The St. Joseph Police Department said a standoff on Mary street has ended with a man in custody.
Police responded to Mary street near 26th street around 5 p.m.
Capt. Jeff Wilson said a suspect with warrants ran inside the home. The standoff lasted about two hours.
Wilson said a man in his 30’s was arrested on a felony warrant. He said more details would be available in the morning.
Jason Simpson has been named the new Activities Director at Lafayette High School.
The St. Joseph School District said Simpson replaces Paul Woolard, who recently was named Assistant Principal at Central
High School.
“Jason Simpson graduated from Lafayette High School, began his coaching career here and understands the north side, our families and our students. We are excited to have him return as an administrator at Lafayette and think he will be a wonderful addition to our team,” said Dr. Tyran
Sumy, Principal.
Simpson has been with the St. Joseph School District as a business educator since 2005 at Central High School. Simpson started his coaching career at Lafayette High School from 2004-
2005 as Assistant Basketball Coach. He also was a three-sport coach for many years at Central High School in football, basketball, and tennis.
Simpson has his M.S. Educational Leadership – Secondary from Northwest Missouri State
University. He received his B.S. in Business Administration from Central Missouri State
University.
Simpson will start the new position with the district July 1, 2016.
(Press Release) KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former superintendent of the St. Joseph School District and former president of the Board of Education pleaded guilty in federal court today to a fraud scheme in which he received more than $662,000 in pension payments to which he was not entitled.
Danny L. Colgan, 70, of St. Joseph, Mo., waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to a federal information that charges him with one count of wire fraud.
“Today’s criminal felony conviction brings to conclusion an extensive, thorough investigation into fiscal wrongdoing in the St. Joseph School District,” Dickinson said. “I commend the professionalism and perseverance of the FBI agents and prosecution team involved in this investigation. We do not anticipate charges against any additional defendants in the future.”
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Colgan will be sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. He must pay $662,660 in restitution prior to his sentencing hearing (which has not yet been scheduled). Colgan was released on bond.
Colgan was the superintendent of the St. Joseph School District from July 1, 1992, until his retirement on Dec. 31, 2005. Colgan was entitled to retirement benefits from the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri (PSRS) with the amount of the retirement benefits based upon his highest consecutive three years of reported salary.
By pleading guilty today, Colgan admitted that he caused others to falsely report his salary to the PSRS in order to increase his retirement benefits. Colgan knew that the salary figures he caused the school district to submit to PSRS on his behalf included fringe benefits and other payments to Colgan that were not eligible to be counted as salary under state statutes.
This fraud scheme began during the 1997-98 school year and lasted for eight years, until Colgan’s retirement. Colgan’s retirement benefits were calculated by using the amounts reported by the school district over the final three-year period before he retired.
During that final three-year period, the school district falsely reported that Colgan’s salary totaled $586,030. In reality, his salary totaled $343,286 – a difference of $242,744. As a result of the false statements to the PSRS, the school district made excess payments in the amount of $14,652 to the PSRS from 2003 through 2005, and Colgan was paid excess benefits that totaled $677,313 over a 10-year period.
Colgan’s salary reported for his final three years as school superintendent improperly included the following:
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker. It was investigated by the FBI.
“Fiddler on the Roof” will open this week at Missouri Western State University.
Western Playhouse, the summer theatre company at Western will present “Fiddler on the Roof” June 17-25 in the Potter Hall Theater. Show times are at 7:30 p.m. June 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 19. Tickets may be purchased in advance in person at the Western Institute, Spratt Hall room 105; by phone at 816-271-4452; or online at www.westernplayhouse.com.
Opening Night will include a Shabbat Dinner in the tradition of Tevye, his family and the people of Anatevka. The dinner will be at 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 in the Enright Community Rooms, Spratt 214-216. Tickets for the dinner only are $17.50 per person, or $30 per person with a ticket to the show (a $10 savings). Dinner reservations must be made by June 14 by calling 816-271-4100
Set in the little village of Anatevka, “Fiddler on the Roof” centers on Tevye, a poor dairyman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Rich in historical and ethnic detail, the show’s universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness.
This year’s show is dedicated to Dr. Joe Friedman, a 1939 graduate of Missouri Western (when it was St. Joseph Junior College). Dr. Friedman was a St. Joseph native who left his practice as a podiatrist in 1962 for a remarkable career in theater and television, including 2,840 shows of “Fiddler on the Roof” with Hal Prince Productions. Dr. Friedman died earlier this year at the age of 95.
