WRITER: Kim Callahan

Man originally charged in young woman's fentanyl death pleads no contest to lesser crime, gets 4 other felony cases dismissed as part of deal

A man who was originally charged in the overdose death of a young Lawrence woman entered a no contest plea Friday to the lesser crime of distributing a controlled substance. The plea deal that Mason Duane Robinson, 28, cut with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office also guaranteed that multiple other felony cases against him would be dismissed altogether. Robinson was originally charged with ...

Jury finds man not guilty in downtown murder case

Updated at 4:11 p.m. Thursday, April 25, 2024 A Douglas County jury on Thursday acquitted a transient man of murdering a blind Lawrence resident last summer in downtown Lawrence. The defendant, Chadwick Potter, 35, had faced a second-degree murder charge in the bludgeoning death of David Blaine Sullivan, 62. Sullivan’s body was found on July 12, 2023, beneath a clump of trees by the Kansas River bridge near ...

Video of murder suspect's interrogation shown; defense tries to cast doubt on police investigation; jury deliberating

Story updated at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 24: A transient man accused of beating a blind man to death in downtown Lawrence told police that he and the man peacefully smoked marijuana together on a July night last year and that he then left the man alive and well near the Kansas River bridge — a narrative that the state disputes with a collection of circumstantial evidence but that the defense has sought to ...

State disciplinary board recommends DA Valdez be censured for inappropriate conduct; special prosecutor had sought 1-year suspension

Updated at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday, April 23 Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez should be censured for unprofessional conduct toward a Douglas County judge, the state’s top panel for attorney discipline is recommending. A panel for the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys is recommending to the Kansas Supreme Court that Valdez be censured for “undignified or discourteous conduct” toward ...

The roguish ghost of John Barrymore takes the stage in Theatre Lawrence's 'I Hate Hamlet'

Shakespearean drama isn’t really Theatre Lawrence’s thing — don’t expect to see Lady Macbeth wringing her guilty hands in West Lawrence — but having fun with Shakespeare most certainly is. In the last few years, the community theater has produced “Something Rotten,” a musical farce centered on the bard, and “The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged),” a whirlwind romp through ...

West 11th Street's steep hill is undergoing a $4.2 million makeover, with just a little off the top

One of the steepest hills in Lawrence is about to become a little shorter. Not so you’d notice — just 4 or 5 feet — but you might appreciate that missing morsel if you’ve ever ridden a bicycle up West 11th Street and felt like your calves would explode. A $4.2 million project recently got underway on West 11th, one of the main routes between the University of Kansas campus and downtown, resulting in ...