ATCHISON COUNTY— A Kansas man died after a crash during a chase by officers just after 1 a.m. Sunday in Atchison County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 driven by Raymond Bosch, Jr., 45, Effingham, was westbound on Main Street at 22nd Street in Atchison being pursued by law enforcement.
The driver failed to maneuver a curve. The pickup entered a private lawn, struck a brick retaining wall and rolled.
Bosch was pronounced dead at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
Authorities did not release details on what initiated the chase.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The father of a slain off-duty Lee’s Summit police officer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the restaurant where the shooting happened and the alleged shooter.
The Kansas City Star reports that Thomas Orr Jr. file the suit on behalf of his son, Thomas Alvin Orr III. The lawsuit accuses Californos, the restaurant that hosted an all-day party in August where the 30-year-old officer was shot, of negligence.
The lawsuit also names Sean Steward, of Kansas City, who has been charged with second-degree murder and other counts in the Aug. 20 shooting. Police have said Orr was not the intended target and was shot during an argument between other people at the restaurant.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup Orr’s lost wages, funeral expenses and other damages.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer will rise next week to become governor when Sam Brownback steps down to take a job in the Trump administration. BRIAN GRIMMETT / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer goes from one of the most anonymous jobs in state politics to its most prominent.
Kansans, in turn, will find themselves with a new governor. Colyer’s politics may run as conservative as the man he’ll replace, Sam Brownback, just more low key.
Brownback is stepping away from the job with a year left in his term to work in the U.S. State Department for the Trump administration. That gives Colyer a chance to show that he’s up to the job and to catapult his prominence in this year’s race for a full term as governor.
The interim promotion gives Colyer a chance to rise above what’s been a relatively low-profile political career, marked more by gradual success than confrontation or daring choices.
Yet friends who know him best rarely use his political biography — failed run for the U.S. House, election to the Kansas House, the state Senate and as lieutenant governor — to explain him.
Instead, they talk about the plastic surgeon who travels to war-torn corners of the world to fix the battle wounds of children.
“Gosh,” said former Kansas House colleague Steve Brunk, “Lt. Gov. Colyer is certainly a real humanitarian.”
In 2002, for instance, the Johnson County physician traveled to Sierra Leone to fix scars, including on children who had rebel brands burned into their flesh by various factions in the west African country’s civil war.
“I don’t think you can ever accept the fact that you’re taking children and branding them,” he told a “60 Minutes” crew that documented some of the work he did on a volunteer medical team.
Colyer’s charity work is also the focus of TV ad designed to introduce him to voters at the outset of the governor’s race. A young woman talks about how Colyer transformed her life by surgically repairing a disfiguring birth defect.
“Dr. Colyer,” she says in the spot, “does the right thing even when nobody’s looking.”
A group connected to Koch Industries paid for the commercial. That suggests that Koch’s powerful political network is backing Colyer and not Secretary of State Kris Kobach, his more dynamic conservative rival in the governor’s race.
Still, it doesn’t reveal much about either Colyer’s politics or his policies.
Kansas House Democratic Leader – and candidate for governor – Jim Ward said Colyer has always been a bit of a political mystery man, even when he was a legislator.
“He served in the House for four years and didn’t leave much of a footprint,” Ward said. “(Colyer) wasn’t in the Senate long enough to leave a footprint. And he’s been kind of the back room guy for the governor.”
The lieutenant governor has left a mark in at least one policy area – health care. He’s the architect of KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Launched in 2013, it has reduced the cost of providing health care for low-income, elderly and disabled Kansans. But increased red tape and billing disputes have frustrated both providers and patients.
Colyer was recently forced by legislative resistance to back off an attempt to preserve his signature program while adding some controversial features, such as a requirement that some recipients work in exchange for their health care benefits.
Colyer insists there’s real no mystery about his politics. He’s an anti-abortion conservative who believes that government at both the state and national levels is too big.
“Everybody knows I worked for Bob Dole and Ronald Reagan, so you know where I’m coming from,” he said in an interview.
Since Brownback’s nomination for an ambassadorship began the conversation about a transition several months ago, Colyer has said he’ll be a different kind of governor. He’s talked a lot about listening to Kansans and “changing the tone.”
“You just need to be a good governor,” he said. “We’re going to do a very good job. And we’re going to work for Kansas. We’re going to listen for them. We’re going to change the tone. And we’re going to work very hard.”
Even before the transition, Colyer was gearing up to use the power of incumbency by making appointments and scheduling events across the state that allowed him to connect with voters, local officials and business leaders with reporters tagging along.
Former Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal spent decades in Kansas Republican politics. He said Colyer needs to use the next several months to define how he’s different if he hopes to top a crowded field of GOP hopefuls in the governor’s race.
