SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas teen on child sex allegations.

Just before 10:30p.m. Jan. 3, a deputy with the Shawnee County Sheriff's office responded to the Law Enforcement Center to assist Topeka Police with a child sex crime investigation, according to Sheriff's Lt. Scott Wanamaker.

Some of the alleged crimes occurred outside the city limits of Topeka in the 6700 Block of SW Windwood Lane in the unincorporated community of Montara. Deputies arrested 18-year-old Christopher M. Belk of Topeka on requested charges of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, according to Wanamaker.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704386510889.png" alt="Belk-photo Shawnee County" />
 <figcaption>Belk-photo Shawnee County</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas teen on child sex allegations.Just before 10:30p.m. Jan. 3, a deputy with the Shawnee County Sheriff's office responded to the Law Enforcement Center to assist Topeka Police with a child sex crime investigation, according to Sheriff's Lt. Scott Wanamaker.Some of the alleged crimes occurred outside the city limits of Topeka in the 6700 Block of SW Windwood Lane in the unincorporated community of Montara. Deputies arrested 18-year-old Christopher M. Belk of Topeka on requested charges of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, according to Wanamaker.

Kansas teen accused of child sex crimes

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a suspicious death have made an arrest.

Just before 6p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to a welfare check in the 600 Block of SW 14th Street in Topeka, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.

Upon arrival, the Officers located an individual who was found deceased. On Jan. 4, police reported they were&nbsp; investigating this death as a homicide and investigators believe the incident occurred sometime on December 28.

Police identified a suspect and arrested 22-year-old as Daniel V. Hesler of Topeka and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges: 1st Degree Murder and robbery, according to online jail records.

On Jan. 5, police reported their investigation led to a second arrest. Officers located 28-year-old Jordan R. Reynolds Taylor, 28, of Topeka and arrested him on requested charges of 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Robbery, according to police Lt. Edward Stanley.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704547559509.png" alt="Reynolds-Taylor-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Reynolds-Taylor-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a suspicious death have made an arrest.Just before 6p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to a welfare check in the 600 Block of SW 14th Street in Topeka, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.Upon arrival, the Officers located an individual who was found deceased. On Jan. 4, police reported they were&nbsp; investigating this death as a homicide and investigators believe the incident occurred sometime on December 28.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704317558256.png" alt="Hesler-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Hesler-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Police identified a suspect and arrested 22-year-old as Daniel V. Hesler of Topeka and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges: 1st Degree Murder and robbery, according to online jail records.On Jan. 5, police reported their investigation led to a second arrest. Officers located 28-year-old Jordan R. Reynolds Taylor, 28, of Topeka and arrested him on requested charges of 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Robbery, according to police Lt. Edward Stanley.

2nd suspect accused in robbery, murder at Kansas home

JACKSON COUNTY–Law enforcement authorities are investigating two women on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.

Just before 11p.m. January 3, a Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop on a 2000&nbsp; black Nissan Xterra near 150th&nbsp;and Q. Road for a traffic violation, according to Sheriff Tim Morse

 The stop led to a search of the vehicle which revealed what was believed to be drug contraband.

The front seat passenger, Masheika Tanay Davis, 43, of Topeka, was arrested after she was observed attempting to throw a container into the ditch which contained a hallucinogenic drug and methamphetamine.

Davis was arrested on requested charges of Possession of methamphetamine, Possession of a hallucinogenic drug, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Felony interference with LEO and Transporting an open container.

During the traffic stop, it was discovered the backseat passenger, Victoria Elizabetha Everett, 41, of Webster, Texas, was a non-compliant registered offender for distribution of methamphetamine.

Everett was arrested on requested charges of Violation of offender registration and Transporting an open container.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704415260360.png" alt="Everett-photo Jackson Co" />
 <figcaption>Everett-photo Jackson Co</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY–Law enforcement authorities are investigating two women on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.Just before 11p.m. January 3, a Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop on a 2000&nbsp; black Nissan Xterra near 150th&nbsp;and Q. Road for a traffic violation, according to Sheriff Tim Morse The stop led to a search of the vehicle which revealed what was believed to be drug contraband.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704415237228.png" alt="Davis photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Davis photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>The front seat passenger, Masheika Tanay Davis, 43, of Topeka, was arrested after she was observed attempting to throw a container into the ditch which contained a hallucinogenic drug and methamphetamine.Davis was arrested on requested charges of Possession of methamphetamine, Possession of a hallucinogenic drug, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Felony interference with LEO and Transporting an open container.During the traffic stop, it was discovered the backseat passenger, Victoria Elizabetha Everett, 41, of Webster, Texas, was a non-compliant registered offender for distribution of methamphetamine.Everett was arrested on requested charges of Violation of offender registration and Transporting an open container.

Sheriff: Kan. woman tried to throw drugs from SUV during traffic stop

NEW YORK (AP) — The release of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-documents-prince-andrew-harvey-weinstein-1e20f426af0c610db7963cdaf85c209f">dozens of previously sealed court documents</a>&nbsp;from a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein might disappoint online sleuths who anticipated explosive new information.

The nearly 200 documents released as of Friday largely mention figures whose names were already known, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew-bill-clinton-donald-trump-385ccf8d49d337ae4866022877aa9a90">high-profile friends</a>&nbsp;of Epstein’s and victims who have spoken publicly. In fact, the judge who made the call last month to release the information said she was doing so largely because much of it is already public.

<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/giuffre-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&amp;filed_before=&amp;entry_gte=&amp;entry_lte=&amp;order_by=desc">Click here to read </a>the documents released 1/5/24 (caution Adult content)

The plan to release the documents had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-jeffrey-epstein-list-released-006487910615">prompted rumors</a>&nbsp;that they contained a list of “clients” or “co-conspirators,” and misinformation about their contents is continuing to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/epstein-court-documents-misinformation-3a1df03616ec6b58684be434398de4b7">run rampant</a>&nbsp;on social media.

Still, the records&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-court-records-e5a924b6e97413850517df9237715a44">do include fresh details</a>&nbsp;about the financier’s sexual abuse of teenage girls, and offer a reminder of how he leveraged his powerful connections to recruit his victims and help cover up his crimes.

The documents unsealed this week are the latest of thousands previously made public in lawsuits involving Epstein.

Here’s what we know about the documents released so far:

A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein became the subject of a police investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. He was arrested in 2006.

Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-florida-e2a4431f7319afd037023d9a586aa291">allowed the financier to plead guilty</a>&nbsp;in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.

Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-department-of-justice-investigation-50c229b7953096f0301bfa1e7f0b7703">killed himself in jail</a>&nbsp;while awaiting trial.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.

The documents being unsealed are part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Maxwell by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.

Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein's social orbit, including Britain's Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell and the billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated.

Giuffre&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein's former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>&nbsp;” in identifying him as an abuser.

Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the Miami Herald went to court to access court papers initially filed under seal, including transcripts of interviews the lawyers did with potential witnesses.

