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Assistant district attorney pulled off trial cases By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
Douglas County prosecutor Amy McGowan has been removed from her cases and assigned to other duties after the Kansas Supreme Court faulted her for trial errors.
McGowan
improper comments during a sentencing hearing. Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said Thursday that he had removed McGowan from her caseload of major felony sex crime cases. Instead, McGowan will be assigned as a
charging attorney. Branson said McGowan was not available for comment. The reassignment comes after the court’s decision, on Feb. 8, to vacate the 52-month sentence of a Douglas County man convicted of attempted
‘It gives the injury a purpose’
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High: 36
McGowan’s comments during the closing arguments of several trials from 2007 to 2009 have been questioned by the court in several recent appeals, and last week the court vacated a sentence in a child-exploitation case because it said McGowan made
Low: 16
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE
exploitation of a child. The court ruled McGowan made comments during Robert Peterson’s sentencing that violated a plea agreement, and sent the case back to district court for sentencing. Please see MCGOWAN, page 5A
Bill targets sexually oriented businesses By Nikki Wentling Special to the Journal-World
Semi-nude women dance on the stages at Allstars Gentleman’s Club in North Lawrence. Colored lights flash to the loud background music, and a bartender serves drinks to patrons, who are either I am watching the women or the concerned television. with the Most days, negative the club stays open for 13 secondary hours, with effects managers clos- that these ing down at 2 a.m. Around 4 establishp.m., only three ments create within cars sit in front communities.” of the entrance to the club, at 913 N. Second — Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Wichita St. Teresa Fernandez, the day manager and bartender at Allstars, said House Bill 2054 regulating clubs such as hers could drastically change business. “Some people won’t come in,” Fernandez said. “We would probably lose some business, and it may cause some businesses to
Bowlers’ prowess speaks for itself
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Austin Bennett, above left, won an individual league title and the Lawrence High Lions won their first Sunflower League championship in bowling on Thursday. Page 1B LAWRENCE
Flash mob dances for a global cause Groups across Lawrence, including one downtown Thursday evening, were part of a worldwide movement aimed at ending violence against women. Page 3A
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QUOTABLE
Now, Republicans in Congress face a simple choice. Do they protect investments in education, health care and national defense or do they continue to prioritize and protect tax loopholes that benefit the very few at the expense of middle and working class Americans?” — Jay Carney, President Barack Obama’s spokesman, on negotiations in the federal budget fight. Page 7A
INDEX Business 7A Classified 5B-10B Comics 9A Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 9B Movies 4A Opinion 8A Puzzles 9B Sports 1B-4B, 10B Television 10A, 2B, 9B Vol.155/No.46 32 pages
Please see CLUBS, page 2A
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
CHRISTOPHER MANN, a former Lawrence police officer who was injured in the line of duty by a drunken driver in 2002, has become an advocate against alcohol-related accidents and fatalities in Kansas.
Couple give $1.2M to university By Matt Erickson merickson@ljworld.com
Former police officer turns DUI accident into life mission By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
At age 25, everything was going as planned for Lawrence Police Officer Christopher Mann. The Olathe native was completing a degree at Kansas University and following in the footsteps of his father, a Lenexa police officer, and fulfilling a lifelong dream. During a routine traffic stop in Lawrence about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 11, 2002, that all changed. Mann pulled over a vehicle for having a tail light out. A few minutes into the stop in the 2100 block of Haskell Avenue, a speeding drunken driver struck the back of Mann’s patrol car, sending him airborne. “I looked up. I saw headlights,” said
Mann, whose patrol car crashed into him, bouncing him into, and then over, the vehicle he’d pulled over. He blacked out, and when he came to, he couldn’t stand. The accident and the injuries he sustained eventually ended his police career. But 11 years later, Mann has refocused his energy, spending his days as a Wyandotte County assistant district attorney and working as an advocate against drunken driving.
‘Knowing it was done’ Mann couldn’t walk for five days after the accident, which occurred shortly after he’d completed running his first marathon. And even though he didn’t Please see ADVOCATE, page 2A
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John and Frances Peterson spent more than 30 years in Lawrence following their retirement from government jobs in Washington, D.C., but then left for Texas to be closer to family. But now a gift from J. Peterson their estate could live on even longer on the Kansas University campus, to the tune of $1.2 million. That’s the amount, in cash and farmland property, that the couple willed to KU, the KU Endowment As- F. Peterson sociation announced Thursday. The announcement comes a bit less than a year after Frances’ death in March 2012 at age 94. Her husband died in September 2009, when he was Please see COUPLE, page 2A