrol, and a pre-employment lie detector test in November showed some deception on his part.
A patrol investigator says in the affidavit that Bridgmon later acknowledged that when he was 19, he’d had sex with two girls who may have been under the legal age of consent. He also said he’d had sex with women who’d slept heavily or passed out after drinking alcohol.
Bridgmon’s boss, Sheriff Michael Vance, said Thursday that Bridgmon was given a polygraph test before his hiring in November 2015. He doesn’t know what questions the two polygraph operators asked or what questions may have tripped up Bridgmon on the state patrol exam.
A lie test isn’t fail-proof, Vance said, but it can be useful in making hiring decisions.
“It helps, especially with people you don’t know,” said Vance, who became sheriff after his election in November. He also said there have been no allegations of criminal conduct against Bridgmon since his employment by Seward County.
State patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said he couldn’t share what questions the patrol polygraph operator asked.
The court affidavit includes a woman’s recounting of what she said was her rape by Bridgmon when he was 19 and she was 17 in or around July 2007. She said he groped her in his car as they drove away from her parents’ home and then raped her at a remote location outside the Johnson County community of Cook. The village sits about 51 miles south of Omaha.