O’Neal and others say running as an incumbent could be a real advantage for Colyer. But only if he uses the opportunity to show that he’s up to the job.
“This is his opportunity,” O’Neal said, “to show what he’s made of and that he’s just not going to be a carbon copy of the last administration.”
HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri State Highway Patrol has stopped field testing for illegal substances during police raids and traffic stops amid concerns about exposing troopers to fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics.
The Hannibal Courier-Post reports the patrol informed prosecutors of the change last year. The policy took effect this month.
Field testing provides immediate evidence that prosecutors can use as probable cause to file charges. Now, material is sent straight to a lab, but those results can take several weeks.
Some prosecutors worry that without immediate testing, they’ll have to delay filing charges against drug suspects.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate painkiller dangerous to the touch or even if it becomes airborne. The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a 2016 memo warning law enforcement to avoid field testing material that might contain fentanyl.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former Lawrence police officer will serve a year of supervised probation for driving under the influence during a wreck that killed a motorcycle driver.
The Lawrence Journal-World Thursday that 51-year-old Robert Heafey, of Lawrence, was ordered to participate in a weekend alcohol/drug intervention program and pay about $1,300 in fines.
Heafey pleaded no contest to misdemeanor DUI on Jan. 12. The 11-year police veteran resigned the day the charges were filed in September 2017.
Investigators say Heafey and 56-year-old Jesse del Campo were riding their motorcycles in July 2017 when a deer ran in front of them. Heafey laid his bike down and del Campo to run over him. Del Campo died later of his injuries.
Investigators said both men’s blood alcohol levels were above the state’s legal limit.
First responders on the scene of Friday’s fire-photo courtesy WIBW TV
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say one person was hospitalized after a fire started inside a Topeka church.
The fire was reported about 4:30 p.m. Friday at Divine Love Outreach Ministries Church in the eastern part of the city.
Firefighters arriving at the scene found heavy smoke and flames coming from the rear of the church. Officials say a person found outside the church had sustained injuries from the fire was taken to a local hospital.
Investigators determined the fire started in the church’s kitchen.
Fire officials estimated the damage of the structure somewhere between $25,000 and $90,000 and loss of contents at around $65,000.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — At least 16 Kansas lawmakers have recently held or currently hold a second elective office.
The Kansas Constitution bars a member of Congress or U.S. government employee from serving in the Statehouse. A statute on county commissioners says “no person holding any state, county, township or city office shall be eligible to the office of the county commission.” There’s no identical language for city commissioners and school board members.
The group of dual office-holding lawmakers includes Speaker of the House Republican Ron Ryckman Jr., whose term on the Olathe City Council ended this month. Republicans Rep. Larry Campbell and Kansas Education Board member John Bacon continue on the council.
Democratic Rep. Steve Crum also serves on the Haysville City Council. He said he missed only two city meetings last year because of the Legislature.
Some lawmakers in dual offices said they were more effective in both jobs because of what they learned from each role.
“The insight from holding these two particular elected offices is mutually valuable,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Jones of serving on a school board and in the Legislature.
Some lawmakers resigned from local office before entering the Legislature. Republican Sen. Randall Hardy resigned from the Salina City Commission just before entering the Legislature in January 2017 even though it wasn’t required.
“Being a legislator is both time-consuming and demanding,” he said. “I am surprised that we do not have a rule that restricts serving in two roles while in the Legislature.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A former Missouri paramedic who gave patients sterile water in place of their painkillers has been sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that 31-year-old Joseph Comstock was sentenced Friday for three counts of tampering with a consumer product.
Comstock worked for two ambulances services in Bethany and Gallatin, Missouri.
Officials with the NTA Ambulance District in Bethany discovered in 2015 that someone had tampered with morphine syringes and other drugs.
Investigators found similar problems at the Gallatin ambulance service when Comstock worked there and conducted surveillance, which uncovered Comstock going into cabinets containing drugs.
Comstock admitted that he began tampering with drugs in 2014 after having his tonsils removed.
SHAWNEE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have a suspect in custody.
Just after midnight Tuesday, police responded to a home in the 2000 block of south Kansas Avenue in Topeka on a report of a shooting.
Two victims were transported to a local hospital by AMR. Both victims were listed in critical condition, with at least one victim suffering from injuries believed to be life threatening.
Witnesses described a black male wearing a brown jacket leaving the area to the north just after gunshots were heard.
On Friday, police reported John W Towner Jr., 28, had been interviewed in reference to this incident. He was transported to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on charges of Aggravated Battery and Felon in Possession of a Firearm. He has previous convictions for drugs and battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
ATCHISON COUNTY— A Kansas man died after a crash during a chase by officers just after 1 a.m. Sunday in Atchison County.
