Lawrence Journal-World 04-20-12

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TAKING THE FIELD DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI LHS twins excel at shot put, discus Sports 1B

KU business school honors success stories Lawrence & State 3A

L A W R E NC E

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Hitting her stride in mid-air

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Warrant issued in old rape case By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com

ONLINE: See more on the Joe Jones case at LJWorld.com

KU student finds niche in mentoring Jen Rosacker, a Kansas University sophomore from Topeka, is taking to heart the motto for a volunteer organization she helps coordinate: Be a Child’s Superhero. Page 3A

QUOTABLE

There is lots of circumstantial evidence that something is still awry.” — Christopher D’Elia, dean of Louisiana State University’s School of the Coast and Environment, on injuries to fish and wildlife that suggest that the harmful effects of the BP oil spill two years ago are not over yet. Page 8A

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

JANAY DELOACH GETS SOME HEIGHT in the Kansas Relays Women’s Long Jump, and was the winner with a distance of 21 feet 8 1/4 inches on Thursday. The long jump event took place downtown, on Eighth Street west of Massachusetts Street, and drew a crowd despite the overcast skies and occasional drizzle. See more on the Kansas Relays in Sports, page 1B.

Kansas pulls inmates from county jail By John Hanna Associated Press

COMING SATURDAY The Lawrence Arts Center will host a leadership summit. Former astronaut turned KU professor Steve Hawley will be the keynote speaker, and Gov. Sam Brownback also will address the group.

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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Puzzles Sports Television Vol.154/No.111

8A 7B-12B 11A 2A 12A, 2B 11B 4A 10A 11B 1B-6B 4A, 2B, 11B 44 pages

Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org

TOPEKA — Kansas officials are rethinking a decision to house prison inmates in a county jail and have moved all of them back to a state facility after four escaped, including a convicted murderer, the state Department of Corrections said Thursday. The remaining 18 prison inmates who were held in the Ottawa County Jail have been returned to the state prison in Ellsworth, department spokesman Jeremy Barclay told The Associated Press. Overcrowding at Ellsworth had led the

Convicted murderer, rapist still at large after escape

James

CarreraMorales department to transfer inmates in January to the county jail. The escape of four state inmates Wednesday morning from the jail in Minneapolis, a small town about 120 miles west of Topeka, also spurred debate

among state legislators about prison overcrowding and keeping inmates in county lockups. Two inmates remained at large: Santos CarreraMorales and Eric James, both 22. Carrera-Morales was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for a doubleslaying in 2007, while James was serving time for 2008 convictions of aggravated robbery, burglary, kidnapping and criminal damage. “We are reassessing our jail placement in Ottawa County right now, just during this period,”

Barclay said. “This is an interim step while the investigation is taking place.” Two of the four inmates who escaped were apprehended Wednesday. Ottawa County Sheriff Keith Coleman said he and police quickly apprehended one escapee in Minneapolis, the town where the jail is located. Authorities said the other, Drew Wade, 21, convicted of robbery and aggravated battery, traveled in a stolen miniPlease see ESCAPE, page 2A

City not complaining about $180K for Final Four By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

Here’s the rare case where 14 is greater than 180,000. Kansas University’s 14th appearance in the men’s basketball NCAA Final Four cost the city nearly $180,000 in expenses to oversee the downtown parties that ensued — and no one at Lawrence City Hall minds a bit. “There were costs for sure, but there was a tremendous benefit for the community,” City Manager David Corliss said. “There is no question in my mind that the community reaps a benefit that is multiple times larger than what it costs us.” A new report prepared by Corliss’ office found city ex-

penses related to the Final Four totaled $179,786, with overtime wages paid to police officers the largest expense. The city is expecting tax revenues from sales made at restaurants, bars, grocery stores, T-shirt shops and elsewhere to more than offset those expenses, but such tax revenue reports from the state won’t be available for another month or more. But in 2008, when the Jayhawks won the National Championship, City Hall had a good tax collection year. The city’s drink tax revenues in 2008 jumped by

$270,000 for the year. The city’s sales tax collections increased by nearly $782,000, although it is impossible to know how much of that is directly related to Final Four-fueled spending. Four city departments — police, fire and medical, parks and recreation and public works — incurred the bulk of expenses related to public safety and clean-up of the three large gatherings that occurred downtown following KU’s Elite Eight victory and its two games in the Final Four. Corliss said the various duties Please see FINAL, page 2A

The Shawnee County district attorney on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Kansas inmate Joel L. Russell, 46, in a 27-year-old sexual assault for which another man was wrongfully convicted. Russell, who is currently serving prison time for two other sexual assaults, was identified as a suspect in the Aug. 24, 1985, rape and kidnapping of a Topeka woman following DNA testing. The arrest warrant was for a single count of rape. Topeka resident Joe Russell Jones originally was convicted of the 1985 crime, but was exonerated in 1992 after DNA evidence excluded him as the rapist. Jones’ strug- Jones gles after his release were highlighted in an October Journal-World article. While reporting that story, the Journal-World discovered the evidence that exonerated Jones had been preserved by a California lab that initially performed the testing. The discovery prompted the Topeka Police Department’s Cold Case Unit to reopen the case. “It’s a good day,” Topeka Police Chief Ronald Miller said Thursday afternoon. “We got the right guy. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Now we’re going to seek justice in this case.” In addition to the evidence in California, the Cold Case Unit found testable evidence from the case at the Kansas Bureau of Investigations. That DNA was tested and matched Russell’s DNA profile in the Combined DNA Index System, the national DNA databank commonly referred to as CODIS. Russell was convicted in 1986 for a string of assaults in the Topeka area that had similarities to the crime for which Jones was wrongfully convicted. In three crimes in November and December of 1985, Russell threatened women with a knife, as in Jones’ case. One of the incidents also occurred at the Bare Essentials nightclub at 916 Kansas Ave., the same location from which the victim Please see WARRANT, page 2A

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