About 2,000 pages were unsealed by a court in 2019. Additional documents were released in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The batch currently being released contains around 250 records with sections that were blacked out or were sealed entirely because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle but weren’t complicit in his crimes.

Nearly 200 have been released as of Friday. The judge hasn’t set a target for when all the documents should be made public, but more are expected to come.

U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who evaluated the documents to decide what should be unsealed, said in her December order that she was ordering the records released because much of the information within them is already public.

Some records have been released, either in part or in full, in other court cases.

The people named in the records include many of Epstein's accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell's trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren't accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a police detective.

There are also boldface names of public figures known to have associated with Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere, the judge said.

One of them is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.

His name was peppered throughout the documents released Wednesday.

Clinton and Trump both factor in the court file, partly because Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell's lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein. One story quoted her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened. She hasn't accused either former president of wrongdoing.

The judge said a handful of names should remain blacked out in the documents because they would identify people who were sexually abused. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Giuffre has done.

WHAT MISINFORMATION IS SPREADING ABOUT THE DOCUMENTS?

In addition to false claims that the documents represent some kind of list identifying Epstein’s “clients,” the internet is rife with misinformation about exactly who is named in the records and what that means.

Ahead of the release, social media users wrongly claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s name might appear, spurred by a joke New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”

Kimmel said in a response on X that he had never met Epstein and that Rodgers’ “reckless words put my family in danger.” His name did not appear in the documents released so far.

After the documents began emerging, social media users seized on names that appeared in passing, falsely suggesting it was proof of wrongdoing.

For instance, some suggested that the documents included allegations about Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018. In reality, the theoretical physicist's name appears, misspelled, in a 2015 email Epstein sent proposing a reward be paid to anyone who could debunk a baseless claim about Hawking.

Other social media users are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/epstein-court-documents-misinformation-3a1df03616ec6b58684be434398de4b7">spreading fabricated images</a>&nbsp;made to look like documents that they claim show people making allegations against Hawking and Kimmel. The quotes in the images don't appear anywhere in the records.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704330351229.png" alt="Jeffrey Epstein New York Sex Offender Registry" />
 <figcaption>Jeffrey Epstein New York Sex Offender Registry</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — The release of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-documents-prince-andrew-harvey-weinstein-1e20f426af0c610db7963cdaf85c209f">dozens of previously sealed court documents</a>&nbsp;from a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein might disappoint online sleuths who anticipated explosive new information.The nearly 200 documents released as of Friday largely mention figures whose names were already known, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew-bill-clinton-donald-trump-385ccf8d49d337ae4866022877aa9a90">high-profile friends</a>&nbsp;of Epstein’s and victims who have spoken publicly. In fact, the judge who made the call last month to release the information said she was doing so largely because much of it is already public.<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/giuffre-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&amp;filed_before=&amp;entry_gte=&amp;entry_lte=&amp;order_by=desc">Click here to read </a>the documents released 1/5/24 (caution Adult content)The plan to release the documents had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-jeffrey-epstein-list-released-006487910615">prompted rumors</a>&nbsp;that they contained a list of “clients” or “co-conspirators,” and misinformation about their contents is continuing to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/epstein-court-documents-misinformation-3a1df03616ec6b58684be434398de4b7">run rampant</a>&nbsp;on social media.Still, the records&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-court-records-e5a924b6e97413850517df9237715a44">do include fresh details</a>&nbsp;about the financier’s sexual abuse of teenage girls, and offer a reminder of how he leveraged his powerful connections to recruit his victims and help cover up his crimes.The documents unsealed this week are the latest of thousands previously made public in lawsuits involving Epstein.Here’s what we know about the documents released so far:WHO IS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein became the subject of a police investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. He was arrested in 2006.Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-florida-e2a4431f7319afd037023d9a586aa291">allowed the financier to plead guilty</a>&nbsp;in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-department-of-justice-investigation-50c229b7953096f0301bfa1e7f0b7703">killed himself in jail</a>&nbsp;while awaiting trial.The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.WHAT ARE THESE RECORDS ABOUT?The documents being unsealed are part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Maxwell by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico.Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein's social orbit, including Britain's Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell and the billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated.Giuffre&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein's former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>&nbsp;” in identifying him as an abuser.Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the Miami Herald went to court to access court papers initially filed under seal, including transcripts of interviews the lawyers did with potential witnesses.About 2,000 pages were unsealed by a court in 2019. Additional documents were released in 2020, 2021 and 2022.The batch currently being released contains around 250 records with sections that were blacked out or were sealed entirely because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle but weren’t complicit in his crimes.Nearly 200 have been released as of Friday. The judge hasn’t set a target for when all the documents should be made public, but more are expected to come.WHAT DO THE DOCUMENTS SHOW?U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who evaluated the documents to decide what should be unsealed, said in her December order that she was ordering the records released because much of the information within them is already public.Some records have been released, either in part or in full, in other court cases.The people named in the records include many of Epstein's accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell's trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren't accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a police detective.There are also boldface names of public figures known to have associated with Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere, the judge said.One of them is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.His name was peppered throughout the documents released Wednesday.Clinton and Trump both factor in the court file, partly because Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell's lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein. One story quoted her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened. She hasn't accused either former president of wrongdoing.The judge said a handful of names should remain blacked out in the documents because they would identify people who were sexually abused. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Giuffre has done.WHAT MISINFORMATION IS SPREADING ABOUT THE DOCUMENTS?In addition to false claims that the documents represent some kind of list identifying Epstein’s “clients,” the internet is rife with misinformation about exactly who is named in the records and what that means.Ahead of the release, social media users wrongly claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s name might appear, spurred by a joke New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”Kimmel said in a response on X that he had never met Epstein and that Rodgers’ “reckless words put my family in danger.” His name did not appear in the documents released so far.After the documents began emerging, social media users seized on names that appeared in passing, falsely suggesting it was proof of wrongdoing.For instance, some suggested that the documents included allegations about Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018. In reality, the theoretical physicist's name appears, misspelled, in a 2015 email Epstein sent proposing a reward be paid to anyone who could debunk a baseless claim about Hawking.Other social media users are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/epstein-court-documents-misinformation-3a1df03616ec6b58684be434398de4b7">spreading fabricated images</a>&nbsp;made to look like documents that they claim show people making allegations against Hawking and Kimmel. The quotes in the images don't appear anywhere in the records.

Read 3rd batch of Epstein documents released Friday

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A federal jury convicted a Kansas man for taking part in a retaliatory shooting that injured two people, including a federal task force officer.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, 24-year-old G’Ante Butler of Kansas City, Kansas, was found guilty of one count of forcible assault on a federal law enforcement officer and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

On August 3, 2020, Kansas City, Kansas police officers responded to a “shots fired” call on Farrow Avenue, where the defendant’s parents lived. Later that evening, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,

Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Special Agents and federally deputized Task Force Officers (TFOs) went to North Allis Street and arrested one of the individuals responsible for the earlier Farrow Avenue residence shooting. 

After executing a search warrant at the North Allis Street residence, and as the officers were returning to their vehicles, multiple shooters began firing at them. The officers tried to immediately take cover, however, not before an officer and a civilian bystander were struck by gunfire.

