OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former Lawrence police officer has been sentenced to 12 months of probation for threatening another driver with a gun on a suburban Kansas City highway in a case of road rage.

Jeffrey Brian Holtzman, 35, faces up to five months in prison if he violates the terms of the probation under the sentence imposed Thursday in Johnson County District Court.

He initially was charged with aggravated assault but pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of criminal threat. The victim told police that he was driving on Interstate 435 near Interstate 35 in October 2018 when Holtzman pulled alongside him and pointed a handgun at him. It wasn’t clear what prompted the incident.

Holtzman resigned from the Lawrence Police Department the following month.

LINCOLN COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 1p.m. Thursday in Lincoln County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Mack semi driven by Gerald W. Lang, 59, Nevada, ID., was southbound on Kansas14 eleven miles north of Lincoln.

The truck left the roadway to the right. The driver overcorrected back on to the roadway and the truck rolled coming to rest facing east across both lanes of traffic.

EMS transported Lang to the Lincoln County Hospital where he died. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

RILEY COUNTY—A Kansas teen was sentenced Monday in Riley County for attempted rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery and marijuana possession.

The judge sentenced Tommie Baggett, 19, Manhattan, to a total of 228 months, according the Riley County Attorney’s office.

In June of 2018, police arrested Baggett at a residence in the 1400 Block of Hartman Place in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police on requested charges that include rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated battery that included a weapon, and aggravated burglary.

In April 2018, police arrested Baggett on requested charges of rape, aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated burglary involving a weapon, according to the Riley County Police Department booking report.

In January 2018, police arrested Baggett for the alleged sale of depressants, contributing to a child’s misconduct and felony possession of paraphernalia with intent to manufacture a controlled substance.
The judge order the time in prison to be served consecutively, according to the Riley County Attorney.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A man who walked into a Missouri Walmart wearing body armor and carrying loaded weapons acknowledges the timing was bad but said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone and doesn’t regret his actions.

Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, is charged with making a terrorist threat after the Aug. 8 incident at a Walmart in Springfield. He filmed himself walking through the store with the weapons, prompting shoppers and employees to flee.

No shots were fired before off-duty firefighter held Andreychenko at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested him. Andreychenko said in a probable cause statement that he was testing whether Walmart would protect his right to openly carry weapons.

The incident came just days after 22 people were killed during an attack at another Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

Andreychenko, who is free on bond and facing a felony charge of making a terrorist threat, told KYTV he never intended to hurt anyone and was surprised by the reaction.

“It was foolish, I didn’t give it thought. It was so innocent that I didn’t even think this would happen,” he said.

Andreychenko said he talked to a Walmart manager before he arrived at the store and was told he was allowed to openly carry a weapon in the store.

Since January 2017, Missouri has not required a permit to openly or conceal carry a firearm for those 19 years or older.

Walmart said in a statement that it allows concealed and open carry in stores if it is legal in the jurisdictions where the stores are located. Customers who are uncomfortable should contact a manager, the statement said.

In an earlier statement, Walmart called the incident “a reckless act designed to scare people, disrupt our business and it put our associates and customers at risk” and said Andreychenko is no longer welcomed in its stores.

Andreychenko said the rifle was holstered and he didn’t touch it after putting it on. He contended shoppers didn’t seemed shocked or panicked until a store employee pulled a fire alarm.

Andreychenko said he always carries a gun, vest and ammunition in his car for protection and because he frequently practices shooting at a range.

“I just want people to know there was no evil to what I did. This was not a hate inspired act. This was purely innocent — the timing was just so off,” he said. “I would never want to hurt anyone. I pray to God that everything works out.”

A spokeswoman for the Springfield police department said police and city officials would not comment because the incident is still being investigated.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a 2-year-old boy and have made an arrest.

Just before 10a.m. May 31, officers responded to an assist EMS call at the Sunset Motel in the 2300 block of south Broadway, regarding 2-year-old Zayden Jaynesahkluah not breathing, according to officer Charley Davidson. First responders pronounced him dead on the scene.

Investigators recently received information from the Regional Forensic Science Center, which led to the arrest of the boy’s mother 23-year-old Kimberly Compass of Wichita, according to Davidson.

