Category Archives: Rap sheets

Common Law, No. 19: If she’d been more violent, state would help her

Sept. 3, 20098:30 a.m.

Legislators pass laws. Judges uphold them. But when people bring their problems to court, judges catch the idiosyncrasies lawmakers miss. Judge David Kaufman found such flaws in Senate Bill 123, which provides state funds to help pay for drug treatment while people are on probation. Kaufman recently faced a young woman convicted of possessing methamphetamine and making minimal wages. The judge found she’d only be eligible for aid to help her drug problem if she was a more violent criminal.

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Anti-abortion preacher petitions to get Tiller’s shooter pardoned

Nov. 25, 20085:41 p.m.

An anti-abortion preacher who spent four years in prison in connection with clinic bombings now wants President Bush to pardon the woman who shot Wichita abortion provider George Tiller 15 years ago.

Shelley Shannon

Shelley Shannon

Rev. Michael Bray of Maryland has an online petition to ask Bush to pardon Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller at his clinic on Aug. 19, 1993.

Shannon finished serving her Kansas prison time for attempted murder and aggravated assault in April 2005. But she’s now serving a federal sentence in Dublin, Calif., in connection with the shooting. She also was convicted of fire and bombing attacks on other abortion clinics, including those in Oregon, California and Nevada, which authorities learned about through letters she wrote from jail following Tiller’s shooting.

Bray said in a statement on his Web site, defending Shannon: “Unfortunately, as with all anti-abortion cases where the defenders of the innocents are charged with crimes and brought before the judges in this land, there is no consideration given to the ‘defense of necessity’ -– that these interventions were necessary because a true human being is murdered in every intentional abortion.”

Bray was sentenced to prison in 1985 in connection with the bombings of seven abortion clinics and has written about the use of force in stopping abortion. Some consider him a terrorist. Others call him a hero.

“The suggestion of pardoning a violent criminal for the attempted murder of Dr. Tiller and attacks on abortion clinics highlights the twisted notion of life held by these domestic right-to-life terrorists, ” said Dan Monnat, a Wichita lawyer who represents Tiller. “Her letters, which you can find on the Internet, say ‘don’t insult me by saying I’ve repented.’ “

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Even buildings under construction can be burglarized

April 28, 20083:29 p.m.

Donald Storey took a band saw from construction site at Wesley Medicalstory.jpg Center but argued that he shouldn’t be convicted of burglary of a building, since the structure wasn’t finished.

Wrong, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled this morning. The Supreme Court upheld previous rulings by Sedgwick County District Judge Rebecca Pilshaw and the Court of Appeals, saying even though the building didn’t have doors, Storey still shouldn’t have gone in there without permission. He cut the lock box, took the band saw and put it in his trunk, before police arrested him at the scene.

“Under the facts of this case, an unfinished medical center consisting of a roof, a concrete floor, installed electrical work, and four brick walls with openings for yet-to-be-installed windows and doors constituted a building (under the law),” the court ruled.

Not everyone agreed.”Carried to the extreme, … the pouring of a concrete floor would be sufficient to make all property left on top of that floor amenable to a burglary,” Justice Lee Johnson wrote in a dissenting opinion.

Storey, 38, finished his sentence in December, but the felony conviction will increase his sentence if he’s convicted of future crimes.

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Nonprofits may be vulnerable to former criminals who volunteer

April 22, 200812:08 p.m.

Ex-cons may be volunteering for non-profits. Many of the organizations wouldn’t know, however, because they don’t screen their volunteers.

The National Center for Victims of Crime this morning released a study that says one in three non-profits in the U.S. don’t run background checks on volunteers, and one in eight don’t do any type of screening. These usually are agencies that serve populations vulnerable to victimization, such as the elderly, poor or disabled. An audit of background checks found more than 187,000 people with criminal convictions tried to volunteer or work on the staffs of non-profits that did perform screenings. Of those, more than 2,700 were sex offenders.

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