Based on evidence gathered during the subsequent investigation, ATF agents learned the shooting was orchestrated by G’Ante Butler and other individuals in retaliation for the earlier incident on Farrow Avenue. Their plan was to shoot at the North Allis Street home and any individuals they encountered there. Officers later recovered approximately 101 casings and two live rounds (including 9mm, .40 caliber, .45 caliber, 5.56 caliber, and 7.62 caliber casings) from an alley west of the targeted North Allis Street home.

Co-defendants Nadarius Barnes, 24, Chase Lewis, 23, and Donnell L. Hall, 28, all of Kansas City, Kansas, each pleaded guilty to one count of forcible assault on a federal law enforcement officer and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

A fifth defendant is scheduled to stand trial in February 2024.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704406464075.png" alt="Butler-photo Wyandotte County&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Butler-photo Wyandotte County&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A federal jury convicted a Kansas man for taking part in a retaliatory shooting that injured two people, including a federal task force officer.According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, 24-year-old G’Ante Butler of Kansas City, Kansas, was found guilty of one count of forcible assault on a federal law enforcement officer and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.On August 3, 2020, Kansas City, Kansas police officers responded to a “shots fired” call on Farrow Avenue, where the defendant’s parents lived. Later that evening, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Special Agents and federally deputized Task Force Officers (TFOs) went to North Allis Street and arrested one of the individuals responsible for the earlier Farrow Avenue residence shooting. After executing a search warrant at the North Allis Street residence, and as the officers were returning to their vehicles, multiple shooters began firing at them. The officers tried to immediately take cover, however, not before an officer and a civilian bystander were struck by gunfire.Based on evidence gathered during the subsequent investigation, ATF agents learned the shooting was orchestrated by G’Ante Butler and other individuals in retaliation for the earlier incident on Farrow Avenue. Their plan was to shoot at the North Allis Street home and any individuals they encountered there. Officers later recovered approximately 101 casings and two live rounds (including 9mm, .40 caliber, .45 caliber, 5.56 caliber, and 7.62 caliber casings) from an alley west of the targeted North Allis Street home.Co-defendants Nadarius Barnes, 24, Chase Lewis, 23, and Donnell L. Hall, 28, all of Kansas City, Kansas, each pleaded guilty to one count of forcible assault on a federal law enforcement officer and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.A fifth defendant is scheduled to stand trial in February 2024.

Kan. man orchestrated retaliation shooting at law enforcement

By OLIVIA BERGMEIERSalina Post

Late Thursday night, Salina Police officers arrested Darryl Jones Jr., a 50-year-old Salina resident, for allegedly battering a 39-year-old victim.

According to SPD Capt. James Feldman, officers arrived around 10 p.m. at the 400 block of South Connecticut Avenue after a neighborhood resident called SPD and reported a disturbance.

"During the investigations, officers determined Mr. Jones had battered a 39-year-old female," Feldman said. "During that, he had strangled her, threatened her life and then also battered her regularly."

Once officers determined that Jones had allegedly battered the victim, they arrested him without incident.

SPD officers requested charges for aggravated domestic battery, domestic battery and criminal threat.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704465482811.jpeg" alt="Jones photo Saline Co." />
 <figcaption>Jones photo Saline Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>By OLIVIA BERGMEIERSalina PostLate Thursday night, Salina Police officers arrested Darryl Jones Jr., a 50-year-old Salina resident, for allegedly battering a 39-year-old victim.According to SPD Capt. James Feldman, officers arrived around 10 p.m. at the 400 block of South Connecticut Avenue after a neighborhood resident called SPD and reported a disturbance."During the investigations, officers determined Mr. Jones had battered a 39-year-old female," Feldman said. "During that, he had strangled her, threatened her life and then also battered her regularly."Once officers determined that Jones had allegedly battered the victim, they arrested him without incident.SPD officers requested charges for aggravated domestic battery, domestic battery and criminal threat.

Kansas man jailed for alleged violent attack on a woman

RENO COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged sex crimes.

The investigation began when the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) received a Cyber Tip about the possession of sexually explicit depictions of children. ICAC turned the investigation over to the Reno County Sheriff's Office. 

On Thursday, the Reno County Sheriff's Office, with the aid of the Harvey County Sheriff's Office, arrested&nbsp; 25-year-old Matthew Whitehurst on requested charges of Sexual Exploitation of a Child. 

This is still an active investigation. If you have any information that may assist in the investigation, contact the Reno County Sheriff's Office at 620-694-2735 or if you wish to remain anonymous and be considered for a cash payout, contact Reno County Crime Stoppers at 620-694-2666 or 1-800-222-TIPS, refer to case number 2023-11501. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704414789248.png" alt="Whitehurst-photo Reno Co." />
 <figcaption>Whitehurst-photo Reno Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>RENO COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged sex crimes.The investigation began when the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) received a Cyber Tip about the possession of sexually explicit depictions of children. ICAC turned the investigation over to the Reno County Sheriff's Office. On Thursday, the Reno County Sheriff's Office, with the aid of the Harvey County Sheriff's Office, arrested&nbsp; 25-year-old Matthew Whitehurst on requested charges of Sexual Exploitation of a Child. This is still an active investigation. If you have any information that may assist in the investigation, contact the Reno County Sheriff's Office at 620-694-2735 or if you wish to remain anonymous and be considered for a cash payout, contact Reno County Crime Stoppers at 620-694-2666 or 1-800-222-TIPS, refer to case number 2023-11501.

Cyber tip led to arrest of Kan. man for alleged child sex crimes

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating the first homicide of 2024 in Kansas City.

Just before 10p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a medical call near the intersection of&nbsp;26th and Agnes, according to Sheriff Daryl Forte.

First responders found a man, later&nbsp;identified as 70-year-old Vonzell Bryant, in a yard suffering from some type of bodily trauma. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.&nbsp;

Police have not reported an arrest or additional details.

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating the first homicide of 2024 in Kansas City.Just before 10p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a medical call near the intersection of&nbsp;26th and Agnes, according to Sheriff Daryl Forte.First responders found a man, later&nbsp;identified as 70-year-old Vonzell Bryant, in a yard suffering from some type of bodily trauma. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.&nbsp;Police have not reported an arrest or additional details.

KCPD investigating first homicide of 2024 

JACKSON COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug allegations.

Just after 1a.m. Dec. 31, a Deputy Sheriff conducted a traffic stop on a white passenger car for a traffic violation in the vicinity of 126th and U.S. Highway 75, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

During the stop, the deputy observed drug paraphernalia in plain view. A probable cause search was conducted where methamphetamine, a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia were located. 

Christopher James Clinton, 41, of Topeka, was arrested on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia. Clinton remains in the Jackson County Jail, according to online records.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704385994538.png" alt="Clinton-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Clinton-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug allegations.Just after 1a.m. Dec. 31, a Deputy Sheriff conducted a traffic stop on a white passenger car for a traffic violation in the vicinity of 126th and U.S. Highway 75, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.During the stop, the deputy observed drug paraphernalia in plain view. A probable cause search was conducted where methamphetamine, a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia were located. Christopher James Clinton, 41, of Topeka, was arrested on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia. Clinton remains in the Jackson County Jail, according to online records.

