OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has found that an Omaha police officer did not violate a Pennsylvania man’s constitutional rights by detaining him after the man was given a warning, then searching his truck.

The ruling Wednesday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling last year of a lower court that threw out the search of Brent Englehart’s truck.

The lower court pointed to a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in another Nebraska case that said traffic stops cannot be extended to seek evidence of unrelated crimes, even if only for a few minutes.

But the appeals panel said the officer rightly based the search on an 8th Circuit precedent that says detaining a person for less than 10 minutes — even without probable cause — does not amount to unreasonable seizure.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 32-year-old man who wanted to take a Lincoln police cruiser for a joyride has been sentenced for burglary and other crimes.

At a Thursday hearing, Kristopher Koebel was given five to seven years in prison.

Police say Koebel broke into a vehicle business on June 12 and stole a car and soon broke into a store. Then he was spotted inside a cruiser parked outside a police substation. Police say he asked an off-duty sergeant for the cruiser’s key and then raced away in the other car when the officer refused to provide the cruiser’s key.

Koebel later told officers he wanted to steal the cruiser “and have fun driving it around.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lancaster County judge has ruled that a 28-year-old Lincoln man accused of planning an attack on Malcom High School in 2004 remains dangerous by reason of mental illness.

Joshua Magee appeared at his annual mental health review hearing Tuesday. The judge ordered that Magee continue his psychiatric treatment plan.

Magee was 17 when authorities say he planned to attack the high school, but changed his mind and alerted the principal. Authorities say they found rocket-style fireworks and other explosives in the trunk of his car. He was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of mental illness and committed to the Lincoln Regional Center before being transferred to a supervised residential program.

Last year, a judge granted Magee permission to live independently in an apartment.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials at an Omaha funeral home that caught fire say that it could be the end of the week before the last of the remains inside the building are retrieved.

Firefighters responded to Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak & Cutler Mortuary around 3:20 a.m. Tuesday. Funeral home director Terry Kucera said that all nine bodies that were in the building were removed that day, and cremains will likely not be removed until Friday.

Kucera says the cremains were not damaged. The funeral home says that it has been in contact with all families who had loved ones’ bodies in the building.

Funeral home co-owner Bill Cutler was injured in the fire. Three firefighters who were injured have been released from the hospital.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to prison for a fatal car wreck in which he was driving under the influence near Homer.

Judge Paul Vaughan sentenced 41-year-old Russell Roberts Jr. to at least 10 years and up to 16 years in prison Wednesday.

A jury found Roberts guilty in December of one count of motor vehicle homicide and two counts of driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury.

Court documents say Roberts was driving a pickup truck around 2:15 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2014, when the vehicle went off the road.

Twenty-eight-year-old Tiffany Schmitt was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. Two other passengers were injured.

Roberts’ prison sentence includes a mandatory minimum of five years before he’s eligible for release.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A suspicious package that turned out to be an accordion in a box led to the evacuation of 900 students and staff members from a Grand Island school.

Capt. Robert Falldorf says a school safety officer was contacted Wednesday after a staff member spotted a suspicious box in the Walnut Middle School band room.

A school safety officer was contacted who agreed the school should be evacuated as a precaution.

All students and staff walked to Grand Island Senior High, a few blocks north.

A call to Grand Island Police came in around 1:50 p.m. Nebraska State Patrol and the Grand Island Fire Department both responded to the scene. After investigating the claim, officials found an accordion in the box.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County district judges have voted to challenge a colleague’s ban on guns in his courtroom.

12 district judges voted Tuesday to pass a proposed amendment to court rules that would take courtroom security out of the hands of judges and leave security decisions throughout the courthouse up to the Douglas County sheriff.

Two officers refused to disarm before entering District Judge James Gleason’s courtroom on Monday. To avoid the possibility of having the officers being arrested for refusing to comply with the ban, prosecutors did not call the officers to testify in a case.

The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to review the proposed amendment.

Gleason declined to comment on whether he will alter his ban.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill that would have overturned local gun restrictions in Omaha and Lincoln has stalled in the Nebraska Legislature.

Senators fell one vote short Wednesday of the support needed to overcome a filibuster. The 32-10 vote to invoke cloture effectively kills the bill for the rest of the year.

The measure by Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete would have prevented cities from enacting gun-related ordinances that are stricter than state law. Gun-rights groups including the National Rifle Association pushed hard for the measure, arguing that it would protect out-of-town gun owners who unintentionally violate a local ordinance while passing through a city.

Many officials from Omaha and Lincoln oppose the bill, arguing it would deprive them of important local ordinances that curb gang violence.

 

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 32-year-old man severely injured in a collision that killed his fiancée remains hospitalized in Lincoln.

Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz (STOO’-kehn-hohltz) says he’d talked Wednesday to the mother of Tanner Hauck, and she said he remained in critical condition.

Authorities say Hauck was riding with his fiancée, 29-year-old Jessica Thomas, of Wahoo, who was killed. She’d been driving west on Nebraska Highway 92 when her car collided with a northbound pickup at the intersection with U.S. Highway 77 west of Wahoo.

The pickup driver, 43-year-old Douglas Cerny, of Osceola, received minor injuries.