By ROXANA HEGEMAN

LEAVENWORTH COUNTY (AP) — A Kansas judge who blamed two teenage girls for a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man spent nearly a decade on the bench overseeing mostly sealed juvenile and child-in-need-of-care cases behind closed doors before taking over the adult criminal cases for a retiring judge last summer.

Since then, Leavenworth County Judge Michael Gibbens’ rulings have drawn more scrutiny and criticism, including his widely panned decision in December in a sex abuse case during which he eased a man’s sentence after saying the victims, ages 13 and 14, were “more an aggressor than a participant.”

It was not the first time Gibbens has substantially departed from Kansas sentencing guidelines in handing down lenient punishments, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press. In July, he sentenced a man to probation for battery of a law enforcement officer. In November, he gave another man probation for bringing contraband into a state prison.

Because Gibbens has not been handling adult cases for long, it’s unclear how he compares with his colleagues on the bench when it comes to following sentencing guidelines. An analysis by the Kansas Sentencing Commission found that state judges handed down sentences within the guideline range in 79 percent of cases in 2017, a number consistent with the prior two years.

Gibbens did not return a call at his court office seeking comment for this story.

Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said his department was “sort of disappointed” with the probationary sentence Gibbens gave 19-year-old De’Aire McNeal in July for pushing Officer Sarah Moreno when she was attempting to arrest him, causing the officer to suffer a concussion after she was knocked down a flight of stairs.

“We always wish sentencing and punishment for assaulting police officers should be much more severe,” Kitchens said.

In a journal entry of judgment, the judge cited McNeal’s age, an expert’s psychological report, and the availability of treatment as “compelling reasons” for his departure from Kansas sentencing guidelines of 12 to 14 months.

Kitchens demurred when asked whether Gibbens has a history of giving lenient sentences to defendants: “I don’t think we have a full sense, a fair opportunity to make that evaluation.”

Democratic former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed Gibbens to the bench in 2008. Like many of Kansas’ district court judges, he is periodically listed on the ballot for retention. Gibbens was up for retention last year and won’t be on the ballot again until 2022.

Kansas voters typically have little information to draw upon when deciding whether to retain a trial judge. A judicial evaluation program that once surveyed attorneys, non-attorneys and appellate judges to come up with individualized ratings for Kansas judges lost its funding in 2011 and was officially discontinued in 2013, Christy Molzen, staff attorney for the Kansas Judicial Council, said in an email. Its only report on Gibbens showed that 93 percent of attorneys and 90 percent of non-attorneys recommended that Gibbens be retained in 2010.

Gibbens also has not faced any disciplinary actions from the Commission on Judicial Qualifications, which reviews complaints against judges to determine whether they have violated the code of judicial conduct. Complaints are confidential, but disciplinary actions are posted on the commission’s website.

Another case where Gibbens diverged from sentencing guidelines involved Charles Newsome, who admitted to bringing marijuana, synthetic marijuana and tobacco into the Lansing Correctional Facility. Gibbens gave Newsome probation despite a plea agreement in which the prosecution and defense had agreed to what was already a below-guideline sentence of two years, according to court documents. The sentencing guidelines called for about four years in prison.

In explaining his decision, Gibbens wrote that the contraband was not weapons or hard drugs; the crime was nonviolent; and “community safety interests are better served” by placing Newsome on probation in conjunction with drug treatment. The judge also cited the increasing population of prisons.

Asked how local attorneys view Gibbens, defense attorney Joseph Osborn, who represented Newsome, said the judge “generally has a decent reputation in this county.” But Osborn said it would be inappropriate for him to offer his own opinion, noting he practices in front of Gibbens.

None of the judge’s cases have generated the scrutiny as that of Raymond Soden. Gibbens sentenced Soden in Decemberto five years, 10 months in prison for soliciting a 13-year-old on Facebook — eight years less than what’s called for in sentencing guidelines.

Gibbens said the teens had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and taken money for sexual favors. He also questioned the level of harm the victims suffered because they didn’t appear at the sentencing hearing.

The Kansas City Star, which first reported the judge’s comments after obtaining a transcript, wrote in an editorialthat Gibbens “made a serious mistake” and should resign.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Free State High School student who left a hunting gun in his car in the school parking lot will not face charges.

The Douglas County District Attorney’s Office said Friday no charges would be filed because the student didn’t intend to commit a crime. Trial assistant Dorothy Kliem said the investigation found the student forgot the weapon was in his vehicle after a hunting trip.

