Updated at 5:26 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, 2022: Douglas County District Court on Friday added its newest judge — the second addition in just a month. Catherine Theisen is one of two judges appointed this year by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to fill vacant positions in the county. One position was created by the Kansas Legislature, and the other became vacant after the retirement of Judge Kay Huff in July. ...
A Lawrence man was charged Friday in Douglas County District Court with multiple counts of sex crimes against a 7-year-old girl, according to court records. The man, Jason Edward Dallinga, 41, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child by engaging in lewd touching to satisfy a sexual desire, according to charging documents. The charges allege that the acts occurred between January ...
A KU aerospace engineering student who died in a car accident in central Kansas just days before Christmas was passionate about lab work and weightlifting and known for his uplifting personality, his mother told the Journal-World on Friday. "He was the hype guy," Ericka Lysell said of her son Grant Logan Lysell-Alkire. "I always teased him that he had an engineering brain but a social worker heart." On Dec. ...
Christmas has come and gone, but package theft is still a distressingly common occurrence, as one Lawrence resident learned this week. Alyssa Henry, a real estate photographer, ordered a tripod to use for work along with some birthday gifts for her mother, including a wall planter with three pots and a "Gilmore Girls" cookbook. She received a notification that her packages had arrived while she was at work ...
A Lawrence man pleaded no contest Wednesday in Douglas County District Court to intimidating a witness and possessing a firearm as part of a plea deal in which the state dismissed additional gun and theft charges. The man, Jordan Lee Morris, 36, entered the plea to resolve multiple cases he was facing. He was originally charged with two counts of felony defacing a firearm by removing the identification ...
A Douglas County District Court judge has declined to order law enforcement to comply with the district attorney’s new officer transparency policy. Judge Sally Pokorny in autumn found herself in the middle of a dispute between District Attorney Suzanne Valdez and Sheriff Jay Armbrister — two Democrats who were elected in 2020 — about Valdez’s Brady/Giglio policy. In a written ruling last week Pokorny ...