Latest news with #JohnsonCountyDistrictCourt
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Johnson County resident sues city, says new City Hall proposal breaks Kansas law
Just days after the Prairie Village City Council approved a proposal for a new municipal complex, one resident is suing the city to try to stop it. Marc Vianello filed a lawsuit in Johnson County District Court against Prairie Village — claiming that the municipal complex project violates a state law that requires cities to bring bond issues to a public vote. Last week, the City Council approved a $30 million proposal to build a new City Hall building at 7820 Mission Road to house city administrative staff and City Council and to renovate the current municipal building to accommodate the police department and municipal court. The project has become the latest in a series of issues that have caused uproar among residents in the northeast Johnson County city. The approval allows Prairie Village to move forward with pre-sale activities and prepare offering documents, but there would need to be a second approval to actually issue the bonds. Once issued, the city will commit to paying them off in a 30-year period. Prairie Village has an ordinance that officials say allow the city to finance a broad array of public improvements through general obligation bonds without voter approval. The local law, Charter Ordinance 28, exempts the city from a state law called the Home Rule Amendment, which requires cities to hold an election for bonds over $100,000 in any one year. City leaders first approved the local ordinance in 2016 when Prairie Village was looking at a $3.2 million street light purchase from Kansas City Power and Light (now Evergy). Vianello's lawsuit challenges that local ordinance, claiming that it violates the Kansas constitution and statutory requirements for a bond election. The lawsuit also claims that the city's previous reliance on the ordinance for other projects was illegal. 'Plaintiff (Vianello), a taxpayer in Prairie Village, will suffer irreparable harm if the City issues $30 million in bonds with out a public vote or without following the indebtedness limitations of K.S.A. 13-1024a, as this would deprive (Vianello) of his statutory right to vote, would increase tax burdens indefinitely and would risk indefinite fiscal instability; harms not adequately remedied by monetary damages,' the lawsuit stated. Vianello is asking the judge to issue a permanent injunction to prohibit Prairie Village from issuing the bonds under Charter Ordinance 28 and requests that the city put the question of issuing the bonds on the ballot instead. 'Mr. Vianello, like the vast majority of Prairie Village taxpayers, wants the City to follow the law and hold an election before issuing $30 million in general obligation bond debt that will cost the taxpayers for the next 30 years for this City Council's pet project,' Fritz Edmunds, Vianello's attorney, said in an emailed statement. The lawsuit claims that Prairie Village residents 'from all walks of life, all age groups, and all political persuasions overwhelmingly desire a vote on the City Council's plan to issue $30 million in general obligation bonds and new taxes to pay for the lame-duck City Council's pet project.' The lawsuit cited a survey sponsored by the Kansas Policy Institute, a conservative Wichita-based think tank, which shows that 85% of 435 residents polled want a vote on the City Hall project. However, four of the six ZIP codes that received the survey are outside of Prairie Village. According to reporting from the Johnson County Post, 149 of the 435 respondents live in the two Prairie Village ZIP Codes surveyed (66207 and 66208, which also covers Overland Park and Mission Hills). While some residents are concerned about the project's debt potentially driving their tax bills up, city staff have stated that there are no proposed increases to tax rates. Before the lawsuit, staff anticipated that the council would consider bids during its August 4 meeting and award construction contracts some time in October. Prairie Village officials said that the city doesn't provide comment on active litigation. Prairie Village lawsuit, city hall project by The Kansas City Star
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
North Liberty man sentenced to 50 years in prison for Iowa City break-in, sexual assault
A North Liberty man has been sentenced to an additional 50 years in prison for a break-in and sexual assault in Iowa City. Asante Walker-Garcia Adams, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, first-degree burglary and second-degree robbery in February. The charges stemmed from a 2022 sexual assault along Lucas Street in Iowa City. A second sexual abuse charge was dismissed as part of his plea. Walker-Garcia Adams was also sentenced to 100 years in prison in Black Hawk County in December 2024 for a pair of sexual assaults in Waterloo that occurred in the summer of 2023. More: String of home invasions, sexual assaults in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids leads to arrest A Johnson County District Court judge sentenced Walker-Garcia Adams to 25 years for the Iowa City sexual abuse charge, 25 years for the burglary charge and 10 years for the robbery charge, with the latter two charges running concurrently. In total, he was sentenced to 50 additional years in prison. According to criminal complaints, on the night of Sept. 6, 2022, Walker-Garcia Adams "burst through" the door of a woman's bedroom, "punched her in the face," pulled the bed sheet over her head and sexually assaulted her. He threatened the woman during the assault, allegedly saying, "Don't make me get the knife again." Walker-Garcia Adams also demanded a phone and money from the woman, according to police. He fled the scene after the assault. More: Regents set to approve 3 percent wage increase for UI Health Care, graduate student unions Cell phone data