Updated at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday, May 14
“Sorry, I’m asleep; I don’t know what happened.”
That’s how a man says he responded to a woman who had just accused him of rape — and a defense expert told a Douglas County jury that the man was "likely" experiencing sexsomnia at the time.
Sexsomnia, as the witness, Dr. Clete Kushida, explained, is "unusual behavior that's sexually related during sleep," ...
In 2017 they were four young men on the cusp of adulthood, celebrating KU graduation at a weekend house party. "The whole gang" was there — drinking, smoking marijuana, barhopping, hanging out — with no inkling that by Sunday morning the house would become a crime scene and that eight years later, to the day, they’d be testifying in the case of a former friend accused of rape.
On Tuesday in Douglas County ...
A 30-year-old woman has been waiting eight years to tell a jury what happened to her on KU graduation weekend in 2017.
On Monday that long-awaited opportunity arrived as she faced Reston K. Phillips in Douglas County District Court and told jurors that he sexually violated her as she slept after a night of celebrating on May 14.
The woman, a one-time KU student who flew back to Kansas that weekend to see her ...
Longtime Lawrence artist Louis Copt died Thursday night after disclosing in a newsletter last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Copt, 76, was a well-known painter whose work, primarily oil on canvas, but also murals, focused on prairie themes and landscapes.
In a social media post Friday, the Lawrence Arts Center said it was heartbroken to learn that Copt, a "longtime friend, teaching artist, and ...
Updated at 3 p.m. Friday, May 9
A speech pathologist accused of child sex crimes at a Lawrence elementary school is competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Thursday in Douglas County District Court, and a prosecutor indicated that additional charges would be forthcoming.
The defendant, Mark Elliott Gridley, 61, is facing one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of kidnapping — ...
Updated at 4:57 p.m. Tuesday, May 6
A Lawrence man who has been accused, for years now, of harassing and disruptive behavior at public meetings has been permanently banned from Lawrence school district property and has been informed that he will be arrested if he shows up there again.
That's according to a purported letter from Lawrence Superintendent Jeanice Swift on May 1 addressed to the man, Michael Eravi, ...
