WRITER: Kim Callahan

Attorney's misrepresentation to judge leads to his ouster from attempted capital murder case on eve of trial

An attempted capital murder trial has been indefinitely delayed after a defense attorney made false representations to the court, leading to a sharp rebuke from the judge and a request from the defendant to get a new lawyer. The incident occurred Friday afternoon in the courtroom of Douglas County District Judge Stacey Donovan just three days before the trial of Junah Sisney was set to begin. Sisney, 23, is ...

Mother of baby who died at day care does not believe woman accused of murder was wrongfully convicted

Kaylen Ortiz believes that her baby boy was murdered nine years ago and that a day care employee was the killer. An expert witness' report that says Ortiz's 9-month-old died by natural causes has not changed Ortiz's mind. And she told a judge Thursday that it didn't change the mind of the person who hired the expert either: former Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez. Ortiz testified Thursday at the ...

'I am innocent,' woman accused of killing baby 9 years ago declares to packed courtroom

"Because I am innocent!" Carrody Buchhorn told a crowded Douglas County courtroom Wednesday when her attorney asked why she was there. "I want my certificate of innocence," she said, before emotionally describing how the police "had made everyone think" she had violently killed a 9-month-old boy. The falsehood, she said, had traumatically upended numerous lives, including her entire family's, for the better ...

Pathologist whose report led to Valdez dropping murder case testifies that baby died of natural causes, not abuse

Nine-month-old Oliver "Ollie" Ortiz died of natural causes, not child abuse: That's what a forensic pathologist hired by the Douglas County District Attorney's Office said almost three years ago, and that's what she said again in testimony Tuesday — in the process, heaping implicit scorn on the coroner's autopsy findings that said otherwise. Forensic pathologist Jane Turner's January 2023 report led then-DA ...

Woman accused in 2016 day care death aims to prove her innocence as wrongful conviction trial gets underway

Nine years after 9-month-old Oliver "Ollie" Ortiz died at a Eudora day care, the question of what killed him — natural causes or child abuse — remains legally unsettled, as does the innocence of the day care worker originally accused of murdering him. That woman, Carrody Buchhorn, is attempting to clear her name in a wrongful conviction trial — three years in the making — that finally began Monday ...

Theater community mourns area actor killed in highway accident after performance

The theater community is in mourning after an area actor was killed in a car crash Friday night after a performance in Lawrence. The 41-year-old actor, Louise ImMasche, of Kansas City, Missouri, has starred in numerous shows at Theatre Lawrence, including "White Christmas," "Little Shop of Horrors," “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "The Rocky Horror Show." ImMasche had ...