Kan. deputy saw drug paraphernalia in car during traffic stop

NEW YORK (AP) — A new batch of unsealed documents pertaining to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-court-records-587fa5a6bedf93bc958bdc3a933006bc">Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse</a>&nbsp;of teenage girls was released Thursday, adding several hundred pages to the fountain of information detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253996-1424-epstein-documents-combined">Click here to read</a> the documents released 1/4/24 (caution Adult content)

The 19 documents, or about 300 pages, were half as many as the over 40&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-virginia-giuffre-3af500d4788ad45301be426628846d71">released Wednesday</a>. The documents so far — with more to come — were sprinkled with names of celebrities and politicians who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein">socialized with Epstein</a>&nbsp;or worked with him in the years before he was publicly accused nearly two decades ago of paying underage girls for sex.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew-bill-clinton-donald-trump-385ccf8d49d337ae4866022877aa9a90">Most of those names were familiar</a>&nbsp;to anyone who has followed the scandal closely, including the criminal trial of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ghislaine-maxwell">Ghislaine Maxwell</a>, who was Epstein's former girlfriend, household manager and chief recruiter of young, vulnerable females.

It was during Maxwell's criminal trial two years ago that Epstein's victims, some of whom aspired to be models or artists, described how he dropped the names of his famous and influential friends to suggest that he was the victims' ticket to reaching their dreams. Maxwell, 62, was convicted of sex-trafficking charges and is serving&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">a 20-year prison sentence</a>.

The roughly 250 documents being unsealed, starting this week, in one of the lawsuits against Maxwell mostly rehash what has long been known about a man who traveled in elite circles until his July 2019 sex-trafficking arrest left him so cornered that he took his own life in jail.

But they have included a few fresh details about a pyramid of abuse that grew over three decades and damaged dozens of teenage girls and young women.

Among the famous people in Epstein's orbit before he was exposed as a sexual predator were former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson and magician David Copperfield, according to the accounts of his victims and other witnesses quoted in newly released documents. None of those men were accused of wrongdoing.

There were also repetitions of well-known stories about Britain’s Prince Andrew. He was sued by one of Epstein's victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>, who said she had sexual encounters with the royal when she was 17. The prince, who denied the allegations,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled the lawsuit</a>&nbsp;in 2022.

The court documents being released now are related to a 2015 lawsuit that Giuffre brought against Maxwell. Thousands of pages of documents in that lawsuit had been made public previously, but some sections had been blacked out because of privacy concerns.

U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered last month that those redactions be lifted, mostly because names in the documents had already been made public through news coverage or through other court proceedings.

The documents released Thursday largely focused on legal squabbles over Giuffre’s lawsuit and her connection to a British tabloid reporter whom Maxwell’s lawyers accused of compelling her to fabricate some of her allegations. They didn’t offer much new insight into individuals in Epstein and Maxwell’s world or the sexual abuse they were alleged to have perpetrated.

Among the more interesting documents released Wednesday was the May 2016 deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, who worked as a masseuse in Epstein's household. Sjoberg said she once met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, home, but that nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon. Epstein also had homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

She also described an April 2001 trip to New York in which she said Prince Andrew touched her breast while they posed for a photo at Epstein’s Manhattan town house.

Clinton previously said through a spokesperson that although he traveled on Epstein’s jet several times, he never visited his homes, had no knowledge of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him since his conviction. Trump has also said he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy,” but that they later had a falling-out.

Sjoberg also testified that she once went to a dinner at one of Epstein’s homes that was also attended by magician David Copperfield.

She said Copperfield did magic tricks before asking if she was aware “that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” One allegation against Epstein and Maxwell was that some girls he paid for sexual acts later recruited other victims. Sjoberg said Copperfield didn’t get more specific about what he meant. A Copperfield publicist didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

The newly released records also include many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who was close to Epstein and who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls. Giuffre was among the women who accused Brunel of sexual abuse.

Separately, Brunel’s estate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253769-lawsuit-against-estate-of-jean-luc-brunel?responsive=1&amp;title=1">was sued this week</a>&nbsp;by a woman who alleges that he and others sexually assaulted her while she was working as a model in New York. She says that on one occasion, she was driven to a home in Canada and kept there for several days while men abused her. The lawsuit, filed in state court in California, does not mention Epstein or Maxwell.

More documents were expected to be released on Friday and Monday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704416234390.png" alt="FILE — Audrey Strauss, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference, July 2, 2020, in New York. Social media is abuzz with news that a judge is about to release a list of “clients,” or “associates” or maybe “co-conspirators,” of Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While some previously sealed court records are indeed being made public, the great majority of the people whose names appear in those documents are not accused of any wrongdoing. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)" />
 <figcaption>FILE — Audrey Strauss, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference, July 2, 2020, in New York. Social media is abuzz with news that a judge is about to release a list of “clients,” or “associates” or maybe “co-conspirators,” of Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While some previously sealed court records are indeed being made public, the great majority of the people whose names appear in those documents are not accused of any wrongdoing. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — A new batch of unsealed documents pertaining to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-court-records-587fa5a6bedf93bc958bdc3a933006bc">Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse</a>&nbsp;of teenage girls was released Thursday, adding several hundred pages to the fountain of information detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253996-1424-epstein-documents-combined">Click here to read</a> the documents released 1/4/24 (caution Adult content)The 19 documents, or about 300 pages, were half as many as the over 40&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-virginia-giuffre-3af500d4788ad45301be426628846d71">released Wednesday</a>. The documents so far — with more to come — were sprinkled with names of celebrities and politicians who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein">socialized with Epstein</a>&nbsp;or worked with him in the years before he was publicly accused nearly two decades ago of paying underage girls for sex.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew-bill-clinton-donald-trump-385ccf8d49d337ae4866022877aa9a90">Most of those names were familiar</a>&nbsp;to anyone who has followed the scandal closely, including the criminal trial of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ghislaine-maxwell">Ghislaine Maxwell</a>, who was Epstein's former girlfriend, household manager and chief recruiter of young, vulnerable females.It was during Maxwell's criminal trial two years ago that Epstein's victims, some of whom aspired to be models or artists, described how he dropped the names of his famous and influential friends to suggest that he was the victims' ticket to reaching their dreams. Maxwell, 62, was convicted of sex-trafficking charges and is serving&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">a 20-year prison sentence</a>.The roughly 250 documents being unsealed, starting this week, in one of the lawsuits against Maxwell mostly rehash what has long been known about a man who traveled in elite circles until his July 2019 sex-trafficking arrest left him so cornered that he took his own life in jail.But they have included a few fresh details about a pyramid of abuse that grew over three decades and damaged dozens of teenage girls and young women.Among the famous people in Epstein's orbit before he was exposed as a sexual predator were former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson and magician David Copperfield, according to the accounts of his victims and other witnesses quoted in newly released documents. None of those men were accused of wrongdoing.There were also repetitions of well-known stories about Britain’s Prince Andrew. He was sued by one of Epstein's victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>, who said she had sexual encounters with the royal when she was 17. The prince, who denied the allegations,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled the lawsuit</a>&nbsp;in 2022.The court documents being released now are related to a 2015 lawsuit that Giuffre brought against Maxwell. Thousands of pages of documents in that lawsuit had been made public previously, but some sections had been blacked out because of privacy concerns.U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered last month that those redactions be lifted, mostly because names in the documents had already been made public through news coverage or through other court proceedings.The documents released Thursday largely focused on legal squabbles over Giuffre’s lawsuit and her connection to a British tabloid reporter whom Maxwell’s lawyers accused of compelling her to fabricate some of her allegations. They didn’t offer much new insight into individuals in Epstein and Maxwell’s world or the sexual abuse they were alleged to have perpetrated.Among the more interesting documents released Wednesday was the May 2016 deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, who worked as a masseuse in Epstein's household. Sjoberg said she once met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, home, but that nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon. Epstein also had homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.She also described an April 2001 trip to New York in which she said Prince Andrew touched her breast while they posed for a photo at Epstein’s Manhattan town house.Clinton previously said through a spokesperson that although he traveled on Epstein’s jet several times, he never visited his homes, had no knowledge of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him since his conviction. Trump has also said he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy,” but that they later had a falling-out.Sjoberg also testified that she once went to a dinner at one of Epstein’s homes that was also attended by magician David Copperfield.She said Copperfield did magic tricks before asking if she was aware “that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” One allegation against Epstein and Maxwell was that some girls he paid for sexual acts later recruited other victims. Sjoberg said Copperfield didn’t get more specific about what he meant. A Copperfield publicist didn't respond to an email seeking comment.The newly released records also include many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who was close to Epstein and who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls. Giuffre was among the women who accused Brunel of sexual abuse.Separately, Brunel’s estate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253769-lawsuit-against-estate-of-jean-luc-brunel?responsive=1&amp;title=1">was sued this week</a>&nbsp;by a woman who alleges that he and others sexually assaulted her while she was working as a model in New York. She says that on one occasion, she was driven to a home in Canada and kept there for several days while men abused her. The lawsuit, filed in state court in California, does not mention Epstein or Maxwell.More documents were expected to be released on Friday and Monday.___

