KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A California man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in a large PCP distribution ring in the Kansas City area.
Federal prosecutors say 46-year-old Ladronal Hamilton, of Hawthorne, California, was sentenced Thursday. He was found guilty in May of organizing and supplying PCP to several people in Kansas City from January 2011 to March 2015. The drugs were sent by mail from California.
Several of the PCP distributors have been convicted and sentenced in the scheme.
A witness at Hamilton’s trial said he used various houses in Kansas City, including his father’s house, to receive and re-package the PCP.
Prosecutors sought a life sentence because Hamilton has a long criminal record, including convictions for armed bank robbery and second-degree murder.
VERSAILLES, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri jail nurse has been charged with having sex with an inmate and two jail officers are charged with helping.
Warrants were issued Thursday for nurse Janet Phillips, who was contracted to work at the Morgan County Jail, and the two officers, Elizabeth Knipp and Robert Hoover. All three were charged Monday with sexual contact with an inmate and delivering prohibited articles to the jail. Phillips faces an additional count of bribery of a public servant and Knipp of concealing a felony and acceding to corruption.
No attorney is listed for Hoover in online court records, while Phillips’ attorney declined to comment and Knipp’s didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press. The sheriff’s office and the special prosecutor also didn’t immediately return phone messages.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has appointed a former St. Louis-area Husch Blackwell lawyer to the state’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education.
Greitens on Wednesday announced that he picked Maryville resident Joe Cornelison to serve on the board, which oversees public colleges and universities throughout the state. Cornelison is a retired Army colonel.
Cornelison replaces Republican Dalton Wright, who was appointed by former Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Wright was serving an expired term on the board.
Cornelison’s appointment gives Greitens’ appointees a majority on the seven-member board, although the governor’s four new appointees still need confirmation by the state Senate.
Cornelison served as general counsel for the Higher Education Department from 2010 to 2011. He was an attorney for Northwest Missouri State University from 2005 to 2009.
KSU President Richard Myers during Thursday’s testimony
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The president of Kansas State University has told Congress that the country is unprepared to deal with its food supply that he says is threatened by both terrorism and natural plant and animal diseases.
University President Richard Myers was invited to testify Wednesday by Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas. He says there’s an urgent need to protect the country’s food supply from “naturally occurring and intentionally developed and delivered biological threats.”
Myers also said the university needs federal funding to continue research on four emerging animal diseases.
The university has been using its own biological isolation labs to research the diseases in anticipation of the opening of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
Roberts says Myers’ recommendations should be written in Congress’ next farm bill.
A newspaper report published over the weekend says a former official at the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services continued to work at the agency even after he faced allegations of sexual harassment. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
A discrimination complaint filed earlier this year by a Tennessee woman who claims a former Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services official sexually harassed her is still pending before the Kansas Human Rights Commission.
The complaint filed by Jennifer Gill in February charges that Equi-Venture Farms, a day and residential service provider for Kansans with developmental disabilities, violated state law by firing her after she reported the alleged harassment to her supervisor.
“From September 2016 to December 2016, I was subject to sexual harassment in the form of sexual comments, text messages and video,” Gill states in the complaint.
In a recent report published by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Gill said Brandt Haehn, a former KDADS commissioner of disability services, sent her graphic videos and offered her a management position at the agency in exchange for sex.
In the complaint, she claims that Equi-Venture fired her in “retaliation” for complaining about Haehn, who oversaw the agency’s licensing of service providers.
When KDADS Secretary Tim Keck learned of the allegations, he immediately suspended Haehn pending the outcome of a formal investigation.
The newspaper account indicated that Gill stopped cooperating with the investigation when an agency attorney asked her if she had encouraged Haehn.
Haehn returned to work but left the agency several months later to accept a position with Amerigroup, one of the three private insurance companies that administer KanCare, the state’s $3 billion Medicaid program.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, who is preparing to take over when the U.S. Senate confirms Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination to a State Department post, said there would be no tolerance of harassment in his administration but declined to say what, if any, policy changes he is considering.
“Believe me, this makes me very angry,” Colyer said. “We want a tone where everybody is respected and that harassment will not be tolerated.”
Ruth Glover, executive director of the human rights commission, said state law precludes her from commenting on Gill’s discrimination case other than to confirm it remains open.
If Gill, who moved to Tennessee in search of a job and a fresh start, cannot reach a settlement with Equi-Venture, the seven-member commission will decide the case.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Springfield fire officials say a 55-year-old man who was burned while filling up at a Springfield gas station last month has died.
The department said Thursday that Chad Richards died Dec. 2, after spending more than two weeks in a hospital burn unit in Springfield.
Richards was injured Nov. 15 at a Kum & Go station when a spark ignited gasoline fumes.
Fire officials said in a news release that investigators were unable to determine what caused the spark. A possible cause was static electricity.
At the time of the accident, witnesses said Richards tried to run from the pump and was burned nearly from head to toe. People in the parking lot used blankets and a fire extinguisher to try and help him.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say two people have been found dead after a lengthy standoff in Springfield.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that police were called Wednesday afternoon to a recreational vehicle that was behind a house.
Police say they tried to negotiate but never made contact with anyone in the RV and eventually had to force entry. The bodies of a man and a woman with possible gunshot wounds were found inside.
Employees from the City of St. Joseph’s Water Protection department voted Wednesday to join Laborers Local Union 579.
According to a news release, the election was set after employees reached out to union representatives to ask for help in joining. The final tally was 22 votes to join the union and eight against.
Workers voted in two shifts Wednesday in the conference room at the Water Protection Facility. Representatives of the State Board of Mediation administered the election. The positive vote comes despite the city’s efforts to discourage the workers from voting to join the union.
The union will represent the workers in future contract negotiations with the City of St. Joseph.
The employees contacted Local 579 shortly after voting to decertify their representation by another union in 2015. Federal labor regulations required the workers to go one year without representation before they could vote to join another union.
Local 579 is based in St. Joseph and represents workers in 16 northwest Missouri counties.
Investigators on the scene of Tuesday’s fatal house fire-photo courtesy KCTV
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of three people found in the rubble of a burned Kansas City, Kansas, home as homicides.
Police announced the homicide investigation Wednesday in a tweet. The early Tuesday fire initially was labeled as suspicious.
Firefighters searching the single-story home found two bodies at that time. A third body was found later in the day as firefighters sifted through the house.
The names of the victims weren’t immediately released. A police spokesman says the coroner is working to identify the remains.
A cloudy and cooler day is expected today, with a chance for a sprinkle/flurry mix this afternoon and evening in eastern KS and northwestern MO. Impacts are not anticipated, as very little, if any, accumulation is expected. More widespread rain is expected and welcomed for most of the day Sunday. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. North northwest wind 5 to 9 mph.
Tonight: A slight chance of rain and snow showers before 7 p.m., then a slight chance of snow showers between 7 p.m. and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. West northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 47. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32. South southwest wind around 9 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 57. South southwest wind 8 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34.
Sunday: A chance of showers before noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 29.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 50.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 51.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29.
