NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Three new judges will preside over the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s tribal court.

The judges took their oaths at a ceremony Friday in Norfolk.

Omaha attorney Patrick Runge will serve as the chief judge. Runge has worked with Native Americans since 1995, most recently as chief judge for the Winnebago Tribal Court.

Theresa Barr and Jeffrey Kurtz will serve as associate judges. Barr is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and worked in tribal law for six years. Kurtz is an enrolled member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, and has been a presiding judge for the Winnebago Tribal Court for the past five years.

Judges serve six-year terms. The Ponca Tribe has a 15-county service area that includes parts of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota.

GRETNA, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska man has been critically injured after falling out of a moving golf cart.

The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office says 31-year-old Patrick Jurgensen, of Gretna, was one of four people in the golf cart Thursday night as it traveled in a residential area. The driver of the golf cart was making a turn when Jurgensen was tossed into the intersection and suffered a head injury.

Jurgensen was taken by medical helicopter to a hospital. He remained in critical condition Friday.

Lt. Brian Richards says the driver has been tested for alcohol and drugs, but additional information was not available.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)–An Omaha couple has been accused of stealing nearly $150,000 from a family member diagnosed with dementia.

Investigators with the state’s Medicaid program say Jeffrey and Cheryl Negus took the money from an account belonging to Jeffrey Negus’ mother, Paula Negus. The money was allegedly taken over a two-year period while Paula Negus lived in a nursing home.

The couple is accused of using the money to buy a boat, sports tickets and other luxury items while Paula Negus’ bills to the nursing home went unpaid.

The couple turned themselves in Friday. They each face a charge of abuse of a vulnerable adult. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the end of the month.

Court records do not list attorneys.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Experts have provided to a judge diverging viewpoints on whether a man convicted of killing four people in Omaha is mentally ill or faking it.

Judge Peter Bataillon (buh-TAL’-yuhn) had ordered mental tests for 27-year-old Nikko Jenkins to determine whether Jenkins would be competent to understand court proceedings next month on his possible death sentence.

On Thursday a defense psychiatrist testified at a hearing that Jenkins suffers a form of schizophrenia and perhaps a bipolar disorder. A prosecution psychiatrist said Jenkins acts out and is lying about his mental state.

The judge didn’t making a ruling on Thursday.

Jenkins is awaiting sentencing for the August 2013 deaths of Curtis Bradford, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz, Juan Uribe-Pena and Andrea Kruger.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ordered a southeast Nebraska school district to pay $770,000 in damages to a pickup driver injured in a collision with a school bus nearly five years ago.

Jeff Hall had sued the Norris school district and Lancaster County, saying the bus driver was at fault for speeding through a blind rural intersection with no stop sign. The court awarded him $1.1 million but reduced it by 30 percent, saying Hall bore some responsibility for the August 2009 crash. The judge ordered the district to pay 50 percent and the county 20 percent.

In April the Nebraska Supreme Court cleared the county from responsibility and sent the case back to the trial court.

Last week the district was ordered to pay all but 30 percent of the judgment.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Fremont is still struggling to enforce part of its ordinance requiring people to obtain licenses and swear they have legal permission to live in the U.S. before renting homes in the Nebraska city.

Fremont Police Chief Jeff Elliott says nearly 500 rental licenses have been issued to people who applied and paid the $5 fee since the city started the process on April 10.

Only applicants who say they aren’t U.S. citizens are investigated, but none of the 17 people who said they aren’t citizens have been scrutinized.

Fremont lacks an agreement with the federal government, so Elliott says none of the applicants have been investigated.

The attorney who is negotiating that agreement for the city didn’t immediately respond to a message Thursday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has died three days after crashing his sport utility vehicle in southeastern Nebraska.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that 65-year-old Steven Hyatt died Wednesday at a Lincoln hospital from his injuries.

Investigators say Hyatt was driving the SUV west on a county road Sunday afternoon when his vehicle left the road, hit a tree and rolled. Hyatt, who was not believed to be wearing his seat belt, was thrown from the SUV.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Lincoln firefighter has lost his emergency medical technician license after he was found guilty of possessing child pornography.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services revoked the license of 53-year-old Daniel R. King in May, citing his felony conviction.

King, who also was a former substitute school bus driver for Lincoln Public Schools, was sentenced in November to 90 days in jail and five years of probation. He was required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

King was charged in January 2013 after police searched his home and found child pornography on a desktop computer and an external hard drive. Before his arrest, King had worked as a firefighter in Lincoln for 22 years and a substitute bus driver since 2009.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln district officials are hoping to acquire more buses and vans so the district no longer has to use taxis to take homeless children to and from school.

Federal law requires that public schools pay transportation costs to get students to and from their home school when they become homeless.

The vans and buses would cost $244,000 to $304,000, which would be offset by savings on transportation costs. Officials would use savings from this year and next year’s budgets to buy the vehicles.

Associate superintendent Liz Standish estimates that the vehicles would pay for themselves over the next seven years.

The purchase proposal is under consideration by the school board.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — No charges will be filed against a former staffer who shot herself in the chin while in the lobby at the state prison in York.

Authorities say 49-year-old Robin Staehr, of York, walked into the prison lobby on May 24, demanding to be let inside. Then she shot herself with a .22-caliber rifle. She was soon captured and taken to a Lincoln hospital.

Staehr had resigned from her job at the women’s prison in 2005.

York County Attorney Candace Dick said that state statutes aren’t applicable in the case and that every effort was being made to ensure that Staehr didn’t pose a threat to anyone else.

Authorities said shortly after the incident that it was believed Staehr was intoxicated that day.