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Jaeger’s attorney asks court to overturn conviction Douglas County jury in 2009 found former KU student mutilated, kidnapped ex-girlfriend By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
Members of a Kansas Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday focused on whether they had the Matthew Jaeger’s authority to overturn a conviction in a Douglas County kidattorney had napping and battery case. argued that his In 2009, a Douglas County ex-girlfriend’s jury convicted Matthew Jaeger, severe injuries came from a fall. now 26, of kidnapping, aggravat-
with another man, Dylan Jones, that night. Jaeger also was convicted of threatening Jones. “If a jury makes a decision and that decision is never to be questioned, then there would be no need to have an appellate court,” Jaeger’s defense attorney, Pedro Irigonegaray, argued. “What we’re suggesting is the jury did have authority to make those decisions, but the decision
that they made in this case is unreasonable based upon the evidence that they had to reach that decision. The circumstantial evidence just did not support it.” But Andrew Bauch, an assistant Kansas attorney general, said Irigonegaray was asking the appellate judges to take on the role of trial judges instead of make legal rulings on the appeal. “The court’s well aware that
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Today’s forecast, page 8A
INSIDE After injury, center fired up for rivalry After being carted off the field on a stretcher and temporarily losing feeling in his arms and legs after a neck injury in Saturday’s OU game, KU senior Jeremiah Hatch is back practicing, helping fire up his teammates for this weekend’s K-State game. Page 1B
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Business is now getting the benefit. The people we serve have been cut out of the loop.”
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Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
EMILY MULLIGAN SUPERVISES AS HER DAUGHTERS ARBOR, 6, AND PRAIRIE, 4, pick radishes Tuesday from Mellowfields Urban Garden for the Cordley Farm to School lunch today. The meal is a chance for students at the school to eat food that they harvested themselves. Cordley students and families harvested more than 10 pounds of lettuce and 13 pounds of cherry tomatoes Sunday at Pendleton’s Country Market. Tuesday’s harvest was 5 pounds of radishes.
Tech upgrade to interrupt DMV service Treasurer’s office also to be affected, so plan ahead “
By Mark Fagan
— Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka, expressmfagan@ljworld.com ing concern that businesses will now get Drivers, car buyers, vehimoney that was earmarked for Kansas homeowners to make their houses more cle owners and others looking to do business with the energy efficient. Page 3A Douglas County Treasurer’s Office or the Division COMING THURSDAY of Motor Vehicles early next month might want to County commissioners review speed up their approach. a permit request for the Fraternal The offices will be closed Order of Police firing range. for vehicle-related transactions, to allow for an around-the-clock conversion of 6.8 million data files to empower a new $40 milFacebook.com/LJWorld lion computer system. Twitter.com/LJWorld And make no mistake: While the system’s booting up, anyone seeking a license renewal, vehicle registration, title or other such Business 8A transaction will be locked Classified 1C-8C out. Comics 7A Deaths 2A Events listings 8A, 2B Food 8B Horoscope 7C Movies 5A Uncertainty Opinion 6A abounds regarding Poll 2A federal tax credit Puzzles 7C Sports 1B-5B By Scott Rothschild Television 5A, 2B, 8A srothschild@ljworld.com Vol.153/No.292 24 pages TOPEKA — Kansas will more than double its production of wind energy in Energy smart: The the next 18 months, but the Journal-World status of federal energy makes the policy could slow developmost of renewable resources. ment by 2013, officials said www.b-e-f.org Tuesday. Eight announced projects totaling $2.7 billion in capital investment and producing 1,388 megawatts of power are coming online in the state. “It has been a really exciting time, to say the least,”
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Please see JAEGER, page 2A
By Chad Lawhorn
Restaurant brings bit of Britain to town Queen Lizzy’s Fish and Chip Shop on Tenth Street intends to give Lawrence a taste of proper pub fare, including fried sausages. Page 8B
you are not allowed to do that,” Bauch said. “That’s what the jury did in this case. The jury got to decide the credibility and weight to give any witnesses.” The arguments in Jaeger’s case and others before the three-judge panel — G. Gordon Atcheson, Karen Arnold-Burger and David Bruns — were held in the old courtroom that is now
City Hall urges protesters to ‘follow rules’
Fresh from the garden
Getting colder
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ed battery and making a criminal threat in a case filed after his former girlfriend was beaten at her Lawrence apartment. Prosecutors said Jaeger, a former Kansas University student who is originally from suburban Chicago, burst into Francie Biggs’ apartment in October 2007, choking her and causing injuries to her vaginal area. According to testimony at the trial, Biggs was
“Plan ahead,” said Lisa Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Revenue, which is leading the conversion project. “By all means, plan ahead. And pay heed to the notices: We’re letting you know we can’t provide service on those days. Plan. Plan ahead. Come in and get your business done early.” Specifically:
DMV offices statewide, including the one at the I-70 Business Center in North Lawrence and within dozens of country treasurer’s offices elsewhere, will be closed from Dec. 1 through Dec. 5.
