The Child Support Division of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office reports a continued increase in child-support collections for 2016. For the first time in five years the total is over $13 million.

Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins said collections were up 5.17% over 2015, as over $13.5 million.

The Child Support Division has approximately 5,700 open cases involving approximately 8,000 children in Buchanan County.

“We take pride in what our Child Support workers are able to accomplish,” Scroggins said.

It is an extremely difficult task, and one which our folks accomplish better than anyone else, anywhere.”

Scroggins said the division established 314 paternity orders, 7,192 employment-withholding orders were filed, and 725 people who otherwise refused to support their children faced criminal prosecution.

Scroggins offered praise for the judges in the 5th Judicial Circuit.

“Without their dedication to these issues, our employees would not be able to accomplish what we have accomplished,” he said. “Judges (Keith) Marquart and (Rebecca) Spencer have approximately 700 cases each o probation for non-payment of child support, which are court supervised. Judge (Randall) Jackson and former Judge (Weldon) Judah have always allowed specific days set aside each month for our heavy caseload.”

“Without that ongoing focus by our local judiciary, these accomplishments would not be possible.”

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public’s help to identify suspects who broke into a convenience store Thursday.

Sgt. Jeffrey Shanks said the burglary took place at the Trex Mart in Camden Point at I-29 and MO E Hwy around 1 a.m. He said four suspects forced their way into the store after hours and used a pry bar to remove an under counter safe. The suspects wore hooded sweatshirts and partially covered their faces. The suspects took the safe and left the area in a dark colored newer Jeep Grand Cherokee. The department has released photos of two of the suspects.

Anyone with information in regards to this crime, or who may know the identity of the four suspects is encouraged to contact the Platte County Sheriff’s Office via the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS, or submit a TIP via the Platte County Sheriff’s Office website CLICK HERE.

As we previously reported, the St. Joseph Police Department is also investigating a burglary that took place around 4:30 a.m. Thursday.  The three suspects in that investigation were described to be wearing hoodies and drove away in a black Jeep after stealing a safe from the Speedys at Belt and Beck.

Authorities have identified the man who died Wednesday in a two vehicle crash in Platte County.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office said Donald G. Warf, 51 of Atchison, Kan. was the man killed in the crash on MO 92 Highway near Bethel Road.

As we previously reported, shortly after 7:30 a.m. emergency personnel responded to a two vehicle crash on MO 92 in Central Platte County. He said Warf was driving a 1986 Chevrolet El Camino traveling east on MO 92 Hwy when he lost control of his vehicle, slid sideways and crossed over into the westbound lane of MO 92 Highway. The Chevrolet El Camino was then hit by a 2000 Buick Century driven by Joshua T. Ross, 33 of Platte City who was traveling west on MO 92 Highway. Warf was pronounced dead at the scene.  Ross was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Shanks said while a preliminary investigation indicates the weather conditions may have been a contributing factor, the Platte County Sheriff’s Office Crash Team is still investigating the cause at this time.

The St. Joseph Police Department is investigating a gas station burglary that took place Thursday morning.

Sgt. Kevin Cummings said the Speedy’s located in the area of Belt and Beck was burglarized around 4:30 a.m. He said officers responded to that location in reference to an alarm.  A safe and money was reportedly taken. Around 8:30 a.m. Cummings said police recovered the stolen safe in the Stonecrest neighborhood after a caller reported the item to police.

Authorities are reviewing surveillance footage from the scene.  Three individuals were believed to have taken part in the burglary.  The suspects were reported to be wearing hoodies and masks and drove away from the scene in a black Jeep.

Anyone with information is asked to call police (816) 238-TIPS.

 

A man and a woman are facing felony charges after an armed robbery Tuesday night at a cell phone store in St. Joseph.

Isaiah Williams,28 and Shania Harness, 18 are both charged in Buchanan County with first-degree robbery.  Both are listed as St. Joseph residents.

As we previously reported, two people were taken into custody Tuesday night in the area of Frederick Ave. and Leonard Rd. after a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol located a vehicle wanted in connection with the armed robbery of Metro PCS.

