PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa man died after his car collided with two other vehicles at an intersection near an Omaha suburb.
The crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. Monday just south of Papillion.
The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office says a car driven by 63-year-old Kevin Lingren, of Malvern, Iowa, was attempting to turn left when it was hit by a northbound sport utility vehicle. A third vehicle was also hit in the collision.
Lingren was pronounced dead at the scene. The two other drivers, both from Nebraska, were not injured.
LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officials have confirmed that a female mountain lion was killed by a landowner north of Hay Springs in Sheridan County for depredating poultry.
The landowner observed the mountain lion killing his chickens, shot and killed the 10- to 12-month-old mountain lion, and immediately reported to Game and Parks in accordance with state law.
Staff wildlife and law enforcement officials collected the carcass.
“State law allows livestock owners to kill a mountain lion immediately if it is in the process of stalking, killing, or consuming livestock on their property,” said Sam Wilson, carnivore program manager for the Commission.
This is the fifth confirmed case of livestock depredation in Nebraska by a mountain lion since the species’ confirmed presence in the state in 1991. In addition to the latest case, the confirmations consist of a calf in Blaine County in 2014, a calf in Sheridan County in 2017, two goats in Dawes County in 2017, and one goat in Dawes County last month.
In June, Game and Parks commissioners approved a hunting season for mountain lions in the Pine Ridge that aims to lower mountain lion densities – a response to public concerns and Commission research. The season is scheduled Jan. 1-Feb. 28, 2019.
EMERSON, Neb. (AP) – Parents of two teenage boys in northeast Nebraska have been accused of locking cupboards and a refrigerator to keep their sons from eating snacks and sitting on the boys as punishment.
Dakota County Court records say 41-year-old Blaine Busker and his 38-year-old wife, Donella Busker, are both charged with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse. Court records don’t list the names of attorneys who could comment for them. A phone listed for Blaine Busker in Emerson was not working Tuesday. A phone listed for Donella Busker rang busy during several calls from The Associated Press.
A court document says the boys were allowed to wash their clothes only once a week and allowed to shower only every other day. The parents padlocked the bathroom that had the home’s only shower.
MADISON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 74-year-old driver died at a hospital after his pickup truck collided with a sport utility vehicle in northeast Nebraska.
The accident occurred around 4:15 p.m. Sunday at a U.S. Highway 81 intersection, less than a mile northeast of Madison.
Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy Tim Kruid says Ron Schroeder was turning left onto the highway when the SUV hit his pickup on the driver’s side. The SUV was being driven by 75-year-old Loran Naber.
Schroeder, Naber and three people in Naber’s SUV were taken to a Norfolk hospital, where Schroeder was pronounced dead. He lived in Madison.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A construction worker has died after a steel grate fell on him in northeast Lincoln.
Police Officer Angela Sands says the worker died Monday morning around 11:30 after a steel grate that was being used to separate different materials tipped over.
The man’s name wasn’t immediately released Monday.
Investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the incident.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Health officials in Omaha say a bat found in the Dundee neighborhood has tested positive for rabies.
The Douglas County Health Department and Nebraska Humane Society say the bat was found earlier this week.
Officials say it’s approaching the time of year when bats begin to seek shelter in homes to keep warm at night.
Rabies is a viral disease transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal that affects people. It is almost always fatal if not treated before symptoms appear.
Symptoms in animals include general sickness, swallowing problems and excessive drooling, slow and unusual movement, no apparent fear of humans and aggression.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have released the names of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of man believed to have stabbed or cut three women at a homeless shelter this week.
Police said Saturday in a release that the officers now on administrative leave are 39-year-old Eric Henka, 45-year-old Timothy Bauman, 30-year-old Jared Grayson and 30-year-old Kyle Graber. Henka and Bauman are eight-year veterans on the force; Graber has four years’ service and Grayson has two years.
Police say the officers fired Wednesday on 54-year-old Stephen Caldwell at the Siena-Francis House when he refused to drop a knife. Police say Caldwell stabbed and injured two women in the shelter’s parking lot before taking a third hostage inside the building and holding a blade to her throat.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man convicted of a 1988 double killing in western Nebraska is seeking to reopen the case by using new technology to identify fingerprints left at the crime scene, even as a new documentary series nearing completion calls into question his guilt.
Jeff Boppre, who is serving two life sentences, has maintained for three decades that he was framed for the killings of Richard Valdez and his pregnant girlfriend, Sharon Condon, in a Scottsbluff home. The Nebraska judicial system has upheld his 1989 conviction numerous times.
