WICHITA, Kan. (AP) An inmate who escaped from the Sedgwick County Jail is still on the loose. Sedgwick County authorities say Sean P. McKenzie ran off Sunday night while taking out the trash. McKenzie is a trustee at the jail who gets extra privileges for doing duties such as taking out the trash and cleaning. McKenzie was in jail for property crimes and is not considered dangerous. He is a white male, 5’11” and 175 pounds. He was last seen wearing a tan jumpsuit.
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas legislators have scheduled a short week of work to give themselves a long break after this year’s session hit its official halfway point. The Legislature did not convene Friday and wasn’t scheduled to meet Monday or Tuesday. The time off comes after last week’s “turnaround” deadline, when most bills must pass the chamber in which they were introduced to be considered further. Lawmakers don’t meet most weekends during their annual session. But they still receive their daily salary and expense payments and those days count against the 90 their leaders have scheduled. But with the long…
SALINA, Kan. (AP) Salina residents are discussing a proposal to add gender identity and sexual orientation to the city’s discrimination ordinance. The city council has delayed a decision on the proposal until three public hearings are held. During an information meeting Sunday, a woman who was born as a man discussed the process she went through as she changed her gender. Stephanie Mott, chairwoman of the Kansas Equality Coalition, said she wanted people to talk to someone who is transgendered in Kansas. The Salina Journal reports some people at the meeting opposed the proposal. One of them, Cheryl Harp, said…
OSBORNE, Kan. (AP) A man who was shot after a standoff in north-central Kansas will go to trial in July. The trial for 22-year-old Matthew Thille of Downs on four counts of attempted murder will begin July 23. Thille pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges filed after an eight-hour standoff March 21 in Downs. The standoff began after Thille ran from a Jewell County courtroom and led police on a chase from Mankato to Downs. He was shot several times by Kansas Highway Patrol officers as he ran from the house. Prosecutors say he had a gun in his hand.…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Wichita firefighters say a 52-year-old woman died in a fire in her home. Fire investigator Cpt. Stu Bevis says the cause of fire early Monday is still under investigation. He says the woman’s body was found inside the front door of the house. Bevis told KFDI the fire did an estimated $50,000 in damage. The woman’s name has not been released.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) A Fort Riley nurse has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for stealing morphine from a Salina nursing facility. U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says 25-year-old Melanie French Morrison pleaded guilty to one count each of consumer product tampering and alteration of a drug. The Manhattan Mercury reports Morrison took syringes from the medical room at Holiday Resort Nursing Facility, removed morphine from vials and replaced it with sodium chloride to hide the theft. Grissom says Morrison took the syringes home and injected herself with the morphine. A nursing director discovered in February 2010 that someone…
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) Rekindling romance with an ex may lead to stress and unhappiness. That’s the finding of a Kansas State University researcher. Assistant professor Amber Vennum found that with college-age students, about 40 percent are currently in cyclical relationships the term used for couples who break up and then get back together. Vennum found that couples in a cyclical relationship tended to be more impulsive than other couples about decisions such as moving in together or having a child together. As a result, these cyclical couples tended to be less satisfied with their partner; had worse communication; made more…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The National Park Service says it will replace a plaque at a former Topeka elementary school after a community activist discovered it was missing. Sonny Scroggins says he went to the school last week and found the placque designating the former Sumner Elementary School as a National Historic Landmark was gone. The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 because of its role in the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case in 1954. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the school was closed in 1996 as part of a desegregation plan, and sold…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A Wichita man convicted of using his sister as a shield during a standoff with officers at a Hutchinson motel has been sentenced to nearly 28 years in prison. Twenty-eight-year-old Deron McCoy Jr. was convicted last month on 12 counts, including aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment. The Hutchinson News reports McCoy was sentenced Friday by Reno County District Judge Tim Chambers. McCoy was arrested in March 2011 after a five-hour standoff that began when his former girlfriend came to pick up their 7-month-old daughter at a Hutchinson motel room. Authorities…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) An imprisoned Kansas doctor who admitted prescribing a painkiller to a woman he never met is getting a rare chance to prove his claim that his previous attorney provided ineffective counsel. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot will hear arguments and evidence Monday in the case of Lawrence Simons, the Goddard physician who pleaded guilty in 2010 to unlawfully prescribing narcotics. Simons is scheduled to complete his prison sentence on March 7. He wants the judge to remove the prohibition that keeps him from practicing medicine during his supervised release. Simons also contends he is innocent and says…