Suspect arrested on charges of rape

A 39-year-old Horton man is in the Douglas County Jail on charges he broke into an east Lawrence home and raped a 21-year-old woman early Sunday.

Police found the man Sunday at Kwik Shop, 3440 W. Sixth St., and arrested him after an interview on suspicion of rape, aggravated burglary and sexual battery. The victim and suspect know each other, police said.

The man was formally charged Monday during a videoconference hearing in Douglas County District Court, where Judge Pro Tem Peggy Kittel set his bond at $50,000. He’ll be back in court Thursday to schedule a preliminary hearing.

Phone, ATM outages caused by cut cable

Thousands of telephones in Topeka and at least a few ATMs in Lawrence were back online Sunday after a temporary outage.

A construction crew working near Seventh and Jackson streets in Topeka cut a fiber-optic cable owned by Southwestern Bell around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

The cut severed phone service to about 4,300 SBC customers until the line was repaired about 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

The outage also affected several ATMs in Lawrence that routed their data to Topeka. Kim Gronniger, an SBC spokeswoman, said the company didn’t know how many ATMs were affected.

KU student treated after car hits tree

A Kansas University student was injured Monday afternoon when his car struck a tree along Naismith Drive near Allen Fieldhouse, according to the KU Department of Public Safety.

Ali Malik, 24, was taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released, a nursing supervisor said.

Malik was driving a 2002 Kia south on Naismith Drive when the car left the street and struck a tree near a service drive to the fieldhouse, Lt. Schuyler Bailey said. Investigators do not know why the car went out of control, he said.

Suspect arrested after library exposure

Kansas University police arrested a 27-year-old Leavenworth man Sunday night for allegedly exposing himself to a woman in the stacks at Watson Library.

Police were called to the library about 8:30 p.m. They found the man and arrested him there on suspicion of indecent exposure, Lt. Schuyler Bailey said.

The suspect was booked into Douglas County Jail and later released on a notice to appear Jan. 8 in municipal court.

Two suspects charged in armed robbery

Two men have been charged with the armed robbery of a Kansas University student nearly three months ago.

Byron M. Turner, 18, Lawrence, and Branden S. Walker, 18, Ottawa, each face one count of aggravated robbery in connection with the Sept. 21 incident outside The Hawk, 1340 Ohio. The 22-year-old victim said in an interview that he’d had too much to drink and was sitting on the ground with his head down when a man came up and pressed a gun against his head.

Police arrested both men after a tip from the Crime Stoppers hot line identified Turner as a suspect in a robbery Wednesday at Tobacco Express, 2104 W. 25th St.

Past VFW commander to visit Lawrence

Ray Sisk, past commander in chief of Veterans of Foreign Wars, will begin a tour of Kansas VFW posts today in Harper. Sisk will visit 26 Kansas cities in his five-day trip in the state.

He will be in Tonganoxie for lunch at 1:30 p.m. Friday at VFW Post No. 9271, 910 E. First St., and will arrive at Lawrence VFW Post No. 852, 138 Ala., at 3:15 p.m. Friday.

Sisk will discuss programs to help people serving in Iraq, such as Adopt-a-Unit and the Operation Uplift free phone-card initiative. He will also look at how VFW chapters support their communities.

Sisk was national commander in chief from 2002 to 2003.