Read 2nd batch of Epstein documents released Thursday

&nbsp;SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man is going to prison for a Christmas week 2022 double murder.

On Wednesday Judge Jeffrey Goering sentenced 40-year-old Kenneth Jackson to just more than 18-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office 

Just before 10p.m. Dec. 23, 2022 police were dispatched to a shooting in the 900 block of South Mission in Wichita, according to Officer Juan Rebolledo.

At the scene, police located two victims,&nbsp;a 22-year-0ld man and a 42-year-old man, with multiple gunshot wounds. EMS transported them to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.&nbsp;

During the initial contact, officers learned that two additional victims were inside an apartment near where the two men had been shot. Officers entered the apartment and located a man and woman later identified as&nbsp;39-year-old Jose Alvarez and 22-year-old Neosha Allen unconscious and not breathing. They were pronounced deceased on the scene.

Due to the lack of cooperation from some of the victims and witnesses, investigators were not initially able to fully determine the circumstances leading up to the shooting.&nbsp;

Police reported Jackson's arrest on Dec. 28.&nbsp;In September 2023 he pleaded guilty  to voluntary manslaughter, according to the district attorney's office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/11/1699565351146.png" alt="Jackson-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Jackson-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man is going to prison for a Christmas week 2022 double murder.On Wednesday Judge Jeffrey Goering sentenced 40-year-old Kenneth Jackson to just more than 18-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office Just before 10p.m. Dec. 23, 2022 police were dispatched to a shooting in the 900 block of South Mission in Wichita, according to Officer Juan Rebolledo.At the scene, police located two victims,&nbsp;a 22-year-0ld man and a 42-year-old man, with multiple gunshot wounds. EMS transported them to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.&nbsp;During the initial contact, officers learned that two additional victims were inside an apartment near where the two men had been shot. Officers entered the apartment and located a man and woman later identified as&nbsp;39-year-old Jose Alvarez and 22-year-old Neosha Allen unconscious and not breathing. They were pronounced deceased on the scene.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1671890141036.png" alt="Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>Due to the lack of cooperation from some of the victims and witnesses, investigators were not initially able to fully determine the circumstances leading up to the shooting.&nbsp;Police reported Jackson's arrest on Dec. 28.&nbsp;In September 2023 he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, according to the district attorney's office.

Kan. man sentenced for Christmas week 2022 double-murder

EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led about 60 fellow Republicans in Congress on a visit Wednesday to the Mexican border to demand hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ukraine-israel-budget-3762a0bdf00653e3c8a38175d3c3d3cb">President Joe Biden's emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine</a>. He expressed serious doubts about whether he would support a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-congress-border-biden-064246982c828ed820c1c5a47c85901b">bipartisan compromise</a>.'

The trip to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-law-border-b0100138a88a0d034ae8e68787ef41b7">Eagle Pass, Texas</a>, came as the Senate engages in delicate negotiations in hopes of striking a deal on border policies that could unlock Senate GOP support for Biden’s $110 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. security priorities.

But Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press during the border tour that he was holding firmly to the policies of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-bill-255921c69678468580d0d106282623f0">bill</a>&nbsp;passed by House Republicans in May without a single Democratic vote. The bill, H.R. 2, would revive many of the policies pursued by former President Donald Trump, build more of the border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers. Democrats called the legislation “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-immigration-biden-d62168665ba1581fc75651abc0409071">Biden promised a veto.</a>

“If it looks like H.R. 2, we'll talk about it,” Johnson said of any border legislation that emerges from the Senate.

With the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-border-wall-breaches-asylum-immigration-beddd2ca0ffd02884ce0d0ad1785f538">number of illegal crossings</a>&nbsp;into the United States topping 10,000 on several days last month, Eagle Pass has been at the center of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-texas-border-buoys-wire-abbott-5f138e354e88fc319f46c55344d7335c">Operation Lone Star</a>, his nearly $10 billion initiative that has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-arrests-immigration-greg-abbott-civil-rights-violations-bcbfef0901b375c9301ade01a59eb1c9">tested the federal government’s authority</a>&nbsp;over immigration and elevated the political fight over the issue.

The GOP House members touted their event as the largest congressional border trip ever. They traveled in two large buses beneath an international bridge in Eagle Pass where just two weeks ago illegal crossings prompted a large federal response that included closing railroad traffic and creating a large field for processing migrants. By Wednesday, the field sat empty with only stakes in the ground and orange fencing.

At a news conference, Johnson suggested he could use a looming government funding deadline as further leverage.

“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin with defending America’s national security," he said. Johnson added: “We want to get the border closed and secured first."

