Updated at 5:35 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20 A Douglas County jury on Thursday acquitted a defendant who claimed that he had pulled a handgun at a gas station last year in self-defense because he feared that another store patron was going to kill him. The jury of six men and six women listened to evidence over two days and returned two not-guilty verdicts within about two and a half hours. The defendant, Jason ...
Updated at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20 About an hour after a jury began deliberating a Douglas County aggravated assault case, the parties were called back into the courtroom over what appeared to be a grave matter. Judge Stacey Donovan did not publicly disclose what the issue was, but it appeared to be about the jury and could therefore have potentially led to a mistrial, based on statements overheard in the ...
A witness told a Douglas County jury that his simple failure to return a stranger's nod at a gas station led to the stranger angrily pulling a gun on him, but a defense attorney told jurors that the armed man was clearly acting in self-defense and that it was the unarmed man who should be on trial. Jurors will soon decide which version of events they believe in the case of 50-year-old defendant Jason Keesee, ...
Updated at 5:10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, 2026 A dull and dingy wall in downtown Lawrence is now colorful and inviting, thanks to local Girl Scouts who spent a good part of the past year planning and painting a mural at the site. Troop 2856 gathered Sunday to officially unveil their contribution to Lawrence's cityscape: a large wall painting depicting a number of Kansas animals that are, or could become, ...
Updated at 5:42 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, 2026 A Douglas County judge on Monday granted a Lawrence transgender woman the temporary restoration of her driver's license after the State of Kansas invalidated it earlier this year under a controversial anti-trans law known as SB 244. "We're pleased with the judge's ruling," the woman's attorney, David Brown, told the Journal-World, hopeful that the temporary order ...
The multimillion-dollar, 158,000-square-foot addition to Douglas County's Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is coming to life as court offices have steadily migrated from the older part of the building in recent weeks. People who have courtroom business will notice quite a few changes as they step into the bigger, brighter rooms in what's now known as the "tower" south of, but still connected to, the older ...