Police booked her into the Sedgwick County Jail just before noon Thursday on a requested charge of first-degree murder, according to online jail records.  

The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a 2-year-old boy and have made an arrest.

Just before 10a.m. May 31, officers responded to an assist EMS call at the Sunset Motel in the 2300 block of south Broadway, regarding 2-year-old Zayden Jaynesahkluah not breathing, according to officer Charley Davidson. First responders pronounced him dead on the scene.

Investigators recently received information from the Regional Forensic Science Center, which led to the arrest of the boy’s mother 23-year-old Kimberly Compass of Wichita, according to Davidson.

Police booked her into the Sedgwick County Jail just before noon Thursday, according to online jail records.  They have not released details on charges or bond amount.

The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

 

By CHRIS HAXEL , Kansas News Service

A federal judge is holding the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas in contempt in connection with a burgeoning scandal involving recordings of confidential conversations between criminal defendants and their attorneys at a federal detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas.

In a 188-page ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson wrote that the U.S. Attorney’s Office disobeyed her previous orders to preserve documents and recordings as part of an investigation into the recordings.

“The elements necessary for a finding of contempt are clearly met,” Robinson concluded. “The (U.S. Attorney’s Office) had knowledge of the… orders yet disobeyed them.”

The detention center is run by CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), one of the country’s largest private prison companies. Defense attorneys and the Federal Public Defender’s Office have alleged CoreCivic made video and audio recordings — which they say should have been protected by the Sixth Amendment — available to federal prosecutors.

The federal government has tried to pin the blame on two “rogue” prosecutors, Robinson wrote. But she says there’s evidence the U.S. Attorney’s Office had a “systematic practice of purposeful collection, retention and exploitation of calls” made between detainees and their attorneys.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office at first denied it had accessed any of the recordings. Later it said prosecutors had only accessed some. And throughout the proceedings, the office has denied it ever violated the Sixth Amendment.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately wish to comment on the ruling.

As punishment for the contempt finding, the U.S. Department of Justice will be forced to pay costs incurred by the office of Federal Public Defender Melody Brannon while litigating the case over the past three years. Those costs have yet to be determined. Brannon declined to comment for this story.

Robinson, herself a former prosecutor in the troubled U.S. Attorney’s Office, also agreed to hear petitions for a writ of habeas corpus filed by the 110 — and counting — prisoners who claim their Sixth Amendment rights were violated.

‘Commingled’

Robinson’s ruling was issued in a criminal case that stems from a 2016 indictment as part of an investigation into alleged drug and contraband trafficking at the Leavenworth Detention Center.

Six people were initially indicted, but prosecutors have said they suspect more than 150 people inside and outside the facility were involved.

As part of their investigation, prosecutors issued a grand jury subpoena to obtain voluminous recordings from more than 100 video cameras inside the facility. They also obtained more than 48,000 phone calls made by prisoners.

While a more targeted request may have been legitimate, the judge said, prosecutors knew that they would be given recordings from cameras in five out of the facility’s nine rooms designated for attorney-client meetings.

And while the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said it only received attorney-client phone calls because they were “commingled” with other calls, the judge again said prosecutors should have known some of the calls would involve attorneys, and the government did not take steps to protect them.

Robinson estimated more than 700 attorney-client visits were recorded inside the facility. The videos do not include audio of the meetings, but Robinson wrote that the recordings can still be valuable to prosecutors.

For example, in one specific case, Robinson wrote that prosecutors “valued knowing whether there was a document exchange between” between a client and his attorney.

Other information, such as knowing whether a defendant is angry, talking to their attorney through an interpreter, or talking to their attorney at all, could be valuable clues for prosecutors engaged in plea negotiations or pre-trial strategy, the judge noted.

‘Misled’

The government has also claimed the inmates should have known their calls were being recorded, but Robinson rejected that claim.

The phones, operated by a third party for CoreCivic, included a warning at the start of every phone call that calls may be recorded or monitored.

The company had a “privatization” process whereby attorneys could file paperwork to have phone calls made to them excluded from recordings.

But CoreCivic “misled” detainees about the process, the judge said, and the company sometimes recorded attorney-client phone calls even after attorneys had completed the process to privatize their phone calls.

