Local briefs

Sheriff’s department honors Shepard’s service

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department’s second in command finished a long career of service Friday.

Undersheriff Bill Shepard, shown above right with Sheriff Rick Trapp, retired after 20 years with the sheriff’s department. He said his favorite assignments included heading the drug enforcement unit and working as jail administrator.

“I’m happy for him, but I’m sad for us,” Trapp said Friday during a reception for Shepard at the Douglas County Judicial & Law Enforcement Center. “We’re losing a tremendous asset to the department. He’s a great leader.”

Trapp said he would name the new undersheriff next week.

State government: Panel finds no conflict for Praeger’s husband

Topeka — State ethics officials have decided that Dr. Mark Praeger can continue to serve as chairman of the Health Care Stabilization Fund Oversight Committee.

Praeger is the wife of state Sen. Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence, who will become state insurance commissioner on Jan. 13.

Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said Mark Praeger requested an advisory opinion to determine if his service on the board created a conflict of interest. The ethics commission ruled that there wasn’t.

The committee deals with medical malpractice and other insurance issues for health care providers.

Crime: Competency hearing for Boothe postponed

A hearing to determine the mental competency of Raymond Boothe, a Missouri man accused of stabbing his 11-year-old disabled son and leaving him to die in August on the Kansas Turnpike, was postponed Friday.

Boothe’s attorney, Gary Fuller, told Leavenworth County District Judge Frederick Stewart that an independent evaluation of Boothe’s competency had been completed but was not yet in writing.

Fuller sought an independent evaluation last month after Larned State Hospital declared Boothe, 34, competent to stand trial. Boothe is charged with first-degree murder.

Fuller said the independent evaluation would be submitted in time for the court’s Dec. 27 docket, during which a hearing on Boothe’s competency will be scheduled.