A Douglas County judge on Friday denied a murder defendant's claim that he should be immune from prosecution based on self-defense.
The denial came in a nearly four-year-old case in which Rodney Marshall, 55, is accused of murdering two men in July 2022 and attempting to murder multiple police officers as he fled Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10.
Self-defense is the most recent of several explanations he has ...
Updated at 5:20 p.m. Friday, April 3
A Free State High School student who will graduate next month was convicted on Thursday of taking and sharing a nude photo of a special needs student at the school last year.
In a deal with the state, the teen pleaded no contest in Douglas County District Court to the Class A misdemeanor of unlawful transmission of a visual depiction of a child. He had originally been ...
Updated at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 31
Five years ago, the City of Lawrence adopted an ordinance banning so-called conversion therapy, but on Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in a Colorado case that such bans violate the U.S. Constitution.
Conversion therapy generally aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Usually it takes the form of "converting" a gay person into one ...
A Douglas County judge has ordered that more documents pertaining to arrests be entirely kept from public view.
Judge Stacey Donovan in recent days has completely sealed the arrest affidavits in two criminal cases after having also recently completely sealed the affidavit for a man accused of killing a local actor and a man accused of assaulting a woman with a baseball bat.
Under state law, judges have the ...
What happened to Oliver Ortiz's heart after he died at a Eudora day care nearly a decade ago?
The answer to that question — especially as informed by a document that recently came to light — could play a significant role in the pending wrongful conviction action brought by the woman who was accused of killing him.
Oliver's mother, Kaylen Ortiz, testified last fall that her 9-month-old son's heart valves ...
A 40-year-old felon who was accused in a Lawrence woman's fentanyl death in 2022 is back in jail this week facing a new felony drug charge along with several misdemeanors.
William Martin Byrd, of Lawrence, was arrested late Wednesday morning at his home and charged the next day with possession of methamphetamine, two misdemeanor counts of domestic battery and one misdemeanor count of criminal damage to ...