The cast includes members from St. Joseph, Kansas City, and across the nation.
Officials confirm Phil Welch Stadium was vandalized overnight.
Ky Turner, St. Joe Mustangs General Manager said a group of individuals broke in overnight and vandalized some of the concessions, places around the stadium and left a mess of things.
“We discovered it pretty early this morning. As soon as police were done with their questions and evidence we had a group of people that came in an assisted us,” Turner said. “Honestly now just a couple of hours later it might be in better condition now than what it was last night.”
Turner said there were bottles all over the place, some graffiti and some doors kicked in.
“It took some time to clean up,” Turner said. “We have quite a bit of video of them. We have cameras all over the stadium.”
Turner said a police report was filed. He said the damage is not expected to impact any upcoming events or games.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline (816) 344-8302.
(Photos from surveillance footage below)
A charge has been filed after a man was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg in May outside of Club Flatline in downtown St. Joseph.
Angel Maisonet-Laboy, 37 was charged Thursday in Buchanan County with a felony for second-degree assault. Court documents said the charge stems from an incident that took place May 8 around 1:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Felix in which Kraig Buckner sustained a gunshot wound to the upper leg.
“The defendant was engaged in a fight with the victim,” said Detective R. Woodley with the St. Joseph Police Department. “Defendant after fighting with the victim retreated to his vehicle and retrieved a handgun. Defendant returned to the area of the fight and fired two shots. One of those shots hit the victim in the upper leg. Defendant then left the area and did not call for any medical assistance for the victim.”
Court documents said Maisonet-Laboy has very few ties to St. Joseph with two children still living in Puerto Rico with his mother.
If convicted the charge of second-degree assault carries a penalty of 2-7 years in prison.
Maisonet-Laboy is being held on $50,000 cash bond.
Fireworks were shot off Thursday at Missouri Western State University as crews hoisted the first piece of what will become the largest video scoreboard in the NCAA Division II off of one of eight flatbed trailers.
A crowd filled the Spratt Stadium Hall of Fame Room on the second Floor of Spratt Memorial Stadium prior to the ceremonial unloading.
The scoreboard was transported from Corona, California, via eight flatbed trailers. It left the west coast on Monday.
According to Missouri Western Director of Athletics Kurt McGuffin, the scoreboard is part of the $7.9 million Spratt Stadium renovation project. A large part of the scoreboard funding came from Steve Craig, founder and CEO of Craig Realty Group and benefactor of the Craig School of Business at Missouri Western.
The $2.6 million scoreboard structure is 78 feet tall and 138 feet wide. The scoreboard itself boasts a 2,500 square foot display and will have its debut on September 1st, when Griffon Football hosts Nebraska-Kearney.
Speakers at the event included Associate Dir. of Athletics Brett Esely, McGuffin, Western President Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Steven Craig, MultimediaLED President Alex Birner, and Video Scoreboard Architect Louis Troiani.
McGuffin said the scoreboard is the final piece of the stadium project. He said the scoreboard will be pieced together on the structure and the project is slated to be finished at the end of next month.
States are rushing to stop the spread of a new synthetic drug that’s contributed to at least 50 deaths across the nation. In St. Joseph, authorities said synthetic drugs are not a new problem.
“There’s a lot of these chemical compounds that are out there that are very similar in chemical make-up with other illicit drugs that are out there,” said Sgt. Larry Stobbs with the St. Joseph Police Department.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation sent out a warning to the public at the beginning of the month to talk about the use of synthetic opioid U-47700. Johnson County, Kansas, District Attorney Steve Howe said two deaths in his county have been connected to U-47700. The new synthetic drug can be purchased online and is nearly eight times more potent than morphine. KBI said parents and caregivers should be watchful of packages and mailing labels that indicate a shipment from overseas, particularly China.
“Some of these compounds like this newest drug that’s out has got some tragic consequences because it’s actually killing people,” Stobbs said.
He said the best thing parents can do is to try and make it a point to know what’s going on in their kid’s lives.
“Several years ago there was a little fad in certain communities of kids buying the bonsai plants and were buying the supposedly fertilizer that went on them but it was a ruse,” Stobbs said. “You bought the plant so mom and dad would think you were trying to grow this cute little bonsai plant and actually the stuff they were buying that was being marketed as a fertilizer was actually the stuff they were smoking to get high on and that way mom and dad didn’t know what was going on.”
