Red Cross honors boy for rescue at pool

Josiah Asberry, 12, was awarded the Red Cross Certificate of Recognition Monday for saving 5-year-old Jordan Seiger, in background, from drowning last month in the deep end at the Lawrence Aquatic Center.

Jordan, who can’t swim, was at the pool with his Boys and Girls Club group when he jumped off a diving board. Josiah was at the pool with the South Park Summer Playground program and saw Jordan in the water while waiting in line at a diving board.

“I saw him paddling weird and he wasn’t really going anywhere, so I jumped in and got him,” Josiah said last month. “I’m not really a hero; I was just helping someone in distress.”

Courts

Supreme Court justice gets call for jury duty

A Kansas Supreme Court Justice who lives in Lawrence was scheduled to report for jury duty Monday at Douglas County District Court.

But as it turned out, Robert Gernon got a last-minute reprieve. He learned Sunday night by calling a jury hot line that he wouldn’t be required to show up Monday.

“I did not have to report (Monday) morning, but I have to call in (today) to see if I have to report Wednesday morning,” said Gernon, 59, who was appointed to the high court in December. “I was real excited about it, and I think it would be a great thing for judges … to be able to look at the system from the inside out as every other juror would look at it.”

Josiah Asberry, 12, was awarded the Red Cross Certificate of Recognition Monday for saving 5-year-old Jordan Seiger, in background, from drowning last month in the deep end at the Lawrence Aquatic Center.

Gernon said he likened the jury system to what happens inside an emergency room: People take its presence for granted but are entitled to good treatment from it if they ever happen to need it.

“We need … people who are willing to listen and have the courage to speak up and share their views. I would be excited to serve,” he said. “It may still happen, you know.”

Police

Lawrence driver reports false traffic stop

A Lawrence woman told police two men impersonating police officers tried to stop her car Saturday near the intersection of Harvard Road and Jana Drive.

About 11 a.m. she was driving to her home in the 1200 block of Jana Drive when, she told police, a car pulled in front of her. The passenger in the car was holding a red light out the window, she said.

A man walked to the car and asked to see her license, but she didn’t believe he was an officer and drove off, she told police.

Police have no suspects.

Kansas University

Former student leaves $200,000 to grad school

A former Kansas University student has bequeathed $200,000 to KU’s graduate school, a KU official announced Monday.

The gift is from Dorothy Clark Lettice, who died Nov. 9, 2002, in Santa Barbara, Calif. She attended KU with the class of 1925 but did not receive a degree.

She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma while at KU. After leaving the university, she lived in Lawrence and in Lansing, Mich., but spent most of her life in California.

The Dorothy Clark Lettice fund will provide graduate school scholarships, according to Diana Carlin, dean of the graduate school.