The unloaded gun was discovered under the seat of the student’s vehicle in September.

School district officials said the weapon never left the vehicle.

A student at Lawrence High School was arrested Wednesday after a handgun was allegedly discovered in his backpack. That was fourth time in the past year that a gun was reported in possession of a student at a Lawrence high school.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A 32-year-old man is charged in the theft of 40 impounded Bird scooters from the University of Missouri campus.

Anthony Hamilton, of Columbia, is charged with first-degree trespassing and second-degree property damage.

Campus police on Thursday stopped Hamilton on a routine traffic stop and recognized him as someone who was considered a suspect in the scooter theft.

The scooters were stolen from a campus storage area during Christmas break in December.

Online court records do not name an attorney for Hamilton.

IBERIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman has been charged in the poisoning death of her husband whose body was found after an arson fire at the couple’s home.

Miller County authorities announced Friday that 40-year-old Amy Murray, of Iberia, has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of her husband, Joshua Murray. No attorney is listed for her in online court records. Bond is set at $750,000.

His body was found after the fire on Dec. 11. The State Fire Marshall’s Office and the Miller County Sheriff’s Department determined that an accelerant was used to start the fire in the master bedroom. An autopsy determined that he died of poisoning before the blaze.

By MARISSA VENTRELLI
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — The Kansas House of Representatives discussed the removal of an amendment to House Bill 2079 on Wednesday, which currently states that spouses are exempt from being charged with sexual battery in the state of Kansas.

The amendment is sponsored by Rep. Brett Parker (D-29th), who expressed a need for explanation on the difference between sexual battery and rape as well as highlighting the difficulties within the legal community when it comes to defining consent. It comes at a time when there are more and more victims of sexual assault that are deciding to take justice into their own hands and tell their stories via movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up.

Sexual battery, which is defined in the bill as “the touching of a victim who is 16 or more years of age and who does not consent thereto,” is not the same as rape or sexual assault, nor is it the same as aggravated battery, the latter of which is defined in the bill as sexual battery in which the victim is overcome by force or fear, or is physically powerless.

In fact, the relationship between victim and abuser is irrelevant in just about every offense except for sex crimes. It is important to note that the spousal exemption for the statute of rape was removed from legislation in 1975, but remains in place for sexual battery. This “outdated and unnecessary language,” as Parker described it, needs to be removed because he believes that “marriage should not absolve offenders of guilt nor deprive victims of justice.” The bill is widely supported by members of the House, however there were a few requests for clarification in regards to more ambiguous situations and a concern that a spouse may invent an accusation to seek revenge when they are angry at their significant other. Research shows, however, that false accusations of assault are extremely rare. According to the National Sexual Violence Research Center, between two and 10 percent of sexual crimes are falsely reported.

Michelle McCormick, program director for the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment in Topeka, which provides services and support for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, stated in her written testimony that one in three women have experienced sexual violence by a partner. She wrote that she was “stunned” to learn that the current law doesn’t protect married individuals from sexually abusive spouses and believes that keeping the law the way it is only reinforces “a deeply flawed and antiquated cultural norm indicating that consent is implied by the act of marriage, and that spouses do not retain agency over their own bodies.”

Rep. Kellie Warren (R-28th), was the first to question the legal definition of consent, and was curious as to how other states have handled this situation. Although marital rape is illegal in all 50 states, the laws become hazier when it comes to sexual battery. Sara Rust-Martin, legal and policy director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence in Topeka, mentioned affirmative consent, which is defined as explicit, informed and voluntary agreement in regards to a sexual act. This is the most widely accepted and most valid form of consent, however it is not a term widely known by the general population.

Rep. Dennis “Boog” Highberger (D-46th) asked about situations involving sexual battery between unmarried people who have been living together for an extended period of time. Parker and Rust-Martin agreed that this situation is no different than that for married couples. The main objective of this amendment, according to Parker, was to clarify that being married does not mean that a person can take advantage of their spouse and get away with it simply under the pretense that they’re husband and wife.

The amendment will be discussed further in the coming week as representatives confer over remaining technicalities including the definition of consent.

Marissa Ventrelli is a University of Kansas senior from Chicago majoring in journalism.

JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for an alleged violent attack on a family member.

On Wednesday evening, police were called to a residence on Gregory Lane in Raytown, according to court records reported in a media release from police.

