OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A deejay has been charged with a hate crime after police say he assaulted a transgender woman at an Omaha bar.

45-year-old Stephen E. Thompson was charged Monday with one count of third-degree assault that is being prosecuted as a hate crime. A police report says 27-year-old Kara Jeslyn Barone was at a bar for a party Friday when she was assaulted.

Barone told authorities she went into the women’s restroom when Thompson tried to force his way in. Barone said she pushed him outside the door and locked him out. She said when Thompson’s girlfriend, who was in the restroom, opened the door, Thompson punched her and shouted anti-gay slurs.

Thompson was arrested that night and is being held on a $50,000 bail. It was not immediately clear if he has an attorney.

 

BENNINGTON, Neb. (AP) — Crews have contained a gasoline spill estimated at 1,000 gallons from a truck filling up a tank at a convenience store in the northwest Omaha suburb of Bennington.

The spill occurred about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Omaha, Irvington and Bennington firefighters worked for hours to contain the spill. The store was closed at the time.

The gas drained into a storm sewer. No injuries or evacuations have been reported.

Bennington Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Carlsen says a strong odor of gasoline will remain in the area Wednesday. Bennington Fire Chief Bob Raymond says remediation efforts will include surface cleanup and a flushing of the storm sewer.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A lawsuit filed against the Nebraska prison system by a man convicted of first-degree murder in four Omaha shooting deaths in 2013 has been dismissed.

In an order issued Friday, a Lancaster County District judge said Nikko Jenkins failed to serve the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services with notice of the lawsuit, as required by law.

Jenkins, who was acting as his own attorney, had sought $1.7 million in damages, saying the state failed to adequately treat his mental illness while he was incarcerated for years before his 2013 release.

Following his release, Jenkins shot and killed four people over a 10-day period. He was convicted last year, but his sentencing is on hold to see if a law passed repealing Nebraska’s death penalty goes into effect later this month.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Nebraska college officials over the disappearance of a 19-year-old student.

Judge John Gerrard said in his ruling Tuesday that the officials could have done more to protect Peru State student Tyler Thomas but also said their actions did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference.

Thomas disappeared in 2010 after leaving a party. A death certificate was issued in 2013, though her body hasn’t been found.

Her family filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the Nebraska State Colleges board of trustees and a man who was a fellow student and was suspected in Thomas’ disappearance. The college board requested the lawsuit’s dismissal.

The man wasn’t charged in her case but has been imprisoned for an unrelated sexual assault conviction.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Family, friends and other young children helped a 13-year-old Lincoln boy with a passion for musical theater pull off a production of “Shrek: The Musical” this weekend on a backyard stage.

Last summer, around 70 people attended a play that Dylan Lawrence and several friends put together at his home. Friends of Dylan’s parents attended the show and decided to offer up their backyard to Dylan as a place for him to direct larger productions. That space in Lincoln is now called The Backyard Theatre.

Dylan said he spent around 10 months working on his latest show. Although he had help with building the sets for the musical, the creativity and all major decisions were his.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska has been sentenced to more than three years in prison on a sexual abuse charge involving a 9-year-old girl.

U.S. Attorney Deborah R. Gilg in Nebraska says 23-year-old Lawrence Merrick, Jr., of Winnebago, was sentenced Friday to 37 months in prison on a charge of abusive sexual contact with a child. He was ordered to serve five years of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.

Merrick is accused of entering a residence at the Winnebago Reservation in April 2014 and rubbing the buttocks of a 9-year-old girl who was sleeping. The girl woke up and told her mother while Merrick fled the home.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors say hit-and-run charges won’t be filed because there’s no evidence a driver knew his car had hit a motorcyclist and dragged the body of a Lincoln man for more than two miles in January.

Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said Monday that the driver didn’t know the bump he noticed was the body of 38-year-old Gabe Wilken, who’d already crashed. County Attorney Joe Kelly says a hit-and-run charge would require prosecutors to show the driver knew he’d hit someone.

Investigators don’t know whether Wilken was alive when he was struck by the driver’s sedan after Wilken crashed just after 7 p.m. on Jan. 16. The car driver told investigators he didn’t come forward because he didn’t know he’d hit Wilken and had heard deputies were looking for a pickup.

 

COUNCIL BLUFF, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have been trying to identify the body of a man that was pulled from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs.

The body was spotted a little before 5:30 p.m. Sunday just south of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which connects Council Bluffs with south Omaha, Nebraska. Council Bluffs firefighters recovered the body less than 30 minutes later.

An autopsy has been ordered.