A Eudora man who was originally charged with raping a woman after a party at his home last year pleaded no contest on Monday in Douglas County District Court to two counts of aggravated battery.
The man, Derek Sean Conner, 34, had faced one count of rape, a level one felony, in connection with an incident on Jan. 23, 2022, when a 26-year-old woman claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was incapable of ...
In 1975, Hercule Poirot’s obituary was published on the front page of The New York Times — an impressive feat for someone who had never actually been alive, but perhaps not as impressive as his ingenious detective work in “Murder on the Orient Express.”
Poirot’s sleuthing coup in the 1934 novel is still a fan favorite among the dozens of Agatha Christie tales that featured the cerebral Belgian ...
Updated at 2:18 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023
The attorney who filed a lawsuit for wrongful incarceration on behalf of Rontarus Washington Jr. against Douglas County and other defendants has acknowledged that a major factual claim in his lawsuit is wrong — namely that a homicide victim's estranged husband was arrested and charged in the case. That claim is false.
Attorney Larry G. Michel acknowledged in an ...
The name of a Lawrence woman who was accused of killing a baby at a Eudora day care and who underwent a yearslong ordeal maintaining her innocence has been added to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Carrody Buchhorn, whose long-running murder case was recently dropped by the Douglas County District Attorney's Office for lack of evidence, told the Journal-World Wednesday evening that she was "so happy" to ...
Updated at 4:50 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023
A student is in custody and hundreds of middle school students are grappling with the ordeal of having been evacuated from their Lawrence school Thursday after it was the target of a bomb threat.
The events — which ultimately turned up no explosive device — unfolded Thursday morning at West Middle School, 2700 Harvard Road, after a report of a written threat ...
Long before the Trump administration gave rise to the phrases “fake news” and “alternative facts,” the squishy — and often satiric — concepts of “truthiness” and “my truth” were adrift in the culture, denoting the quality of appearing to be true, or feeling true, while not necessarily being objective fact.
And long before those notions, there were truths that were famously held to be ...
If you happened to sense that the area around Lawrence City Hall seems different lately, it’s probably because four large trees on East Sixth Street have recently been cut down, leaving the plaza area and lawn looking unusually naked, even for winter.
The largest of the trees, a pin oak that soared to the roofline of the four-story government building, is probably the most noticeable absence. The tree, which ...
An upcoming event aims to put the art of barbering on display, and local barber Jermaine Jackson is expecting folks from around the region to show up with their scissors, clippers and a competitive spirit.
The barbering contest, sponsored by Lawrence Magazine, eXplore Lawrence and Watson’s Barbershop, where Jackson works, is slated for 3 to 8 p.m. Feb. 5 at Venue 1235, 1235 N. Third St. in North ...
No one should face a difficult or complex experience alone — especially when a segment of society insists on attaching stigma to that experience and even legislating against it.
That’s the simple message of a group of moms who started a local PFLAG chapter — which Lawrence, surprisingly, has lacked even though the organization is in its 50th year. These moms know firsthand how crucial, even life-saving, ...
Mary Cowdin stood outside a Douglas County courtroom in mid-December, waiting to learn the fate of a man who had been charged in connection with the death of her daughter Angelyca.
Angelyca was the 23-year-old’s real name, but, as her best friend, Raven Wilson, noted, no one ever called her that.
“Because to us she was Angel,” Wilson said, even though they often joked about how she was no real angel, ...
Ollie Ortiz would have celebrated his seventh birthday this month, and if Carrody Buchhorn could talk to his parents, she would tell them that she is not the reason their baby is gone.
"I really want them to know that I absolutely did nothing to hurt Ollie and I loved him and I still love him," she told the Journal-World Monday, three days after a murder case against her was dismissed and she was freed from ...
A Douglas County District Court judge has dismissed the case of a woman who was accused of killing a baby six years ago at a Eudora day care center where she worked and has ordered the woman released from custody.
In its order Friday, the court cited the failure of the Douglas County District Attorney's Office, in the murder case of Carrody Buchhorn, to find a forensic pathologist in a timely manner who could ...
In response to concerns expressed by people living at the North Lawrence campsite for those experiencing homelessness, the City of Lawrence is admitting that it "erred" in announcing the imminent closure of the camp and is committing to leaving the site open through March 12, 2023.
The city, in a news release, reversed course Wednesday after dozens of people showed up to Tuesday's City Commission meeting to ...
In addition to fighting crime, Lawrence’s police dogs also help raise money for charity. On Sunday, they did so in a particularly colorful and gleeful way, by making art.
The three patrol service dogs for the Lawrence Police Department — Mack, Shadow and Cheeseburger — each created a painting that will be auctioned off to benefit a group that's looking out for their interests: a nonprofit that provides ...
In a rare display of atonement — and an apparent first of its kind in Lawrence — two young men on Saturday publicly apologized at the scene of their crime.
Their offense, which in previous generations might have been callously dismissed as a college-boy prank, deeply affected the University of Kansas’ Indigenous community — not the least because the sign they stole from KU’s Spencer Museum of Art was ...
In May of last year, the Lawrence Police Department warned the community about a potent drug that was killing area residents.
It was not the usual “stay away from drugs” message directed at teens, but something far more urgent and directed at everyone: “About three to five grains of table salt — that’s the potential fatal dose of fentanyl for an adult,” a department news release stated. “We’re ...
Democratic lawmaker Dennis “Boog” Highberger, of Lawrence, does not intend to seek another term in the Kansas Legislature after his current term expires, he told the Journal-World Wednesday.
Highberger, who recently won reelection — unopposed — to the 46th District in the Kansas House of Representatives, was first elected to that body in 2015, taking over the seat vacated by Paul Davis, who chose to ...
A woman who has been charged with setting multiple fires at North Lawrence businesses — one of which reportedly caused more than $1 million in damage — just days earlier was responsible for a serious structure fire at a west Lawrence business, according to a newly released affidavit in the case.
On the morning of Nov. 13, according to the affidavit, which details probable cause for her arrest, Abie ...
When Maggie Shermoen graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in theater, she figured on moving to New York to try her hand at professional acting.
Shermoen had lived and breathed the stage from a young age — one might almost say from conception, considering her musical-loving parents met while performing in a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.”
But just as she was ...
A Topeka man was arrested Thursday evening in eastern Lawrence after he allegedly stole a woman's cellphone by force and injured a person who was attempting to help the woman.
The man, Anthony Duane Harris, 56, was arrested early on Thanksgiving evening in the 1600 block of Haskell Avenue on suspicion of robbery, aggravated assault and battery.
According to Laura McCabe, a spokesperson for the Lawrence Police ...