“The defendants both pointed guns at subjects inside and demanded money.  They defendants threatened to shoot subjects inside the business,” said Det. Timothy Schweder with the St. Joseph Police Department in court documents. “The defendants took money from the business.  The defendants then fled the scene in a vehicle.”

Authorities said the pair were identified by a person from the businesses located at 3202 S. Belt. who was present during the robbery.

Court documents said Williams has a criminal record from the state of Nevada including arrests for possession of a stolen vehicle, robbery with a deadly weapon, evading police officers, escape, assault with a weapon on a victim over 65, and battery by prisoner.

Bail for Williams and Harness is set at $50,000, an arraignment is scheduled for Friday.

A man was injured in a one vehicle crash after falling asleep at the wheel early Thursday morning.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, the man was driving an SUV westbound on 36 Highway near 22nd Street shortly after 4 a.m. when he fell asleep and his vehicle went off the road into a ditch.

The man was transported to Mosaic Life Care with moderate injuries. His name and age were not immediately available.

St. Joseph Chief of Police, Chris Connally said a federal RICO indictment last week that charged eight people as members of a violent St. Joseph gang was the result of around three years of investigations.

In an interview with KFEQ’s Barry Birr, Connally said he isn’t allowed to go into details on the case.  However, he said the indictments were a result of a lengthy investigation between the St. Joseph Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit, investigators from the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department, the Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s offices.

“I think that’s a good example of all those entities coming together.  A lot of work went into it to get some dangerous people off the street,” Connally said.

As we previously reported, Victor Matias-Torres, also known as “Papo” and “King Fenese,” 35, Luis Alfredo Villegas-Rosa, also known as “Puerto Rico,” and “Rico,” 28, his brother, Luis Gabriel Villegas-Rosa, also known as “Conan,” 35, Angel Antonio Martinez-Torres, also known as “Tony,” 37, Angel Rios-Rosa, also known as “Gato,” 30, Jose Morales-Delgado, also known as “Beto,” 32, Luis Calderon-Oliveras, 26, and Ismael Marquez, 29, all of St. Joseph, were charged in a 34-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., last Thursday.

The indictment alleges they committed murder, five attempted murders, drug trafficking and armed robberies, among other crimes, as part of a criminal enterprise. It alleges that all eight of the defendants were involved in a conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). According to the indictment, the criminal enterprise, which began in 2010, was led by Matias-Torres, formerly a high-ranking member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation. Matias-Torres’s gang allegedly engaged in acts of violence, including murder and attempted murder, armed assault, armed robbery, extortion and witness intimidation. The gang allegedly trafficked in heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Connally said investigating cases like this takes time.

“There’s a lot of arrests and things made in between but bringing it all together to bring the larger organization off the street is another story,” Connally said. “You have to continue to work diligently for those things to come together.  They always take time.  Complicated cases take time.”

Although the gang was based in St. Joseph, the indictment said it also operated in Kansas, Iowa and Massachusetts, among other places, and recruited many of its members and associates from Puerto Rico.

 

The Missouri Department of Transportation is patching potholes throughout northwest Missouri after winter weather.

“When you start having a lot of winter weather, in this case even worse, when you have a lot of rain and freezing rain the condition of those roads afterwords from the freeze and thaw creates a lot of potholes,” said Marty Liles, MoDOT Northwest District Maintenance & Traffic Engineer. “As that moisture freezes it expands and as it expands that pressure has to go somewhere so it starts popping out the asphalt and other materials and creating those potholes we see today.”

Liles said crews have been out since Tuesday evaluating pothole locations and working to patch things up after freezing rain moved through the area.

“This past weekend was one of those that’s really hard on our pavements anyway because we had so much moisture that got soaked into the pavement in those cracks and crevasses and then we had a lot of freezing and thawing which takes a toll on our roads,” Liles said. “Anything that we do right now is very difficult to get a permanent fix.  We hope that we can get them to last as a temporary measure until we can get in there and do a more permanent fix.”

Liles said they are out looking for potholes and are also encouraging people to report them.

“It’s just like any other customer concern that we have,” Liles said. “We take those very seriously and we log those in.”

He said people can let them know about potholes on MoDOT roads by calling (888) ASK-MODOT.  CLICK HERE for a link to MoDOT’s website to report a road repair.