THURSDAY,APRIL25,2002
STATE NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Former bishop was accused of misconduct
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former bishop in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyo., was twice accused of sexual misconduct with boys while he was a priest here, the Rev. Patrick J. Rush revealed yesterday.
Rush, the vicar general of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said Father Joseph Hart was accused in 1989 and 1992 of sexual misconduct that allegedly happened in 1969 and the early 1970s with junior high school-aged boys. Hart was ordained as a bishop in Cheyenne in 1976.
Paula Glover, spokeswoman for the Cheyenne diocese, said church officials thought the allegations against Hart were unfounded and the diocese was revealing them in response to media inquiries.
"I just want to emphasize that people here just love him," she said. "He's highly respected."
Bishop David Ricken of Cheyenne said there has never been an allegation of sexual misconduct during Hart's 26 years in Wyoming.
Both allegations in Missouri were handled before Rush became vicar general in July 1994.
A church committee in Kansas City determined the 1989 complaint lacked credibility "for a number of reasons," Rush said in a written statement.
In a telephone interview, Rush said that church records showed the victim did not actually see the perpetrator — who grabbed him from behind — but the victim was convinced it was Hart.
The victim, whom the diocese did not identify, was offered and received counseling and about $12,000 so he could buy a truck. Rush said.
The 1992 complaint was brought by siblings of the alleged victim, whom the diocese also declined to identify. The complaint was made after the alleged victim had been dead for several years, Rush said. The family claimed the abuse occurred when the victim was 12 or 13 years old.
Rush said the family did not ask for money, but requested that the diocese investigate the matter.
TOPEKA — Officials won't call it an outbreak, but the number of rabies cases reported in Kansas so far this year is double the number reported during the same time last year.
Rabies cases up from last year
The Associated Press
The disease seems to follow seven- to 10-year cycles, he said. During each of the past few years,
"If we start yelling, 'rabies outbreak' it is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Rolan Davis, technical supervisor at the Kansas State University Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, which tests for rabies in animals referred by veterinarians and public health departments throughout the state.
there have been about 100 reported cases of rabies in Kansas, including about 10 horses and cows. The last bad outbreak was in 1992, when 365 cases were reported. Skunks are a common carrier.
Already this year, 63 animals in 29 Kansas counties have tested positive for rabies.
He pointed to two pockets of counties that have reported high numbers of rabies infections this year — southwest Kansas, including Gray and Ford counties, and north-central Kansas, including Pottawatomie, Clay, Riley and Washington counties. But, he said, the disease isn't limited to those areas.
reported in domestic animals, there hasn't been a case of rabies in a human in Kansas since 1968, said Gail Hansen, public health veterinarian for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention.
While the disease has been
Symptoms can include flu-like symptoms, strange vocal sounds, changes in behavior, including a furious reaction, which includes foaming at the mouth, she said.
"It can look like anything," Hansen said. "It goes up the nerves. It goes to the brain, eventually gets to the salivary glands, which is how it's passed. It's almost always passed by the bite of an animal."
Defense challenges evidence in local serial murder case
The Associated Press
OLATHE — Lawyers for serial murder suspect John E. Robinson Sr. have filed another challenge to evidence against him, saying police illegally collected trash outside Robinson's home for several months.
In a motion filed Tuesday in Johnson County District Court, the defense argued that any evidence collected as a result of the trash searches should be barred from his trial.
Robinson, 58, is scheduled to go to trial in September in the deaths of three women — two whose bodies were found in June 2000 in metal barrels on property he owned and a third whose body has not been found. He is expected to be tried later in Cass County, Mo., in the deaths of three other women whose bodies were found in a storage locker in Raymore, Mo.
The defense motion asserts that Lenexa detectives were trespassing
when they made weekly collections of Robinson's trash for several months before his June 2000 arrest.
Robinson and his wife did not live along a public street but in a private community of manufactured homes, the motion states.
Among the credit-card receipts, e-mail and junk mail culled from the trash was information about storage units Robinson rented in Olathe and Raymore, according to the defense motion.
Meanwhile, the prosecution filed a response Tuesday to previous defense motions challenging the legality of the searches.
Evidence linking Robinson to women he is charged with killing was found in the Olathe locker, according to previous court testimony. The bodies of three alleged victims were found in the Raymore locker.
A hearing on motions in the case is scheduled for today in Johnson County District Court.
The Associated Press
Pilot killed from crash by Hugoton
HUGOTON - A pilot was killed Tuesday when the plane he was flying crashed in a southwest Kansas cornfield field near Hugoton and Moscow, authorities said.
Darrell Gene Hatcher, 65, who had homes in Camarillo, Calif., and Lamar, Colo., was flying a 1980 Piper Aerostar registered to Columbine Farm of Syracuse when he crashed about 1:14 p.m., the Kansas Highway Patrol said. He was the only person aboard.
DeWitt said a man plowing a field in the area saw Hatcher's plane flying low.
Stevens County Sheriff Russ DeWitt said Hatcher, owner of a Kansas dairy farm, was en route from Syracuse to the Liberal Airport to pick up a passenger. He said the plane broke up on impact and Hatcher was dead at the scene.
Senate, House negotiate terms of state budget
TOPEKA — Legislative budget negotiators agreed yesterday on providing additional funding for the state courts and keeping five minimum-security prisons open.
Lawmakers must eliminate a projected $700 million shortfall,but the negotiators are going through the budget item by item.
Three senators and three House members were in their second day of talks on a compromise budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The rest of the Legislature is in recess until May 1
One issue was whether the court system, facing higher payroll and insurance costs, should receive additional tax dollars or be forced to rely on raising court filing fees.
Judicial officials have said that without more funding, they might close court offices additional days. The Supreme Court already imposed several surcharges effective April 1, including a $50 increase in the $25 fee for marriage licenses.
The House included an additional $2.2 million for the courts in the budget it has approved, but the Senate did not. The House position prevailed in the negotiations.
"We probably didn't appropriately address it," said Sen. Nick Jordan, R-Shawnee, one of the negotiators.
Resolving the fate of the five minimumsecurity prisons proved even less controversial. They are prison units in Osawatomie, Stockton and Toronto and separate conservation camps for male and female offenders in Oswego. They have space for 486 offenders.
The Senate included $5.6 million for the institutions in its budget, but the House did not. The negotiators agreed yesterday to the Senate's position.
During negotiations Tuesday, two House Republicans said they want to produce a budget that would require $200 million to $225 million in higher taxes. But Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steve Morris said such a tax increase would be too small and still require too much cutting to close the budget shortfall.
Before recessing earlier this month, the House approved a budget plan that is $108 million out of balance, while the Senate approved a budget that is $306 million out of balance.
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