Biden has expressed willingness to make policy compromises as the historic number of migrants crossing the border is an increasing challenge for his 2024 reelection campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House staff have been involved in the Senate negotiations.

“We’ve got to do something," Biden told reporters Tuesday night. He said Congress should approve his national security proposal because it also includes money for managing the influx of migrants. "They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border,” he said.

Administration officials have criticized Johnson's trip as a political ploy that will do little to solve the problem. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Republicans were compromising national security by threatening to shut down the government and delaying approval of funding for additional border security.

“When they’re at the border, they’re going to see the magnitude of the problem and why we have said now for about three decades, their broken immigration system is in desperate need of legislative reform,” Mayorkas told CNN on Wednesday. “So we are focused on the solutions, and we hope that they will return to Washington and focus on the solutions as well.”

House Republicans also contend that Mayorkas' management of the border has amounted to a dereliction of his duties and they are moving ahead with rare impeachment proceedings against a Cabinet member, with a first committee hearing on the matter scheduled for next week. Mayorkas told MSNBC he would cooperate with an inquiry.

During parts of December, border crossings in Eagle Pass, as well as other locations, swamped the resources of Customs and Border Protection officials. Authorities closed cargo rail crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso for five days and shut down border crossings in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lukeville-arizona-border-crossing-closed-ae04e8c861a95e98dbfc8d49244cf092">Arizona city of Lukeville.</a>

Authorities say the numbers of migrants eased over the December holidays as part of a seasonal pattern. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lukeville-arizona-border-crossing-reopens-d6921b6d157952036c65e38ba4aac43d">border crossings are reopening</a>, and arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico fell to about 2,500 on Monday, from more than 10,000 on several days in December, officials said.

“We need to fix the border. There’s virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. He added: “Everyone’s going to have to give something to get this done.”

Republicans are pressuring Biden and Democrats to accept strict border measures, and they see the high number of migrants arriving at the border as a political weakness for the president.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in Kentucky on Tuesday that in a conversation with 81-year-old Biden, he made the case: “You can’t do anything about how old you are, you can’t do anything about inflation, but this is something that’s measurable that you could claim credit for.”

McConnell also said he was approaching the talks with “optimism that somehow we will get this all together and we’re giving it our best shot.”

Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican negotiating the Senate agreement, called H.R. 2 “a great bill,” but said it was not realistic to expect the president or Senate Democrats to support the measures.

Senate negotiators have focused on tougher asylum protocols for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-border-wall-breaches-asylum-immigration-beddd2ca0ffd02884ce0d0ad1785f538">migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border</a>, bolstering border enforcement with more personnel and high-tech systems, and enforcement measures that would kick in if the number of daily crossings passed a certain threshold.

Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Lankford met Wednesday afternoon and said they were trying to agree on legislative text they could present to their colleagues. Sinema said the group was “closing in" on an agreement, but technical work remained before Congress returns to Washington next week.

“We’re going to work out a bill, if we’re successful, that will have Republican and Democratic votes,” said Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator.

Murphy has raised concern that the longer the talks draw out, the longer it leaves Ukraine's defenses hanging without assured support from the U.S. in the war with Russia.

The Pentagon in late December announced what officials say&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-funding-weapons-2153375d4394d5783fad73858b51e993">could be the final package of military aid</a>&nbsp;for Ukraine if Congress does not approve Biden's funding request. The weapons, worth up to $250 million, include air munitions and other missiles, artillery, anti-armor systems, ammunition, demolition and medical equipment and parts.

Russia has unleashed a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kharkiv-kyiv-2b23b1163c859a645b485d5c38035369">flurry of missile and drone strikes</a>&nbsp;on Ukraine in the new year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704366649599.png" alt="Kansas Rep. Ron Estes at the border on Wednesday" />
 <figcaption>Kansas Rep. Ron Estes at the border on Wednesday</figcaption>
 </figure>EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led about 60 fellow Republicans in Congress on a visit Wednesday to the Mexican border to demand hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ukraine-israel-budget-3762a0bdf00653e3c8a38175d3c3d3cb">President Joe Biden's emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine</a>. He expressed serious doubts about whether he would support a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-congress-border-biden-064246982c828ed820c1c5a47c85901b">bipartisan compromise</a>.'<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-vAl1RBwecw?si=KTGRG6xQjW5_pjjG&amp;start=2" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Today I joined <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerJohnson</a> in Eagle Pass, Texas, where, even with cameras rolling and 60 members of Congress present, we saw migrants try to illegally enter our country. That is how bad Biden&#39;s open border policies are. Our country needs the solutions in H.R. 2. <a href="https://t.co/rHNZIUT9SO">pic.twitter.com/rHNZIUT9SO</a>&mdash; Rep. Ron Estes (@RepRonEstes) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepRonEstes/status/1742689156567093660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The trip to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-law-border-b0100138a88a0d034ae8e68787ef41b7">Eagle Pass, Texas</a>, came as the Senate engages in delicate negotiations in hopes of striking a deal on border policies that could unlock Senate GOP support for Biden’s $110 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. security priorities.But Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press during the border tour that he was holding firmly to the policies of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-bill-255921c69678468580d0d106282623f0">bill</a>&nbsp;passed by House Republicans in May without a single Democratic vote. The bill, H.R. 2, would revive many of the policies pursued by former President Donald Trump, build more of the border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers. Democrats called the legislation “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-immigration-biden-d62168665ba1581fc75651abc0409071">Biden promised a veto.</a>“If it looks like H.R. 2, we'll talk about it,” Johnson said of any border legislation that emerges from the Senate.With the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-border-wall-breaches-asylum-immigration-beddd2ca0ffd02884ce0d0ad1785f538">number of illegal crossings</a>&nbsp;into the United States topping 10,000 on several days last month, Eagle Pass has been at the center of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-texas-border-buoys-wire-abbott-5f138e354e88fc319f46c55344d7335c">Operation Lone Star</a>, his nearly $10 billion initiative that has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-arrests-immigration-greg-abbott-civil-rights-violations-bcbfef0901b375c9301ade01a59eb1c9">tested the federal government’s authority</a>&nbsp;over immigration and elevated the political fight over the issue.The GOP House members touted their event as the largest congressional border trip ever. They traveled in two large buses beneath an international bridge in Eagle Pass where just two weeks ago illegal crossings prompted a large federal response that included closing railroad traffic and creating a large field for processing migrants. By Wednesday, the field sat empty with only stakes in the ground and orange fencing.At a news conference, Johnson suggested he could use a looming government funding deadline as further leverage.“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin with defending America’s national security," he said. Johnson added: “We want to get the border closed and secured first."Biden has expressed willingness to make policy compromises as the historic number of migrants crossing the border is an increasing challenge for his 2024 reelection campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House staff have been involved in the Senate negotiations.“We’ve got to do something," Biden told reporters Tuesday night. He said Congress should approve his national security proposal because it also includes money for managing the influx of migrants. "They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border,” he said.Administration officials have criticized Johnson's trip as a political ploy that will do little to solve the problem. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Republicans were compromising national security by threatening to shut down the government and delaying approval of funding for additional border security.“When they’re at the border, they’re going to see the magnitude of the problem and why we have said now for about three decades, their broken immigration system is in desperate need of legislative reform,” Mayorkas told CNN on Wednesday. “So we are focused on the solutions, and we hope that they will return to Washington and focus on the solutions as well.”House Republicans also contend that Mayorkas' management of the border has amounted to a dereliction of his duties and they are moving ahead with rare impeachment proceedings against a Cabinet member, with a first committee hearing on the matter scheduled for next week. Mayorkas told MSNBC he would cooperate with an inquiry.During parts of December, border crossings in Eagle Pass, as well as other locations, swamped the resources of Customs and Border Protection officials. Authorities closed cargo rail crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso for five days and shut down border crossings in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lukeville-arizona-border-crossing-closed-ae04e8c861a95e98dbfc8d49244cf092">Arizona city of Lukeville.</a>Authorities say the numbers of migrants eased over the December holidays as part of a seasonal pattern. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lukeville-arizona-border-crossing-reopens-d6921b6d157952036c65e38ba4aac43d">border crossings are reopening</a>, and arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico fell to about 2,500 on Monday, from more than 10,000 on several days in December, officials said.“We need to fix the border. There’s virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. He added: “Everyone’s going to have to give something to get this done.”Republicans are pressuring Biden and Democrats to accept strict border measures, and they see the high number of migrants arriving at the border as a political weakness for the president.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in Kentucky on Tuesday that in a conversation with 81-year-old Biden, he made the case: “You can’t do anything about how old you are, you can’t do anything about inflation, but this is something that’s measurable that you could claim credit for.”McConnell also said he was approaching the talks with “optimism that somehow we will get this all together and we’re giving it our best shot.”Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican negotiating the Senate agreement, called H.R. 2 “a great bill,” but said it was not realistic to expect the president or Senate Democrats to support the measures.Senate negotiators have focused on tougher asylum protocols for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-border-wall-breaches-asylum-immigration-beddd2ca0ffd02884ce0d0ad1785f538">migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border</a>, bolstering border enforcement with more personnel and high-tech systems, and enforcement measures that would kick in if the number of daily crossings passed a certain threshold.Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Lankford met Wednesday afternoon and said they were trying to agree on legislative text they could present to their colleagues. Sinema said the group was “closing in" on an agreement, but technical work remained before Congress returns to Washington next week.“We’re going to work out a bill, if we’re successful, that will have Republican and Democratic votes,” said Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator.Murphy has raised concern that the longer the talks draw out, the longer it leaves Ukraine's defenses hanging without assured support from the U.S. in the war with Russia.The Pentagon in late December announced what officials say&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-funding-weapons-2153375d4394d5783fad73858b51e993">could be the final package of military aid</a>&nbsp;for Ukraine if Congress does not approve Biden's funding request. The weapons, worth up to $250 million, include air munitions and other missiles, artillery, anti-armor systems, ammunition, demolition and medical equipment and parts.Russia has unleashed a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kharkiv-kyiv-2b23b1163c859a645b485d5c38035369">flurry of missile and drone strikes</a>&nbsp;on Ukraine in the new year.___

