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. MANHATTAN, KAN. – Officers filed a report for theft in the 500 block of Sunset Ave. in Manhattan on January 12, 2022, around 5:35 p.m. Officers listed a 20-year-old female as the victim when it was reported…
Author: KMAN Staff
A Wamego man charged with possessing child pornography will have to wait another month before his arraignment. Judge Jeff Elder granted a continuance Thursday in the case of 37-year-old Scott Hertzig, a former taekwondo instructor, who faces 13 felony counts of sexual exploitation. The reason given in court was that the defense was working toward a plea agreement with the prosecution, rather than go to trial. An investigation turned up numerous images of child pornography on Hertzig’s electronic devices in early 2021. The case has been set for a 9:30 a.m. hearing Feb. 18.
Enplanement numbers at the Manhattan Regional Airport saw a rise in 2021, though have yet to reach the facility’s 2019 peak. New Director Brandon Keazer spoke with KMAN about the airport’s recovery after a major downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Keazer took over for previous director Jesse Romo in November as Romo departed to serve as director of airports in Wichita. Prior to the directorship, Keazer worked as the assistant airport director at Manhattan for six and a half years. Keazer says pandemic-prompted restrictions had major impacts on air service in 2020 and that the start of the…
TOPEKA, Kan. — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has proposed that Kansas put $600 million of its surplus revenue into a rainy day fund and spend nearly $1.8 billion of the excess revenue on a long list of projects. Parts of Kelly’s proposed spending blueprint for state government through June 2023 are likely to meet strong resistance from the Republican-controlled Legislature. It assumes that Kansas will expand its Medicaid coverage, which GOP lawmakers have repeatedly blocked, and give a one-time $250 income tax rebate to residents who filed state income tax returns last year. Before Kelly’s budget director outlined her proposals…
MISSION, Kan. — Doctors in Kansas and Missouri are hunting down ventilators and running out of monoclonal antibodies as COVID-19 patient counts hit pandemic highs at a growing number of hospitals. Health officials for hospitals in the Kansas City and Wichita areas issued a desperate plea Wednesday for people to wear masks and avoid crowds. And the situation is so bad in the St. Louis area that health officials there are urging people just to stay home. The strain has prevented bigger, city hospitals from accepting as many rural transfer patients as they otherwise might, including patients who need treatment…
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — The U.S. Army is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the death of a Fort Riley woman last fall. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division is seeking information in the death of 22-year-old Enfinnity Hayes. The Geary County Sheriff’s Office says Hayes and her husband were at a Milford State Park Shelter on Oct. 3 when a man tried to rob them. The man shot Hayes. Her husband drove her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
WICHITA, Kan. — The Wichita school district is warning parents that temporary school closures may be necessary because so many teachers are out sick with COVID-19. The Wichita Eagle reports that Superintendent Alicia Thompson told parents in an email that the district hopes to give parents two to three days’ notice before closing schools, but she couldn’t promise decisions won’t be made more quickly. At least two Kansas districts, including Bonner Springs and El Dorado, already have canceled classes. And virtual learning isn’t an option because of limits that lawmakers put in place last year.
On Thursday’s edition of In Focus we spoke with Sen. Jerry Moran. We also spoke with Major Scott and Jennifer Roett; Lt. Col (Chaplain) James and Simone Key from Fort Riley. In our final segments we spoke with Manhattan Housing Authority Executive Director Aaron Estabrook.
After about five hours of deliberation, jurors in the murder trial of Richard Goens returned guilty verdicts on all six charges. Following a jury poll, Judge Grant Bannister accepted the verdict and found Goens guilty of first degree murder for the 2019 shooting death of Tanner Zamecnik. Goens was also convicted on five other charges stemming from that November 1 evening, including attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, criminal discharge of a firearm and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Sentencing is scheduled for 3 p.m. on March 3rd. The trial lasted a full four days, having began…
Riley County is reporting two new COVID related deaths this week, along with its highest increase in cases. A 40 year-old unvaccinated male tested positive on December 21, 2021 and died January 7 at Ascension Via Christi hospital in Manhattan. An 86 year-old fully vaccinated male tested positive for COVID-19 on January 8 and passed away January 10. This now brings the total number in deaths the county to 68. The county has also identified 1,202 new COVID cases and 389 additional recoveries since the last report on January 5. There are currently 1,017 active cases in Riley County and…