A Douglas County judge on Wednesday ordered a convicted rapist to spend the next two decades of his life in prison — rejecting his request for a significantly lighter sentence. Judge Stacey Donovan's ruling followed the victim's disturbing description of how the man had raped her in the bed where her children were sleeping. "I was crying, begging him to stop, and he didn't care," the woman said of ...
A Douglas County judge has ordered a competency evaluation for a man charged with fatally stabbing a 35-year-old Lawrence woman last summer. The public defender for Aaron Blake Wright filed a motion for the evaluation last week, and Judge Amy Hanley granted it on Wednesday. The evaluation is for the purpose of determining whether Wright is competent to stand trial — that is, whether he is able to understand ...
Updated at 12:19 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9 A Douglas County judge is considering whether a Kansas law that nullifies the rights of terminally ill, incapacitated pregnant women is constitutional. Three women and two doctors filed the civil lawsuit in May challenging the 46-year-old state statute known as the Kansas Natural Death Act. Judge Mark Simpson on Monday heard oral arguments in the state's motion to dismiss ...
In an unusual turn of events, a defendant has pleaded up, not down, in a criminal case, and on Tuesday he was given a year of probation and ordered to have no contact with his victims. It's not clear why the 36-year-old defendant, Brian Hutton, a former high school English teacher, pleaded guilty to a higher level crime than what he was originally charged with, but doing so evidently means that he will be able ...
Although Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis said earlier this year that his wife’s “transition director” position with his office would be temporary, she was still on his payroll a year after his election — a situation that the former deputy DA said has been bad for the office. Loomis initially declined over the summer to answer questions about his wife's expected end date, but, when pressed ...
A judge on Friday dismissed a felony gun charge against a Lawrence activist after the Douglas County District Attorney's Office failed to produce two witnesses for a probable cause hearing. The case involves Natasha Neal, a local activist who led the Massachusetts Street shutdown in the summer of 2020. Neal was charged in April of this year with criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling. The ...