🎥Kan. congressman joins lawmakers' border trip to slam Biden on immigration

Upon arrival, the Officers located an individual who was found deceased. On Wednesday, police reported they were&nbsp; investigating this death as a homicide and investigators believe the incident occurred sometime on December 28. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704317558256.png" alt="Hesler photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Hesler photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a suspicious death have made an arrest.Just before 6p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to a welfare check in the 600 Block of SW 14th Street in Topeka, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.Upon arrival, the Officers located an individual who was found deceased. On Wednesday, police reported they were&nbsp; investigating this death as a homicide and investigators believe the incident occurred sometime on December 28. Police identified a suspect and arrested 22-year-old as Daniel V. Hesler of Topeka and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges: 1st Degree Murder and robbery, according to online jail records.

Suspect accused in Dec. 28 murder at Kansas home

MEADE COUNTY&nbsp;–&nbsp;The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), with assistance from the Iola Police Department, the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP), and the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested two suspects who possessed two pounds of methamphetamine and approximately 2,500 pills presumed to contain fentanyl, according to a media release from the KBI.

In September 2023, information was developed by the Iola Police Department about methamphetamine being distributed in southeast Kansas by subjects in Wichita. The Iola Police Department and the KBI began investigating.

On Wednesday, Jan. 3, KBI agents located the subjects they believed were involved. KHP troopers initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle occupied by the suspects. The traffic stop took place on U.S. Highway 54 in Meade County, Kansas. The fentanyl pills and methamphetamine were located soon after.

On Jan. 3, at approximately 8 a.m., Jeffrey A. Filley, 47, of Wichita and Theresa R. West, 32, of Wichita, were arrested on requested charges that incloude distribution of methamphetamine, distribution of fentanyl, possession of drug paraphernalia, distribution or possession of a controlled substance using a communication facility, and conspiracy. West was also booked for driving while suspended and for committing several traffic violations.

The suspects were booked into the Meade County Jail.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704332315677.png" alt="Filley-photo Meade Co." />
 <figcaption>Filley-photo Meade Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>MEADE COUNTY&nbsp;–&nbsp;The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), with assistance from the Iola Police Department, the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP), and the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested two suspects who possessed two pounds of methamphetamine and approximately 2,500 pills presumed to contain fentanyl, according to a media release from the KBI.In September 2023, information was developed by the Iola Police Department about methamphetamine being distributed in southeast Kansas by subjects in Wichita. The Iola Police Department and the KBI began investigating.On Wednesday, Jan. 3, KBI agents located the subjects they believed were involved. KHP troopers initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle occupied by the suspects. The traffic stop took place on U.S. Highway 54 in Meade County, Kansas. The fentanyl pills and methamphetamine were located soon after.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704332247132.png" alt="West-photo Meade County" />
 <figcaption>West-photo Meade County</figcaption>
 </figure>On Jan. 3, at approximately 8 a.m., Jeffrey A. Filley, 47, of Wichita and Theresa R. West, 32, of Wichita, were arrested on requested charges that incloude distribution of methamphetamine, distribution of fentanyl, possession of drug paraphernalia, distribution or possession of a controlled substance using a communication facility, and conspiracy. West was also booked for driving while suspended and for committing several traffic violations.The suspects were booked into the Meade County Jail.&nbsp;

Kansas couple accused of selling fentanyl and meth

RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged threat.&nbsp;

Just after 4p.m. Tuesday, officers filed a report for criminal threat in the 400 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd. in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report. 

A 17-year-old boy reported an unknown male suspect made threats to him. Seth Sumners, 46, of Manhattan was arrested for criminal threat. Sumners was issued a total bond amount of $8,ooo and is being held in the Riley County Jail.

RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged threat.&nbsp;Just after 4p.m. Tuesday, officers filed a report for criminal threat in the 400 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd. in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report. A 17-year-old boy reported an unknown male suspect made threats to him. Seth Sumners, 46, of Manhattan was arrested for criminal threat. Sumners was issued a total bond amount of $8,ooo and is being held in the Riley County Jail.