But a renewed effort by Boppre’s lawyers — coupled with a documentary reminiscent of the popular 2015 Netflix series “Making a Murderer” that explored a Wisconsin case — promise to bring fresh attention to Boppre’s conviction.
Producer Douglas Thornton with Middle West Studios said work began nearly a decade ago on what was intended to be a 90-minute documentary. It has ballooned into a series of seven to nine episodes set to wrap up late this year. The piece is being licensed to a TV network, though Thornton wouldn’t say which one.
The work was never intended to prove Boppre’s innocence, Thornton said, but it’s clear he believes Boppre has been wrongfully convicted.
“The evidence does not — and never will — line up to Jeff Boppre,” he said.
On Thursday, lawyers for Boppre, 55, and the Nebraska attorney general’s office made arguments for and against analyzing fingerprints found at the crime scene — that did not match Boppre or the victims — using the new technology.
Latent fingerprint technology developed since Boppre’s 1989 trial can make matches from low-quality fingerprints or even a single finger. Previously, investigators typically needed quality prints from all 10 fingers to make a match. The FBI has recently used the technology to identify human remains — some that had remained a mystery for more than three decades.
Lawyers in the Boppre case hope to use the technology to show that another man — John Yellowboy, a cousin of Condon’s who is serving a prison sentence in Colorado for unrelated crimes — had been in the house and is the likely killer.
Backing this claim are defense affidavits from at least eight people who were associated with Boppre, Yellowboy and the victims. They include the affidavit of a woman who said she hid under a bed in the home as the killings took place and that she believed Yellowboy was the killer. Another woman says Yellowboy confessed to her.
Yellowboy is in prison in Canon City, Colorado, for convictions of kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and robbery. Colorado prisons spokesman Mark Fairbairn said prison policy would not allow for Yellowboy to comment to a reporter. There is no attorney currently representing Yellowboy.
Boppre’s lawyers contend that the new fingerprint technology is akin to the advent of DNA technology. A 2001 Nebraska law requires the state to test DNA evidence in cases where someone has already been convicted if it’s likely to produce evidence that someone else committed the crime.
“Legally, constitutionally and ethically, the fingerprints should be analyzed,” Boppre’s attorneys argue in court documents. “The real question in this regard is, why not? What harm is done by doing a routine check of the fingerprints, the same as is done in literally hundreds of thousands of daily occurrences when an individual is arrested?”
Prosecutors argued in a one-page brief that Nebraska law doesn’t “create a postconviction remedy.”
“This case has been challenged before several judges in several courts over many years, and each time the conviction has been confirmed,” the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office said in a written statement.
Iowa attorney Thomas Frerichs, who joined Boppre’s defense team about a year ago, said the ultimate goal of the defense team is to exonerate Boppre. He believes the evidence uncovered by attorneys and the documentary will prove Boppre is innocent.
Prosecutors remain unconvinced, noting that police found letters spelling out parts of Boppre’s name written in grease on the floor and on a door near where Valdez’s body was found. Investigators said Valdez wrote Boppre’s name moments before dying.
Prosecutors said Boppre shot the couple during a night of heavy drug use, then tossed the gun near Gallup, New Mexico. Police said the gun was recovered with help from two acquaintances, Kennard Wasmer and William Niemann, who testified against Boppre.
Boppre has made several bids over the years to have his case reconsidered. All of his previous appeals have been denied, and the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 1993, 1997, 2004 and 2010.
In some of those appeals, Boppre said Wasmer and Niemann framed him for the killings and that Wasmer killed Valdez and Condon. Then, in 2010, Boppre said new evidence pointed to Yellowboy as the killer.
CARTER LAKE, Iowa (AP) — An attempted murder charge against a Carter Lake woman has been dismissed at the request of her alleged victim.
The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports that the charge against 51-year-old Tammy Oberg was dropped Wednesday. Oberg was ordered to pay fees and expenses for court costs.
Oberg had been charged in May after being accused of trying to run over another woman on a bicycle in Carter Lake. Police say she told officers she did it because she believed the victim was riding a stolen bike.
Officers say they found the alleged victim’s bike and cellphone in Oberg’s home.
Carter Lake sits on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River surrounded by Omaha following an 1877 shift in the river, but it remains part of Iowa.
PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa man died after his car collided with two other vehicles at an intersection near an Omaha suburb.