Callers had informed police dispatch that 29-year-old Christopher J. Wilson had stabbed his father with a sword.

The first officer on scene encountered a man leaving the residence. He had a knife in his hand. The officer also observed a sword on the front porch.

A woman inside yelled, “He stabbed him.” Police took Wilson into custody, and an older man was found in the kitchen on the floor in a pool of blood. Responding officers provided immediate care to the victim and applied tourniquets to try to stop the bleeding.

The victim told police that his son pushed him to the floor and stabbed him. The victim’s wife also described the attack.

Responding officers provided immediate care to the victim and applied tourniquets to try to stop the bleeding.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Thursday that  Wilson faces Assault 1st Degree and Armed Criminal Action charges, according to the release. He remains jailed on a $50,000 bond.

 

ST. LOUIS (AP) — With final puffs of steamy breath coming from its slightly tusked snout, the second boar collapsed at the edge of the trap, right next to the other.

Two fewer targets in Missouri’s fight against invasive feral hogs.

Felled by well-placed gunshots, together the two formed a hairy black heap of perhaps 400 pounds or more — animals that, before meeting their demise, were destructive outsiders among the surrounding patches of farmland and thick Ozark forests.

But the scene that unfolded recently on Jerry Richards’ farm in remote Washington County, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis, represents an all-too-elusive payout for the property owners and government officials working to contain the introduced species.

In recent years, feral hogs have been a growing problem in Missouri — causing damage to property and farms, competing with native species, and harboring diseases that could threaten domesticated pigs. But the on-the-ground fight to control them is an unforgiving scramble against their smarts, their prolific ability to multiply, and the people who introduce them to the state.

It’s hard enough to simply keep the population at bay, let alone dent it, explains Tom Meister, a wildlife damage biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation and the lead coordinator of hog control efforts across an 18-county area that includes the St. Louis region.

Female hogs, or sows, can have three litters per year and start breeding at just 6 months old. “Studies show that you need to kill 80 percent of them just to maintain the population,” Meister said.

He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes the hog population in Missouri is higher than ever, with the species largely found south of Interstate 44 and especially prevalent in southeast Missouri. And even though the MDC reports that more than 9,300 feral hogs were killed in the state last year — a more than 40 percent jump from the 6,500 killed in 2017 — it’s difficult to gauge whether control efforts are working to reverse the tide.

“I’d like to think there’s a significant impact, but there’s no way to tell for sure,” Meister said.

The fight is spearheaded by individual landowners who partner with MDC officials and partner agencies, such as a team of about 20 hog-trapping specialists who work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“They’ve got trappers that are ganging up on these counties and these hot spots,” said Meister, discussing the USDA’s involvement.

“These feral hogs have so many nasty diseases,” he added, rattling off brucellosis, pseudorabies and trichinosis as examples commonly carried by feral swine. “If they got to the domestic livestock, it’d be huge. And they don’t want that to happen, so that’s why they got involved.”

Although feral hogs are a nuisance throughout the southern U.S., that’s not where Missouri’s population is coming from, Meister said.

“They’re definitely not migrating,” he said. “They’re either escapees or purposely released.”

Therein lies one of the biggest complications in the battle to control the species: the simultaneous, and perhaps harder-to-wage fight against individuals from whom the problem originates.

Meister explains that some people have deliberately released hogs “to sell hunts,” while other animals have escaped from private game farms.

He even recalls seeing billboards along I-44 in recent years advertising hog hunts. But even though escapees are likely at the root of the state’s feral hog problem, there’s little that officials can do to prevent that kind of behavior, Meister said.

“Basically, you can do what you want on your own private land,” he said.

Where officials like Meister and MDC’s “feral hog strike team” can make strides is through trapping — not hunting — sounders, or groups, of the hogs.

The distinction is key.

“If you kill one or two, then that may break the sounder up, and then you’ve got two groups,” said Jeromy Boze, an MDC wildlife crew leader and strike team member, explaining why the agency doesn’t want to allow or encourage hunting.

Trapping, though, faces its own challenges. Fail to catch a whole group, and even a couple loose hogs can mean a continued problem — plus they’re smart enough to learn from the experience.

“You’re hoping to catch the whole sounder. Because they breed like rabbits,” Boze said. “If you have one escape a trap, I’m not sure you’d ever get them in the same style trap again.”

Drop traps — circular units of metal fencing that, when triggered, fall and surround bait-eating hogs from above — represent the latest method of choice at the MDC.

