LV superintendent accused of DUI

From Dawn Bormann: Leavenworth Superintendent Kelly Harris has been charged with drunken driving. Parkville Police stopped to question Harris about 4 a.m. Saturday in the 6300 block of Lewis Street, where Harris’ vehicle was pulled next to another vehicle. Harris and the other driver, who was not charged, had their lights and engines running.

Parkville Police Chief Kevin L. Chrisman said Harris was “totally 100 percent cooperative” with police.

Police crack down on KC's most violent neighborhoods

From Christine Vendel: Police confiscated 20 guns and arrested 81 people during a warrant sweep this week in four violent areas of Kansas City. The areas make up just 4 percent of the city’s land area but have accounted for almost half of the city’s homicides and drive-by shootings this year.

Police Chief Jim Corwin said officers interrupted several crimes as they tried to serve 35 search warrants and arrest 140 people who had outstanding warrants, “confirming we are focusing on the right places.”

Man accused of simulated sex with gumball machine

And "rubbing his pelvis" on movies at his local video store. From the sentencing:

During his sentencing, Musgnung said he never spoke to the girl at the counter at 48 Hours Video, but, “All the other stuff, yeah, I done the videos and everything else, yeah.”

Hat Tip: Saw this via Fark!

VIDEO: San Francisco cop v. skater

Mmm, I'm going to side with the cop here. Draw your own conclusions. WARNING: There is some profanity in the video -- if that's an issue, please don't push play.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Tim P!

Pa. police rescue hogtied naked man

The Arizona resident was reportedly in the Pittsburgh area for "drug-related activities," police say. I'm sorry, but they need to make this a public service announcement. I think those "Anti-Drug" and "This is your brain on drugs" commercials are very cute ... but nothing will teach kids to put down the pipe like showing them that drugs could lead to them hogtied and naked in a stranger's house.

Good riddance to John Evander Couey

Couey -- the man who kidnapped, raped and buried Jessica Lunsford alive -- has died of natural causes. He'd been waiting to be executed.

"Immigration officer" steals baby in Nashville

A woman posing as an immigration officer went to a Nashville home yesterday afternoon and threatened to arrest the woman inside. Instead, the "officer" stabbed the victim repeatedly and, when the woman ran to get help, stole her baby. More here from the Tennessean.

Should sex offender be allowed to serve as pastor?

In Louisville, a congregation has ordained a registered sex offender as a minister, the AP reports. Mark Hourigan, who did time for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old, has served his sentence, completed his parole and apparently complies with all of the RSO requirements. (He's also promised to not work with young people.) But some people say it's a bad idea to have someone with his record in a position of church leadership. Others say that his ordination fits with the church's stance on forgiveness and redemption.

$287K grant for local Innocence Project

From Tony Rizzo: A federal justice grant of more than $287,000 has been awarded to the Midwestern Innocence Project. The non-profit organization covers a six-state region and said it will use most of the money to pay for two full-time paralegals over a two-year period.

Flossing won't stop those kinds of cavities

Two Detroit cops have been cleared after a man claimed one of them performed an illegal cavity search. (Not the kind of cavities you get in your mouth.) This ruling comes, however, after the city has already paid $700K to other men who made similar claims.

Police settle dispute over Beatles, Dr. Dre

In Huntington Beach, Calif., police were called because several people were arguing outside an apartment building -- over who had sold more records, the Beatles or Dr. Dre. The police explained that it was the Beatles, and everybody went back inside, the Orange County Register reports.

Wash. town, hookers locked in escalating battle of wits

A Washington town -- frustrated that wily hookers have found a way to outwit their undercover stings -- might make it illegal to TRY to outwit a police officer. Snip:

Lakewood assistant police chief Michael Zaro said the proposal reflects the ways prostitutes have adapted to try to outwit police. Often they will ask something like, “If you’re not a cop, touch my breast,” Zaro said.

“Tricks like that spread no matter what kind of crime it is,” he said. “It gets asked all the time.”

Lynda Callon, QuikTrip win Crime Commission awards

Lynda Callon of the Westside CAN Center will receive the Alvin Brooks Award, which the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission gives annually to an outstanding community leader, at the commission's annual law-enforcement-appreciation luncheon next week. A similar award for businesses, the Ilus Davis Award, will be presented to QuikTrip.

Go forth, and sin some more

BlogKC directs our attention to a Wired infographic on the seven deadly sins, as measured by thefts, STDs, etc. Our region is pretty evil when it comes to wrath (violent crime), envy (thefts) and sloth (entertainment spending). Surprisingly, we don't really rate when it comes to gluttony. It was researchers from K-State, by the way, who created the study.

Have you seen these men?

From Leavenworth PD: The Leavenworth Police Department is seeking the community's help in locating two suspects wanted in connection with a shooting that occurred on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 2004 S. Broadway.

Stanley aka “Duke” Cason is charged with Attempted 2nd Degree Murder, Aggravated Robbery, and Aggravated Burglary.

Donell Hale is charged with Aggravated Robbery and Aggravated Burglary. Both suspects are considered armed and dangerous. Please call 9-1-1 if you come in contact with these suspects. If you know their whereabouts call or 913-651-2260 or the 913-682-CLUE.

