WRITER: Kim Callahan

Counsel for the panel overseeing the disciplinary complaint against DA Valdez recused

The counsel for the panel overseeing the disciplinary complaint against Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez has been recused from that position because Valdez named her as a witness in the proceeding at the last minute. As a witness, the counsel, Krystal Vokins, will not be permitted in the hearing room while other witnesses are testifying and thus would not be able to perform her job as counsel to ...

Theatre Lawrence's new season to kick off with 'Crowns,' a celebration of Black women

Theatre Lawrence is opening its new season Friday with a musical that explores the lives of Black women and, along the way, delves into an array of divides – Black/white, rural/urban, North/South, young/old, shame/pride. “Crowns,” as director Annette Billings says, “is a very celebratory play, and I think it fits so well in our current times of lots of personal and professional and (national) ...

Special prosecutor disputes DA Valdez's claim that board's attorney has a conflict, argues against recusal

The special prosecutor in a disciplinary case against Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez is objecting to Valdez's motion that the attorney for the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys be recused, and she characterizes many of Valdez's assertions in the matter as inaccurate. Valdez's attorney, Stephen Angermayer, filed a motion to have the board attorney, Krystal Vokins, recused based on ...

Citing conflicts, District Attorney Valdez wants counsel to the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys to be recused

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez is requesting that the counsel to the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys be recused from matters involving a complaint filed by a special prosecutor against Valdez, due to the counsel's having a "direct conflict" of interest. Valdez's motion, filed Wednesday but not released to the Journal-World until Friday, was in response to an order last week from the ...

Relative of slain 14-year-old calls for FBI to investigate Lawrence shooting as a federal hate crime

A relative of a 14-year-old Black boy who was allegedly killed by a 17-year-old white boy in Lawrence is calling for the FBI to investigate and for the case to be tried as a federal hate crime. Michael Berry, a cousin of the late Kamarjay Shaw, has addressed a letter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas, Kate E. Brubacher, requesting that Derrick Del Reed, now 18 and facing a first-degree murder ...

A conversation overheard by a teacher at a Lawrence middle school led to multiple sex crime charges against a 43-year-old man

Last winter, as four pre-teen girls at Lawrence’s Liberty Memorial Central Middle School were discussing a man calling and sending them messages on Snapchat, a teacher happened to overhear them and alerted the school resource officer. That overheard conversation — about naked pictures and obscene solicitation to 11- and 12-year-olds — led to an investigation of a 43-year-old Lawrence man, which turned up ...