WRITER: Kim Callahan

Habitual drunk driver sentenced in case where he nearly ran over deputies conducting sobriety test

A habitual drunk driver who was convicted of at least his fifth DUI will spend 48 hours in jail, followed by 30 days of house arrest and 24 months of probation, a Douglas County judge ruled Thursday. The defendant, David Dearborn, 57, pleaded guilty to two felony DUIs on Oct. 23, and also to two misdemeanor counts of violating a protection order, as the Journal-World reported. In exchange for the plea, the ...

Lawrence man gets 3 years of probation for attack on roommate

A Lawrence man who severely beat his roommate, causing facial fractures, was sentenced to three years of probation Thursday in Douglas County District Court. Judge Amy Hanley handed down the sentence for aggravated battery to Miles Adams, 46, after the Douglas County District Attorney's Office, represented by Assistant DA Jenna Phelps, joined defense attorney Gary West in recommending that Adams not go to ...

Lawrence filmmaker creates a Grindhouse-style revenge quest with 'a progressive soul'

Lawrence filmmaker Austin Snell is particularly pleased that his new movie is attracting female fans. “Women really seem to love this film,” which is honestly like the most satisfying thing for me,” Snell told the Journal-World ahead of Friday’s screening of “They Call Her Death” at Liberty Hall. The film, which has garnered a distribution deal after its success at numerous festivals, is a ...

City of Lawrence characterizes railroad as inhumane for not letting campers stay on its property for winter

Updated at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9 After the BNSF Railroad gave notice late last week for campers to vacate its eastern Lawrence property by Sunday — a move strongly criticized by the city — several people remained Monday morning in a wooded landscape dotted with tents and debris. The homeless camp just east of Eighth and Delaware streets has grown after the City of Lawrence closed a sprawling camp on ...

Lawrence man gets 4.5 years in prison for child sexual abuse; woman details yearslong trauma to court

A 57-year-old man looked away Friday as a young woman described to a Douglas County judge how he had stolen her childhood with years of sexual abuse. “You’re so mature for your age,” she said Scott Waisner told her when she was just 14 years old — a statement that she later realized was the calling card of a groomer. “Was I?” she asked the court, or was that just a way for Waisner, then in his 40s, ...

'He literally saved my life': Free State teacher grateful for student's quick action in rescuing him from choking to death

Forty-two-year-old art teacher Jacob Lewis is acutely aware that he would have died in August if it weren’t for his student Lucas Fearn. “He literally saved my life that day,” Lewis said of the Free State High School senior who is also his teaching assistant. It was the second week of school, which had gotten out early that day, and the two were alone in Lewis’ ceramics studio, talking about this and ...