A man who was scheduled to stand trial this week for his fifth DUI instead pleaded no contest to the offense in a last-minute deal that let him evade several other charges. Dustin Lee Welch, 44, of Topeka, was found guilty Tuesday in Douglas County District Court of an incident on Sept. 4, 2022, in which his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit of .08 — the fifth time he had been caught ...
A woman accused in a March hit-and-run that killed a dog and critically injured its owner admitted to police that she was responsible for the accident after initially telling an elaborate lie about it, according to a recently released affidavit in the case. The arrest affidavit, the allegations of which have not been proved in court, details what police relied on to support the arrest of Lasean Dixon, of ...
The two men vying to lead the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for the next four years agree on one thing: The current DA’s Office is in shambles and desperately needs to be fixed. Neither Republican Mike Warner nor Democrat Dakota Loomis pulled any punches as they met as opponents for the first time Tuesday night in a forum at the Douglas County Fairgrounds sponsored by the Douglas County Rural ...
Kansas Appeals Court Judge Jacy Hurst drew more than a few chuckles Monday as she repeatedly — and a bit scornfully — emphasized the word “male” while reading aloud from the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Hurst was participating in a public reading of all 7,591 words of the Constitution — including its seven articles and 27 amendments — at the Douglas County Courthouse along with ...
A mother who lost a son to a fentanyl overdose described her “crippling grief” Friday morning to a Douglas County judge at the sentencing hearing of the woman who had a hand in the young man’s death. Christina Aldridge, the mother of Cameron Bricker, who died at age 26 on Dec. 9, 2022, after buying pills from the defendant, Terriana Audry Atkinson, placed a framed photo of her son on the lectern as she ...
A Lawrence man on Friday was acquitted by a jury of choking a woman — his second such acquittal in Douglas County in less than three months. Servando Martinez-Vazquez, 24, was tried this week after being charged with aggravated domestic battery by choking, felony criminal threat and misdemeanor domestic battery. The jury of nine men and three women heard testimony from a young woman claiming that he had ...