WICHITA, Kan. — A Wichita man has been sentenced to three life terms for 25 felony sex crimes with six children. The Wichita Eagle reports that 41-year-old Damian Isaac Hallacy is appealing the sentence ordered Wednesday. The investigation started in 2017 after a man found sexual messages from Hallacy on his wife’s phone. The probable cause affidavit says the woman sexually abused her 8-year-old daughter at Hallacy’s request, and investigators found photos of the abuse on her phone. The woman is expected to be sentenced next month. Her plea agreement called for her to testify against Hallacy and receive a…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court has struck down part of a state law against making a criminal threat after concluding it violates free speech rights. The court on Friday declared unconstitutional a provision of the law making it illegal to communicate a threat of violence with “reckless disregard” of the risk that it might cause fear. The justices said that part of the law is so broad that it could affect the speech of political protesters and violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court overturned criminal threat convictions in two cases. One from Douglas…
On Friday’s edition of In Focus, we spoke with RCPD Captain Tim Hegarty and Victim Advocate Coordinator Melissa Mosher.
The following summary of calls for service/reports filed by the Riley County Police Department is a portion of those received by police. Some names, addresses, and case details are withheld to follow local, state, and federal law as well as in an attempt to protect community members from being victimized further. Those arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Officers filed a report for theft in the 300 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd. in Manhattan on October 24, 2019 at approximately 2:50 PM. Officers listed Best Buy as the victim when it was reported two unknown…
The Riley County Health Department put on their eighth-annual Okt-FLU-ber Fest in Pottorf Hall in CiCo Park Thursday afternoon. Put on in conjunction with a variety of other groups such as the K-State Masters of Public Health program and the College of Veterinary Medicine, the event served as an opportunity for people of all ages to receive flu vaccines and learn about flu prevention for both people and pets. On a day when grants from the Memorial Hospital Foundation and the state government enabled those who either don’t have health insurance or aren’t fully insured to still receive vaccines, Jennifer…
The Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 school board discussed some of the efforts being done on Native American curriculum during their fall retreat. Teaching and Learning Director Dr. Paula Hough, who has recently taken on the task, says she started by seeing what the district has in terms of books on Native Americans. Back in 2017, the board approved teaching and learning staff to include local Native American history, religion, culture and contemporary issues in curricular and professional learning in the district. The goal is to have the texts to be used throughout the year and not just something presented during specific…
KANORADO, Kan. (AP) — An 83-year-old man has died after the four-wheeler he was driving collided with a semitrailer in northwest Kansas. The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that as Gaylen M. Weeden, of Kanorado, Kansas, was driving the four-wheeler and died at the scene. The semitrailer driver, fifty-eight-year-old Jose Madrid Araujo, of Bethune, Colorado, was not injured. Both vehicles were traveling north on a Cheyenne County road when the semitrailer began to pass the four-wheeler. Wheeden tried to make a left turn into a driveway and struck the semitrailer on its passenger side as it was passing in the left…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita pharmacist has been sentenced to 12 .5 years in federal prison for filling thousands of prescriptions for opioids to patients of a doctor who is serving a life sentence in the scheme. The Wichita Eagle reports that 47-year-old Ebube Otuonye, of Bel Aire, was sentenced Wednesday for unlawfully dispensing opioids and health care fraud. He filled prescriptions at his now shuttered Neighborhood Pharmacy in Wichita for patients of Dr. Steven Henson. The physician was sentenced to life in prison in March for unlawful distribution of prescription drugs after one of his patients died from…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A state oversight board has revoked the certification of a fired Wichita police recruit who admitted to battering his girlfriend. The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training wrote in the order of revocation that Lauro Garcia III lacks “conduct that warrants the public trust.” Garcia admitted as part of a diversion agreement that he battered and screamed at his girlfriend while at bar before going home and throwing her belongings into a pond. Garcia said in Sedgwick County District Court that he was guilty of domestic battery and criminal damage…
Area residents will get the chance to fight prescription drug abuse as the Riley County Police Department partners with the Drug Enforcement Administration for a drug take back event Saturday. According to RCPD, the initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Saturday’s collection effort allows residents to turn their medications completely anonymously. “This service is all free, it’s all…