County treasurer’s offices, including three in Lawrence, will be unable to process titles, vehicles reg-
istrations, issue handicap parking placards or anything else related to vehicles from Dec. 1 through at least Dec. 6 and likely until Dec. 7, possibly later. That means drivers whose licenses expire in early December — the state issues more than 8,500 licenses each week — will need to stand in line early at the DMV. And folks whose last names end in T, V or W will need to be sure to register their vehicles by the end of November, or risk going for a longer-than-normal period with an unregistered car or truck. The state and treasurer’s offices are notifying the Kansas Highway Patrol, sheriff’s offices and police departments to ensure that law-
We’ll do what we can to help, but if they come in and want us to do something on one of those days (we’re closed), we won’t be able to do it .” — Douglas County Treasurer Paula Gilchrist
enforcement personnel are aware of the renewal and registration limitations. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be all that forgiving. Please see CLOSING, page 2A
Wind energy projects on rise but could slow soon said Kimberly Svaty, of The Wind Coalition. Currently, 1,072 megawatts of wind energy is produced in Kansas. Svaty told the HouseSenate Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy that there were dozens more potential projects. And Kansas has recently landed several large manufacturing facilities of wind turbine components. But Svaty said that uncertainty about whether the federal government will continue a wind production tax credit will slow growth. “It would be fair to say there is significant amount of uncertainty surrounding the production tax credit. We’re not sure what the direction is of the federal
government on energy in general. There are so many question marks on where does the country Brownback want to go with energy policy,” Svaty said. Wind developers were generally pleased with the pace of development of wind energy in Kansas and with state-approved tax breaks that are used as incentives. But some county officials voiced concerns. Elk County Commissioner Liz Hendricks said the Caney River Wind Project there was a major source
of income for county government. But she added it was “unfortunate” that Gov. Sam Brownback expanded the “Tallgrass Heartland” area of the Flint Hills, which made the Elk County off limits to further wind-farm expansion. “Due to Gov. Brownback’s recent decisions, we will not have Phase 2 or Phase 3. For a county like us, we will not see this kind of economic impact other than a wind farm,” Hendricks said. Brownback expanded the protected area, saying the Flint Hills should be developed more for tourism. — Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild can be reached at 785-423-0668.
Lawrence City Hall officials soon are going to want a better definition of what the “occupy” in Occupy Lawrence really means. City Hall leaders on Tuesday night began to express concern about the approximately 30 people who are camping in South Park as part of the Occupy Lawrence protests. “I don’t think they will be allowed to stay there indefinitely,” said Toni Wheeler, the director of the city’s legal department. “We’re now evaluating how to proceed.” Those comments come just one day after Mayor Aron Cromwell made comments that indicated the campers would be allowed to camp in South Park as long as they were peaceful. But Cromwell on Tuesday said he should have done more to emphasize that the campers must follow city rules. Generally, camping in city parks is CITY prohibited unless a group has COMMISSION a special permit. Occupy Lawrence’s permit expired Sunday. “They have to follow our rules, and we do not allow camping in our parks,” Cromwell said. “Their permit has expired, and that has to be dealt with.” But Cromwell stopped short of saying the campers would immediately be found in violation of the city’s ordinance. Instead, Cromwell said a dialogue will need to be opened with the campers to “work together to resolve the issue.” Wheeler said her office was exploring the best way to do that, but offered no specific timeline. “I don’t have a good feel for that now,” Wheeler said when asked how much longer the city may allow the camping. “I would just say days.” All of this may be news to the Occupy Lawrence campers. A few members of the group attended Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, and a representative thanked the city for its understanding. “We want to tell you that we’re keeping it peaceful,” said Sean Maupin, a camper and Lawrence resident who works as a nighttime stocking clerk at Walmart. “We’re not trying to make enemies up here. We appreciate everything you’re doing.” City commissioners or city officials did not bring up any concerns about the camping during the meeting. Instead, officials expressed those concerns outside of the meeting in response to questions from the Journal-World. Please see OCCUPY, page 2A