Open Thread ... Wednesday

Welcome back to the Open Thread, our blog's space for off-topic comments and discussion. If you've seen an interesting story somewhere else, feel free to post a link below.

As always, please follow our standard rules: Please sign your comments, and please avoid profanity, as well as racially and sexually abusive language. And when you sign your comments, please use only one nickname. If you need to reach me, just send an email to jhart@kcstar.com. Thanks again, and have a great day!

Case brings Miranda rights back to Supreme Court

The court is also going to hear the case of Van Chester Thompkins, a Michigan man who confessed to murder. A federal appeals court threw out his conviction, though, because Thompkins never waived or asserted his Miranda rights, and so police should never have questioned him. Apparently, the appeals panel wants suspects to vocally state whether they do or don't want to use those rights. Prosecutors say it'll hamstring police investigations.

The sad, strange tale of Bubba The Parrot

Most drug dealers only trade in cash. Occasionally, they will accept a talking parrot.

What a monster! Lady actually helps her neighbors

In Michigan, a woman named Lisa Snyder got a nastygram from the state's Department of Human Services for, well, being a good neighbor. They accused her of running an illegal daycare because three of her neighbors drop their kids off at her house, where they wait for the school bus to come. The kids are there MAYBE an hour in the morning, and Snyder doesn't get paid. But it's technically a violation of the law, so Michigan DHS threatened her with fines. The governor is now pushing to get the law changed.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Gary!

Ga. sex offenders are "out of the woods"

The other day, we had a story about Georgia probation officers telling their paroled sex offenders to live in the woods behind a suburban office park if they couldn't find anywhere else to live. (RSOs aren't allowed to live within 1,000 feet of other human beings.) Well, the state's transportation department, which owns the property, has told them to hit the road.

Jackson County agrees to $70K settlement with prosecutor

The county legislature has agreed to pay $70,000 to Daniel Miller, an assistant prosecutor who filed discrimination complaints with the state's Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission. As part of the settlement, Miller would resign and withdraw his complaints.

Miller, you might remember, was the prosecutor who handled the case against Matthew Davis, who pleaded guilty to abandoning girlfriend Amber McGathey's body in a vehicle in River Market. That plea -- and the accompanying conviction -- were later dismissed because the prosecution withheld hundreds of pages of evidence from the defense, a judge ruled. From Mark Morris' story at the time:

A Jackson County judge cited prosecutorial misconduct Tuesday when she threw out the guilty pleas of a man convicted in 2005 of abandoning a woman’s body in his Jeep.

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Miller withheld hundreds of pages of investigative records from Matthew Davis’ defense lawyers and "deliberately and fraudulently misled the court and defense counsel," Judge Edith L. Messina wrote.

And there's this statement from the prosecutor's office, reported by KSHB (and linked to via Tony's Kansas City) ...

In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Jackson County Prosecutor James Kanatzar "vehemently" denied any wrongdoing and said punishment faced by Daniel "Dan" Miller was directly related to his prosecutorial misconduct in a high-profile death case.

The Plog has a post about it here.

Why nobody messes with farmers' daughters

In India, a farmer's daughter reportedly used an ax to stop a terrorist who barged into their house, then killed the bad guy with his own AK-47. Then she went and milked the family's yaks. (OK, I'm speculating on that last part.)

Hat Tip: Saw this via Fark!

Wesley Ira Purkey would like to live, please

Purkey, you might remember, kidnapped and killed a local teen named Jennifer Long back in 1998. Purkey really would like to get that death sentence kicked, but a federal judge has rejected his request for a new hearing. Besides arguing that his counsel was ineffective, and that the prosecutors misbehaved, Purkey argued that he shouldn't get the death penalty because he didn't actually take the girl across state lines. (Which landed him in federal court in the first place, which led to him getting the death penalty.)

UPDATED: Here's a ruling on an earlier appeal from Purkey, who reportedly confessed to 16-year-old Long's rape and murder because he wanted to do life in a federal prison, instead of getting death or ending up in a state facility. Purkey was already a suspect in the murder of an elderly woman, Mary Ruth Bales, by that point. From the court document ...

During the guilt phase of his federal trial, Mr. Purkey affirmed his statements about the killing and dismemberment of Ms. Long, but he disavowed his previous statements that he forced Ms. Long to travel with him from Missouri to his home in Kansas.

Instead, he stated that Ms. Long, who he said he thought was a prostitute, voluntarily entered his truck and accompanied him to his home. He indicated that he fabricated the kidnapping aspect of the confession to ensure that his actions would be considered, and therefore prosecuted as, a federal crime. After deliberating briefly, the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

KC traffic-fatality count stands at 56

Compared to 49 people dead at the same point last year. (The blog occasionally gives updates on the city's homicide numbers, and I'm going to try to do the same thing with traffic fatals, too. Most people -- thankfully -- don't know anybody who's been the victim of murder. But traffic wrecks are a part of life for pretty much everybody.)

Are the Supremes going to make another big gun ruling?

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on Chicago's ban on most handguns. Last year, the court struck down D.C.'s gun ban and ruled that individuals have a right to carry a gun for self-defense. But there's some question how that applies to states and cities. Some could argue that last year's decision only applies at the federal level, since D.C. is a federal enclave, the Washington Post reports.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Rhonda!