Story updated at 3:03 p.m. Monday, July 1:
The Douglas County district attorney says his office already has programs successfully diverting numerous simpler cases from court.
Taking those efforts to the next level won’t be as simple or cheap.
“We’re getting down to the hard cases,” District Attorney Charles Branson said.
Creating a drug court may be expensive and resource-heavy, but it’s a needed ...
A lawsuit brought by the family of a Eudora murder victim against his killer has been settled and dismissed.
According to Douglas County District Court records, the case was formally dismissed June 17. Defendant Danny W. Queen and plaintiff Scott Hopson jointly requested the dismissal after reaching a settlement in late April.
The terms of that settlement were not filed in court.
Hopson told the ...
A Lawrence man reportedly raped a woman who’d allowed him to stay at her house as she slept deeply from ingesting alcohol and sleeping pills, a police affidavit says.
Perry L. Oatis, 54, was arrested at the scene in the early morning hours of May 27, after the woman’s roommate saw him assaulting her and called police.
Oatis was charged the next day in Douglas County District Court with rape for allegedly ...
A man who got kicked out of a downtown Lawrence bar reportedly displayed a gun when he wasn’t allowed back in early Wednesday morning.
Lawrence police were dispatched to the Jazzhaus, 926 Massachusetts St., just after midnight for a reported disturbance with weapons, Sgt. Amy Rhoads said in an email.
The suspect had been removed from the business for a disturbance on the patio but then returned and tried to ...
Story updated: 4:50 p.m. Thursday, June 27, 2019.
A boy who brought a handgun to Lawrence High School in his backpack earlier this year was convicted Wednesday in Douglas County District Court.
After entering a plea of no contest, the boy was convicted as a juvenile for criminal use of a weapon, a misdemeanor, by Judge Bethany Roberts. Specifically, according to charges, he possessed a gun with a barrel less ...
Gunshots fired at a Lawrence apartment complex apparently sent a number of people running Tuesday night, but no one was hit.
The disturbance was reported just after 11:10 p.m. Tuesday in the 1000 block of West 24th Street.
Multiple callers reported hearing gunshots and seeing multiple people run into a nearby residence, Sgt. Amy Rhoads of the Lawrence Police Department said Wednesday in an email.
She said ...