“The thinking goes that the hogs don’t see them because they don’t have any overhead predators,” Meister said. “They’ll be looking at the corn (spread on the ground, as bait), not at the trap.”

Other traps can be used, such as on-the-ground corral traps with gates that drop like a guillotine.

On a recent January day, Meister, Boze and a crew of MDC employees set up traps on the property of private landowners affected by hog damage — often in the form of massive divots made by hogs as they root through the ground.

One trap went to Richards, a teacher who farms and raises cattle on 515 acres almost entirely surrounded by the Mark Twain National Forest. With few people and roads around, Meister said it’s the type of area hogs like, and Richards’ land has patches of fresh hog damage to prove it.

“I discovered that I had a problem in mid-December,” said Richards. “I knew the problem was coming up this direction. … It was just one of those things that hadn’t hit me.”

While hog damage can take a toll on pasture land, Richards worries that it could prove costly if it hurts his hay equipment in warmer months.

“It’s like if someone left mounds of dirt in your yard and you’re trying to go through with your mower,” Richards said. “Then you get big rocks where you’re trying to get your cutters through.”

The trap on Richards’ land was set up next to a spot of new, intense damage. On one side near the center of the trap, generous amounts of cracked corn were poured on the ground as bait. Table scraps and even the remains of other hogs can also be used to lure them in. Less bait was sprinkled on the trigger side of the trap, in the hope that an entire sounder would be gorging themselves by the time one of its members bumped the trigger on the less desirable side of the buffet.

Not far away, another trap was set up on Bob Scanlon’s land, where deep ruts from hogs prevented a large chunk of field from being used for hay production.

“We only hayed maybe a third of it this year,” said Scanlon, estimating that the loss on that field alone cost him about 40 bales — a total he said, at around $50 each, would amount to a couple thousand dollars.

Patience is key to catching hogs — even in places like Richards’ farm that appear to be “hot” with activity. The wait can pay off handsomely, at times.

Meister said they’ve caught individual hogs weighing up to 500 pounds. And one time, 24 hogs were caught in a single trap.

“He had so many, they ran out of ammo,” said Meister, adding that the landowner needed to go borrow ammunition from the neighbors.

On certain occasions, hog control is a job for marksmen in a helicopter. Those aerial hog hunts are carried out in the winter — when there are no leaves on the trees, nor hunters out for deer season.

“We will only do that if we know there’s a bunch,” Meister said.

What happens to the wild hogs after they are captured is up to the landowners. Though there may be interest in eating them, their lack of fat means it’s not always the tasty pork-like delicacy that many may envision — especially with bigger, older hogs that get tougher with age.

Though he has eaten plenty of it since, Meister recounts the rude introduction he received to feral hog meat.

“I’m serious, I had to throw the frying pan away,” he said. “It was this dry, nasty, gamey meat.”

But the state can’t eat its way to eradication, especially with control efforts undermined by the promotion of commercial hog hunting.

Meister said the desire to hunt them might have been stoked by television.

“For a while, these hog-hunting shows were really popular,” said Meister, who thinks they succeeded in “glamorizing it and making it look like it was the coolest thing.”

Instead, he said, hog hunting has a strong, negative effect on the outdoors — not just for property owners, but for popular game species such as deer and turkeys.

“The impact that they have on the other wildlife is so detrimental,” Meister said. Although hogs primarily eat acorns, they’re opportunists that will consume just about anything. “They’re eating fawns, they’re eating turkey eggs. Anything on the ground, they’re eating it.”

Meister sees improvement in getting the public to buy into the MDC’s strategy of targeting hogs through trapping instead of hunting. While it can seem counterintuitive to some, Meister said sentiment is “coming around” and getting better each year.

Back on Richards’ farm recently, the two boars were loaded onto the bed of a pickup, destined for a local resident who wanted the meat.

Catching two grown males together is unusual, said Greg Turnbough, a member of the MDC strike team who lives nearby and responded to the scene.

“I think this cold snap has just got them out looking for food,” he said.

After a few weeks of waiting, Richards was glad to finally have something to show for the trap.

“I was hoping to get something, because, my God, they tear a lot of stuff up,” he said.

More could be on the way. The trap was reset, with new corn and some pelleted cattle feed joining the bloodstains inside of it — another ingredient that could coax hogs in.

“They’ll eat each other,” said James Grimm, another strike team member. “A little blood might make them want to come back.”

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