A Burlington Junction man accused of raping a child under the age of 14 appeared in court Wednesday.

36-year-old Russell Walker appeared in Nodaway Court for a Preliminary Hearing.  Walker is charged with two counts of first-degree statutory rape and one count of first-degree statutory sodomy.

According to court documents, Walker had been out on bond from a January charge of a second-degree misdemeanor for Endangering the Welfare of a Child when he was arrested on the charges.

The Nodaway County Prosecutor’s office said an arraignment has been set for July 27th.

 

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office said the 100th arrest has been made off of tips from its ‘Most Wanted’ website.

Tuesday, 48-year-old Tena Frances Ellison was arrested in Oklahoma on a warrant for alleged class C felony Check Violation of $500 or more.

The office said Ellison has been listed on its Most Wanted website since July 23, 2012.  Her arrest comes almost 3-years to the day from being listed.

“During that time our office received numerous tips of her whereabouts ranging from St. Joseph, locations in Iowa and now Oklahoma,” said Sheriff Steve Cox.

LCSO started its Most Wanted website in 2011.

“Ellison marks the 100th arrest of a ‘Most Wanted’ fugitive based on TIPS generated from the website,” Cox said. “Numerous others have been arrested by law enforcement and many have surrendered upon learning they were placed on the website.”

Cox said the primary purpose of the Most Wanted website is to increase community awareness, bring those wanted before the Courts, assist crime victims, and reduce crime which makes the county safer.

CLICK HERE to view the website.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is asking the federal government to declare a major disaster for 70 counties due to spring and summer storms that caused tornadoes, torrential rains and flooding across much of the state.

Nixon made the request Tuesday, citing damage to roads, bridges and other public infrastructure, along with homes and businesses. At least 10 deaths are blamed on the storms and flooding.

Nixon says that since mid-May, more than half of the state has been damaged, and many places face extensive response and rebuilding expenses.

The disaster declaration request is for public assistance in the following 68 counties: Adair, Andrew, Atchison, Audrain, Barry, Bates, Benton, Buchanan, Caldwell, Chariton, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cole, Crawford, Dade, Dallas, Daviess, DeKalb, Douglas, Gentry, Harrison, Henry, Hickory, Holt, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Laclede, Lafayette, Lewis, Lincoln, Linn, Livingston, McDonald, Macon, Maries, Marion, Miller, Moniteau, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Osage, Ozark, Perry, Pettis, Pike, Platte, Polk, Putnam, Ralls, Ray, Ste. Genevieve, Saline, Schuyler, Scotland, Shannon, Shelby, Stone, Sullivan, Taney, Texas, Washington, Webster, Worth and Wright.

In addition, the Governor is seeking individual assistance for these 15 counties: Barry, Clay, Christian, Greene, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Osage, Ray, Ste. Genevieve, Stone and Webster. Each of those counties, except for Greene, also is included in the request for public assistance.

Individual assistance means that eligible individuals and households can seek federal assistance for uninsured losses from severe weather and flooding; public assistance allows local governments and eligible nonprofit agencies to seek assistance for response and recovery expenses associated with the severe weather and flooding.

Nixon first declared a state of emergency on June 18, an order that activated the State Emergency Operations Center and enabled the state to mobile resources to assist local authorities. Last week, he extended the state of emergency until Aug. 14.

(AP with Post contributions)

The City of St Joseph is hoping you’ll attend meetings this week to discuss the future of the city’s public swimming facilities. Public Information Officer Mary Robertson says they’ll discuss options and offer tours of all three pools this week.

The first meeting is scheduled Tuesday night at St Peter Lutheran Church, 3524 St Joseph Avenue. Afterward you can tour the pool at Krug Park.

The next meeting will be Wednesday at the Aquatic Park, 402 South Noyes Boulevard, with a tour of the Aquatic Park available afterward. The third and final meeting is Thursday at the Keys Gymnasium at 6001 South Ninth Street, with a tour of the Hyde Park Pool to follow.

All three meetings are scheduled from 6:30 to 8pm.

Extensive repairs are needed at the Hyde Pool. An earlier cost estimate, which may no longer be accurate, pegged the cost of those repairs at between $600,000 and $800,000. That pool is closed this summer for the second year in a row. The city has been unable to open the Krug Pool full time because of a lifeguard shortage. The Krug Pool and the Aquatic Center are in need of some improvements as well.

Ms Robertson says the meetings will provide the public with an overview of the various problems, as well as a closer look at some of the options being explored.

Those include not opening the pools, and replacing them with what are called “spraygrounds.” They’ll show you just what that is and what it would cost. They’re also exploring a possible agreement with Missouri Western State University, which has had issues with its swimming pool as well.

Robertson says that could lead to an indoor community pool on campus.

 

The St. Joseph School District has requested and received an extension from the Internal Revenue Service regarding examination of documents.

The IRS is now scheduled to review information from the St. Joseph School District from August 4-7, 2015.

The district had been scheduled to be examined starting Tuesday.

The extension was requested due to the amount of information requested and the staff limitations from the district, as well finalizing the year-end budget and beginning a new budget year.

The St. Joseph Police Department has a suspect in custody after an early morning stabbing.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson, officers responded to the 800 block of N. 6th St. before 2 a.m. to find a 19-year-old man who was the victim of an assault that allegedly took place in the 700 block of N. 4th St.

Wilson said the victim was transported to Mosaic Life Care with a serious injury.

Police have a 33-year-old man in custody as a person of interest.

The investigation is ongoing.

 

Buchanan County has closed roads five times so far this year due to high waters which is dipping into both man hours and resources.