He said many different types of synthetic opioids are a concern around the St. Joseph community.
“We’ve got a lot of people here in the region that make this stuff and sell it. They’ve got their sources. It’s like anything else, if you know somebody that sells marijuana they probably sell this stuff also,” Stobbs said. “This is an ongoing problem we have in our community. It may not be one of our bigger drug problems, we have a lot of marijuana, we still have a lot of meth, we still have other drugs that are starting to pop up in our community this is just one on the smorgasbord that’s out there of the drugs we have. But unfortunately, this is probably one of the more dangerous ones.”
He said the synthetic drugs could actually be more harmful.
“The first responders and the people at the emergency room in a lot of ways it’s hard for them to figure out what to do with you because they’re not sure how that compound is interacting with your body to help get you back on the right track and help save your life,” Stobbs said. “From a law enforcement standpoint we encourage people to stay away from drugs because we don’t want to have people dying in our community because they’ve overdosed.”
(AP contributed to information in this story)
More than half a dozen volunteers are needed to help patrol trails around St. Joseph.
“They keep an eye on cars that are maybe prowling around or people and they just call in and our officers come and check them out,” said Sgt. Greg Gilpin with the St. Joseph Police Department.
It’s the 11th year for the City of St. Joseph’s Trail Watch program. Gilpin said the program is made up of citizen volunteers that patrol area hike and bike trails. He said he is searching for around eight more people to lend a hand.
“I kind of need people who are familiar with the area a little bit so if they need to call into the comm center they can give their location,” Gilpin said. “We’re not training them to be police officers, they’re not out there to do the officers jobs but if they see something they call in and we’ll get an officer out there to take care of it.”
Gilpin said the volunteers will go through a training program before they hit the trails to patrol in golf carts. He said the plan is to have at least one trail covered seven days a week, weather permitting.
“There’s an application and then after that I bring them in for an interview,” Gilpin said. “After that we’ll set up some training when I get a group. That’s 2-3 hours long and then they’ll be put out on the trail either with one of the veterans or with me.”
Gilpin said volunteers have already been out on the trails but he’s lost a few volunteers so more are needed. The program runs as long as the weather permits.
“I’ve had them out there in November,” Gilpin said. “It just depends on the weather.”
Anyone interested in volunteering should call Sgt. Gilpin at (816) 236-1473.
A total of five people are now charged in connection with the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Skylar Powell last month in St. Joseph.
Tuesday the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office charged two additional people in connection with the May 18th death. Kyle Smith, 25 is charged with a felony of possession of a controlled substance (5-15 year sentence range) and a felony for tampering with physical evidence (1-4 year sentence range). Ashten Surritte, 19 is charged with a felony for first-degree attempted robbery (5-15 year sentence range.) Bond for both has been set at $20,000.
According to court documents, the day before Powell was found dead in the 2200 block of Calhoun, Surritte is accused of conspiring to commit robbery by helping Powell plan a robbery of Dayne Matthews by supplying Skylar Powell with Matthews’s phone number and a picture of Matthews.
As we previously reported, Matthews was charged Monday in connection with Powell’s death. Matthews, 19 of St. Joseph was charged with felonies for possession of a controlled substance (5-15 years sentence range) and tampering with physical evidence (1-4 years sentence range).
Court documents said Kyle Smith is accused of giving 1/4 pound of marijuana to Justin Smith with the intent and purpose of resale and distribution. Court documents also said after the shooting Kyle Smith is accused of taking the handgun used and disposing of it for the purpose of preventing discovery by law enforcement officials. This allegedly took place in the area of 3513 S. 11th St.
Justin Smith, 20 was charged Monday with felonies for voluntary manslaughter (5-15 years sentence range) and armed criminal action (Minimum of three year sentence range).
A fifth defendant has also been charged in the investigation. A 16-year-old was charged in juvenile court last week with a class A felony for murder in the second-degree. Because it’s a juvenile case, the court said it is unable to release the teen’s name or picture. That teen is slated for a hearing for June 22.
Kyle Smith and Surritte appeared Tuesday morning in Buchanan County court for an arraignment. Both are scheduled for a preliminary hearing June 20 at 11 a.m. Justin Smith and Matthews each have a Preliminary for June 27.
