Despite last-minute appeals for psychiatric help rather than punishment, the man who bilked merchants in three area counties by claiming he was heir to the French’s mustard fortune was sentenced to at least six years of imprisonment. District Judge Ralph King sentenced Rodney R. Moquin, 32, to two concurrent 3-10-year terms on two counts of felony theft by deception and three consecutive 1-5-year terms for writing bad checks. All the charges grew out of a late 1980 scam which saw Moquin claim his bogus connection to the R.T. French Co. and use that story to talk merchants in Douglas, Franklin and Osage counties out of property worth at least $25,000.

The number of registered voters in Lawrence and Douglas County rose only slightly when registration closed for the April city elections. The total number of Douglas County residents registered for the April 7 city commission and school board voting was 37,578, only two voters more than had been eligible for the March 10 primary. There were 29,469 registered voters in the city of Lawrence.