Despite the injustice brought upon him and his family by crooked law enforcement, prosecutors and media three decades ago, Yusef Salaam delivered a hopeful and empowering message to a packed auditorium Saturday night at the Kansas Union. Salaam, one of the “Exonerated Five” formerly dubbed the “Central Park Five,” had his young life upended when he and four friends, all boys of color between ages 14 ...
A Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced Friday to three years of probation in connection with a July 2019 Baldwin City home burglary. Kylan R. Newman, 21, was initially charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. On Dec. 30, he pleaded no contest and was convicted of attempted aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, according to ...
After his office was the subject of “controversy” in the fall, as he put it, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson has plans to change how sexual assault cases are investigated and prosecuted in this jurisdiction. Branson’s initiative includes trauma-informed training for area law enforcement and prosecutors, aligning policies to be consistent across agencies, a task force and annual ...
Even if criminal convictions don’t result in life sentences, they can still affect people for the rest of their lives. It’s possible to get your criminal record expunged on your own, but it’s not necessarily easy. “Sometimes the practice of law is complicated, and you have to do everything correctly,” Chief Assistant Douglas County District Attorney C.J. Rieg said. “You have to give notice to ...
Updated at 4:30 p.m. Monday: After the Kansas City Chiefs came back from a double-digit deficit to stun the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth quarter Sunday night and become Super Bowl champions, Massachusetts Street erupted into a “large, but relatively peaceful” celebration, Lawrence police said Monday. There was damage to the front of a business in the 800 block of Massachusetts Street and to the ...
A long-pending Lawrence murder case will remain in that state a bit longer as a judge on Monday agreed to order further forensic testing that could be pivotal for the case. Rontarus Washington Jr., 23, has been in custody since January 2015. He is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated burglary in connection with the Nov. 7, 2014, death of 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso. A trial in the Douglas ...