Two defendants rejected plea deals from the state to resolve charges of distributing heroin that led to a Lawrence woman’s death in 2018. Jessica Leigh Silkiner-Gallardo, 38, and Timothy Edward Thompson, 42, both of Lawrence, are each charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of distribution of heroin causing death, according to charging documents. The charges relate to an incident on ...
A Lawrence woman was ordered to stand trial on Tuesday for felony child abuse after the court reviewed a video taken by a foster child of alleged violence by the woman against another child. The woman, Patricia Anne Fisher, 54, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of child abuse by torturing or cruelly punishing a child and one misdemeanor count of violating a protective order, ...
A Lawrence man who called police for help removing suspicious vehicles from his neighborhood and then assaulted the responding officers pleaded no contest on Monday to felony and misdemeanor charges. Tiburcio Joe Reyes III, 39, was originally charged in Douglas County District Court with three felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer and one felony count of ...
A woman is alleged to have suffered multiple knife wounds, punches and being dragged across the floor by her hair, among other abuse over the course of a few months in 2021, according to several arrest affidavits, and the alleged abuser is expected to enter into a plea agreement. The defendant in the case, Yusaf Ali Austin, 50, of Lawrence, has been in custody for over two years in connection with the alleged ...
A former University of Kansas basketball player appeared Wednesday in Douglas County District Court in connection with an alleged rape at KU's McCarthy Hall. Arterio Demetrius Morris, 20, of Dallas, faces one felony count of rape, according to charging documents. The charge relates to an incident on Aug. 26 and involves an 18-year-old woman, who alleged that Morris violently assaulted her as she begged him to ...
More than 1,500 attorney-client privileged calls were recorded by the Douglas County Jail's phone system since 2010 due to human error, but only seven of those were ever accessed and they weren't listened to "in substance," according to an audit conducted by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. In a news release Wednesday, the sheriff's office said its audit found that 1,520 calls involving 22 attorneys had ...