“Detainees and defense attorneys were provided with incorrect, misleading, and inconsistent information about how to accomplish a confidential phone call at (the facility),” Robinson wrote. “Scores of defense counsel who testified or submitted affidavits in this case stated that they were unaware that their conversations… were being recorded.”

In total, more than 1,000 phone calls between public defenders and their clients were recorded.

‘Triage’

The Federal Public Defender’s Office had asked that more than 100 defendants whose attorney-client communications were breached be dismissed. Alternatively, the office asked for a 50% reduction in sentences for all affected clients.

Robinson, however, wrote that she “reluctantly agrees” with the government’s claim that she shouldn’t make a blanket ruling on Sixth Amendment violations that covers every case.

Instead, the judge plans to “triage” the cases.

She will consolidate them for the purposes of discovery, so the Federal Public Defender’s Office can seek more documents and records from prosecutors. Then Robinson will issue rulings on a case-by-case basis.

At least one person has already been released from prison in connection with recordings at the Leavenworth facility. Michelle Reulet, of Montgomery, Texas, was freed last year after being sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for mail fraud.

Former Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister, who was appointed to head the office in January 2018, previously indicated he was willing to work out an agreement to reduce the sentences of inmates whose communications with their attorneys were recorded. Two months later, however, McAllister’s boss at the Justice Department, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, nixed the proposal, saying that blanket reductions of inmates’ sentences were out of the question.

Chris Haxel is a reporter in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. Email him at chaxel@kcur.org, and follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.

SALINE COUNTY —An attempt to hide from police didn’t work for a Kansas man.

Just after 1:30p.m. Wednesday, an officer driving in the 200 block of West Crawford Street in Salina saw a man in a camo hat duck behind cars at Casey’s, 215 W. Crawford, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

The officer recognized the man as Michael Emerick, 23, of Plainville, and knew he had active Saline County District Court warrants.

The officer stopped and attempted to make contact with Emerick. When the officer approached, Emerick ran a short distance before the officer was able to apprehend him.

At the time of his arrest, Emerick  was found to be in possession of methamphetamine, according to Forrester.

Emerick was arrested on felony warrants — one for failure to appear and one for probation violation along with requested charges that included Felony obstruction, Possession of methamphetamine and Possession of drug paraphernalia.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — A 19-year-old  man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a shooting death at a shopping mall last year.

Tyler Gates, Independence, was sentenced Wednesday for second-degree murder and armed criminal action in death 17-year-old Matthew Haylock at the Independence Center.

Haylock’s body was found on the pavement near a vehicle in the mall’s parking lot in January 2018.

The Independence Examiner reports Gates’ co-defendant, 18-year-old Luis Ramirez, was sentenced to concurrent terms of eight years for attempted robbery and three years for armed criminal action in the same case.

The shooting occurred after Gates and Ramirez decided to rob Haylock of a gun. Prosecutors say Gates fired the shot that killed Haylock.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 20-year-old  Missouri, man has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for his role in a motel shootout in Lawrence that killed one man and injured two others.

Shawn Smith was sentenced Wednesday to 32 months for robbery.

Smith was originally charged with first-degree felony murder and several other counts in the September 2017 shooting death of 23-year-old Cameron Hooks, of Lenexa, and the wounding of two other men. The shooting happened while two groups of friends were drinking and smoking marijuana at a Motel 6. Each group accused the other of trying to rob them, sparking the shooting.

Two other co-defendants from Kansas City, Kansas, previously were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the case.

GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tyson officials say a spark from welding during maintenance is the likely cause of a fire that damaged the company’s plant in Holcomb.

Tyson representatives met Wednesday with state and other government officials to discuss Friday night’s fire, which caused extensive damage. No one was injured.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to rebuild the plant and reopen it as quickly as possible. Company officials said the fire damaged a small area but affected critical operating systems.

The company’s president and CEO, Noel White, and Steve Stouffer, president of Tyson Fresh Meats, told officials work will begin immediately on structural damage. Other repairs, particularly electrical, will likely take more time. The company is currently completing a full assessment of the plant with electrical and structural engineers.