collected from Walker-Garcia Adam's phone indicated that he was in the area of the assault around the time it happened. Walker-Garcia Adams's wife also confronted her husband in the wake of the incident, forwarding him a news article from the day after the assault, which included Ring doorbell footage of a suspect being sought by Iowa City police. According to police, she wrote, "So that's a random guy with dreads, similar eyes, similar height? Happened same time u were there?" Walker-Garcia Adams was previously charged for two sexual assaults that occurred in Waterloo in March and April of 2023. The assaults included a similar "modus operandi" to the Iowa City incident, District Court Judge David Odekirk wrote in the court's opinion last October. In each case, Walker-Garcia Adams entered a residence, threatened the individual inside with a knife, sexually assaulted them, took their electronics and left. More: Iowa State, University of Iowa students hold pro-DEI protest during Board of Regents meeting Walker-Garcia Adams waived his right to a trial by jury in the Waterloo case and the bench trial found him guilty of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and first-degree burglary. Odekirk sentenced Walker-Garcia Adams to 100 years in prison in December. Walker-Garcia Adams has also been charged in connection with a May 2023 assault in Linn County. The 27-year-old is facing five charges: Second-degree robbery, third-degree kidnapping, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, first-degree harassment and false imprisonment. According to a warrant request, Walker-Garcia Adams allegedly "attacked (a person) from behind" as she attempted to put something in her car on the evening of May 3, 2023. During the attack, Walker-Garcia Adams also allegedly threatened to kill the woman and demanded to be let into her apartment to "take any money, drugs or anything of value from her." Walker-Garcia Adams has pleaded not guilty in the Linn County case. A case management conference is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, and a jury trial is currently set for June 3. Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@ or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01. This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: North Liberty man gets 50 years in prison for Iowa City sexual assault
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas appellate courts says marital property in divorce cases includes personal-injury awards
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall, center, authors an opinion reversing a Johnson County District Court judge's decision and affirming a Kansas Court of Appeals opinion that all property of married persons becomes marital property in a divorce proceeding in which a court enters a final divorce decree. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court reversed a district court by declaring separate husband-and-wife annuities created to settle legal claims after a man was catastrophically injured in an explosion must be considered marital property in a divorce proceeding. Justices of the Supreme Court, echoing a three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals, said a Johnson County District Court judge erred by concluding annuities held by accident victim Aaron Meek and his spouse at time of the accident, Nancy Karanja-Meek, weren't martial property. Both appellate courts said all property, including confidential cash awards and deferred payments, had to be treated as marital property when a marriage ended. 'We affirm the Court of Appeals and remand to the district court for it to conduct equitable division of the marital estate with both annuities considered marital property,' Justice Caleb Stegall said in the opinion published Friday. Meek was compensated due to a traumatic brain injury he suffered Feb. 19, 2013, when a Time Warner Cable contractor installing underground fiber optic cable in Kansas City, Missouri, struck a high-pressure natural gas line with a boring drill. Escaping gas migrated to JJ's Restaurant, which exploded and leveled the building. One person was killed and 15 injured. Karanja-Meek had brought a claim for loss of companionship after her husband's accident because 'I lost Aaron, the Aaron that was there before he got injured.' Both resolved their personal-injury claims in 2015 and received lump-sum payments as well as separate annuities with payments until 2045. In 2017, Karanja-Meek filed for divorce. A question that wasn't settled through negotiation was division of the annuities. Karanja-Meek said the annuities were awarded individually and shouldn't be divided by the court, but Meek contended the court should award him 'all or the vast majority' of his wife's annuity because she was 'supposed to be my caretaker.' District Court Judge Christopher Jayaram entered a divorce decree in 2022 and ruled the annuities were separate property. In response, Meek turned to the Court of Appeals because he wanted Karanja-Meek's annuity — not his own — declared marital property. The Court of Appeals concluded both annuities were marital property subject to division. Meek appealed to the Supreme Court and claimed the Court of Appeals relied on flawed legal analysis. Justice Stegall said Karanja-Meek, who had clearly lost before the Court of Appeals, in a 'rarely seen turn' suddenly realized the Court of Appeals was correct to view all property as marital. Stegall, an appointee of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, said the lower court's consideration of 'mechanical' and 'analytical' approaches to property division in divorce cases was 'disapproved.' 'We find it simpler to follow the plain text of the statutory scheme without the need for labels,' he said. 'If a label is required, one might term it the 'statutory approach' — which has the added benefit of preserving the court's role in Kansas to interpret the law, not write it.'