Closing off roadways has become common practice for officials in Buchanan County. Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton said it’s unusual to have to have to close roads this much.

“The bad part about it is that the roads get flooded and then we go in and open them back up and we put new gravel on them and we take care of them and then about a week later they’re flooded again,” Brinton said.

Man hours dedicated to reopening roads is becoming a nuisance.

“They’re so busy opening the roads that are flooded that they can’t work on their plans for paving the roads that they have for the county,” Brinton said.

The total financial impact on the county’s budget from flooding is not yet known.

“I don’t know yet but if we go into working with FEMA/SEMA I will know exactly,” Brinton said.

However, disaster assistance is still up in the air.  As we previously reported, the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the county evaluating damage earlier this month.

“This is an ongoing process with FEMA and I would think based upon the severe weather that we’ve had in northwest Missouri a couple of days ago and with the weather that they’ve had down near Branson I think it looks more like it’s going to happen every day,” said Brinton.

Friday parts of Rock Creed Road, Saxton Easton Road, Mitchell Road, Kemmer Road, 112th Road off of 36 Highway and Picket Road south of 36 Highway were closed due to high waters in the Platte River.

“We know where the flooding areas are so we’ll have road closed signs at both ends of the road,” he said. “Every time we have a road closed there’s at least two signs to keep people from going either direction on the road.”

County officials are expected to evaluate the roads Monday in an attempt to once again, reopen them.

“We just ask people not to drive around our barricades and certainly don’t drive into any standing water,” Brinton said. “We just ask people to be safe and not to become victims of a water rescue or possibly even drown.”

Thousands of people will turn-out in Atchison, Kan. as the Amelia Earhart Festival continues.

Festivities kicked off Friday at Warnock Lake with Lakefest. Jacque Pregont with the Atchison Chamber said activities will continue all day Saturday with something for everyone.

“We won’t be done until dark with the fireworks show,” Pregont said. “We have a craft fair downtown which is sold out this year so that means there’s lots of crafts if you’re interested in hand-made items. We have a stage of entertainment in the middle of that craft show, we also have a whole block of things that we do just for kids.”

The agenda for Saturday includes a 2K/8K Fun Run-Walk starting at 7:30 a.m. There’s also a Fly-In at Amelia Earhart Airport from 8 a.m. to noon which includes a pancake breakfast, or if you’d prefer at 9 a.m. Breakfast with the Books is being held at the Atchison Public Library where participants can hear authors discuss Amelia and her impact. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 223 North Terrace. Adults $5, Kids 12 and under $1 for admission.

Pregont said an awards luncheon will be held at 12:30 p.m. at Benedictine College to honor a woman for her Pioneering Achievement.

“We say it’s kind of the heart of the festival it’s kind of what makes us a little bit different,” she said. “We give an award every year to a woman who we think exemplifies the spirit of Amelia Earhart.”

This year’s award winner is Sophia Danenberg. She is the first African American and the first black woman from anywhere to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. She reached the top of the world on May 19, 2006. The chamber said she’s one of only 2,500 who have made that climb since 1953.

Tickets to the Achievement Award Luncheon are $15.

At 1 p.m. the Atchison County Raceway will start its Powder Puff Mini Van Derby followed by the annual Trailer Smash event.

Pregont said because of the extremely hot conditions in the forecast she thinks turnout during the day in downtown Atchison will be less than in years past.

“We expect anywhere between, 5 or 6,000 people during the day,” she said. “It all depends on the weather.”

Music on the Riverfront will kick off at 4:30 and run until 11:30 p.m.  An evening aerobatic performance is st to take place at 7:55 p.m. with Michael Vaknin in her Extra 300 and Susan Dacy in her Big Red Stearman.

Any finally to wrap the day up the “Concert in the Sky” fireworks show will draw crowds to the banks of the Missouri River.

“We have had helicopters tell us there’s probably 30,000 people on the riverfront to watch the fireworks,” Pregont said. “The music is simulcast over speakers up and down the river.  So it truly is a concert in the sky.”

To see the full schedule of events CLICK HERE.

A St. Joseph man has been charged in connection with a Thursday afternoon shooting that sent another St. Joseph man to the hospital with serious injuries.

24-year-old Michael Dennis is charged with first-degree Assault.

According to the probable cause statement signed by St. Joseph Police Officer Chris Davis Dennis shot the other man twice.

“According to eye witness statements, and a statement from the defendant, on 7-16-2015 the defendant committed Assault by firing a pistol striking the victim AGJ twice causing serious physical injury, requiring hospitalization,” Davis said.

As we previously reported, police responded to the 100 block of S. 19th St. around 4 p.m. Thursday to find a man in his 20s with gunshot wounds.

Commander Eric Protzman said about an hour later a person of interest was taken into custody by the Missouri State Highway Patrol at La Petite Academy.

Dennis has a prior criminal record for drug possession, failure to appear, disorderly conduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

An arraignment is set for Tuesday.

A Kansas man has been sentenced to spend 15 years behind bars in the beating death of William Howard Paige in 2014.

Timothy D. Osborne, 50, of Atchison was sentenced Friday to serve 15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for a Class B. Felony of Voluntary Manslaughter in connection with the death of Paige. That’s the maximum penalty.

Paige was reported missing by family members which led to the St. Joseph Police Department to investigate and discover his partially decomposed body on May 15, 2014 in the wooded area surrounding Wyeth Hill in St. Joseph.

According to court documents witnesses reported that on or around the evening of April 18th, 2014 Osborne and Paige got into an argument and Osborne allegedly struck Paige multiple times.

It wasn’t until March of this year that a charge was filed against Osborne and an arrest was made.  In May, he pleaded guilty to the charge.