Man jailed for alleged threat against teen in Manhattan

NEW YORK (AP) — Amid great hype, a court began to release a new batch of previously secret court documents late Wednesday related to Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253239-1324-epstein-documents-943-pages">Click here to read</a> the documents (caution: adult content)

Social media has been rife in recent weeks with posts speculating that the documents would include a list of rich and powerful men who were Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.”

There was no such list. The initial collection of around 40 documents made public largely contained material that had been released previously, or exhaustively been covered in nearly two decades’ worth of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews, books about the Epstein scandal.

Still, the records — which included transcripts of interviews with some of Epstein’s victims — included reminders that Epstein surrounded himself with famous and powerful figures, including a few who have also been accused of misconduct.

They included mentions of Epstein’s past friendship with Bill Clinton — who is not accused of any wrongdoing — and of Britain’s Prince Andrew, who previously settled a lawsuit accusing him of having sex with a 17-year-old girl who traveled with Epstein.

The documents being unsealed are related to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico. This particular suit was against Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of helping recruit Epstein’s victims and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.

Epstein, a millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on a sex trafficking charge.

Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the court had kept some court documents blacked-out or sealed because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle.

Only around 40 of those documents were made public Wednesday. More will be released in the coming days.

The records included the depositions of several of Epstein's victims, many of whom have told their stories publicly previously.

She&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022 in which she claimed he had sexually abused her during a trip to London. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein’s former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>” in identifying him as an abuser.

The <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253239-1324-epstein-documents-943-pages">records released Wednesday</a> included many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.

Clinton's name came up because Guiffre was questioned by Maxwell’s lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein, including a story quoting her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Donald Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened.

Even before the documents were released, misinformation about what was in them abounded.&nbsp;

The judge hasn’t set a target for when all of the documents should be made public, but more documents are expected to come in the next few days.

Here’s what we know about the documents:

A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.

The documents being unsealed are part of a lawsuit filed against Maxwell in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein's social orbit, most famously with Britain's Prince Andrew. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated. She&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein's former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>&nbsp;” in identifying him as an abuser.

This next batch of around 250 records had sections that were blacked out or were sealed entirely because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle but weren’t complicit in his crimes.

Some records have been released, either in part or in full, in other court cases. Much of the rest involve topics and people who have been exhaustively covered in nearly two decades' worth of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews, books and testimony at Maxwell’s criminal trial.

The people named in the records include many of Epstein's accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell's trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren't accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a detective.

On Dec. 18, the judge gave the people whose names appear in the records 14 days to appeal, then directed the lawyers to confer, prepare the documents for unsealing and post them on the docket.

Two people whose name appears in the records have been given additional time to make arguments to the court as to why their names should stay redacted.

A small batch of documents was made available publicly on Wednesday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704330351229.png" alt="Jeffrey Epstein New York Sex Offender Registry" />
 <figcaption>Jeffrey Epstein New York Sex Offender Registry</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — Amid great hype, a court began to release a new batch of previously secret court documents late Wednesday related to Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253239-1324-epstein-documents-943-pages">Click here to read</a> the documents (caution: adult content)Social media has been rife in recent weeks with posts speculating that the documents would include a list of rich and powerful men who were Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.”There was no such list. The initial collection of around 40 documents made public largely contained material that had been released previously, or exhaustively been covered in nearly two decades’ worth of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews, books about the Epstein scandal.Still, the records — which included transcripts of interviews with some of Epstein’s victims — included reminders that Epstein surrounded himself with famous and powerful figures, including a few who have also been accused of misconduct.They included mentions of Epstein’s past friendship with Bill Clinton — who is not accused of any wrongdoing — and of Britain’s Prince Andrew, who previously settled a lawsuit accusing him of having sex with a 17-year-old girl who traveled with Epstein.The documents being unsealed are related to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico. This particular suit was against Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of helping recruit Epstein’s victims and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.Epstein, a millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on a sex trafficking charge.Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the court had kept some court documents blacked-out or sealed because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle.Only around 40 of those documents were made public Wednesday. More will be released in the coming days.The records included the depositions of several of Epstein's victims, many of whom have told their stories publicly previously.Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.She&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022 in which she claimed he had sexually abused her during a trip to London. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein’s former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>” in identifying him as an abuser.The <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24253239-1324-epstein-documents-943-pages">records released Wednesday</a> included many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.Clinton's name came up because Guiffre was questioned by Maxwell’s lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein, including a story quoting her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Donald Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened.The judge said a handful of names should remain blacked out in the documents because they would identify people who were sexually abused. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Giuffre has done.Even before the documents were released, misinformation about what was in them abounded.&nbsp;The judge hasn’t set a target for when all of the documents should be made public, but more documents are expected to come in the next few days.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704331774729.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Here’s what we know about the documents:WHO IS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-florida-e2a4431f7319afd037023d9a586aa291">allowed the financier to plead guilty</a>&nbsp;in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-department-of-justice-investigation-50c229b7953096f0301bfa1e7f0b7703">killed himself in jail</a>&nbsp;while awaiting trial.The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260">serving a 20-year prison term</a>.WHAT ARE THESE RECORDS ABOUT?The documents being unsealed are part of a lawsuit filed against Maxwell in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-entertainment-lifestyle-virginia-prince-andrew-60348f70fd605c26c26615ffc5ed5f14">Virginia Giuffre</a>. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico.Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein's social orbit, most famously with Britain's Prince Andrew. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated. She&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-lawsuit-settlement-8b04c775aa46f761d81c05ef12e3a94f">settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew</a>&nbsp;in 2022. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein's former attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-new-york-lawsuits-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-2a7202e552c38ed03c5fe39d6a29721b">may have made a mistake</a>&nbsp;” in identifying him as an abuser.Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the Miami Herald went to court to access court papers initially filed under seal, including transcripts of interviews the lawyers did with potential witnesses.About 2,000 pages were unsealed by a court in 2019. Additional documents were released in 2020, 2021 and 2022.This next batch of around 250 records had sections that were blacked out or were sealed entirely because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle but weren’t complicit in his crimes.WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE?U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who evaluated the documents to decide what should be unsealed, said in her December order that she was ordering the records released because much of the information within them is already public.Some records have been released, either in part or in full, in other court cases. Much of the rest involve topics and people who have been exhaustively covered in nearly two decades' worth of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews, books and testimony at Maxwell’s criminal trial.The people named in the records include many of Epstein's accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell's trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren't accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a detective.There are also boldface names of public figures known to have associated with Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere, the judge said.One of them is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-paris-jeffrey-epstein-edfbdb84c6cdd5f736ac7e1c2bac657b">killed himself in a Paris jail</a>&nbsp;in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.Clinton and Trump both factor in the court file, partly because Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell's lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein. One story quoted her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened. She hasn't accused either former president of wrongdoing.The judge said a handful of names should remain blacked out in the documents because they would identify people who were sexually abused. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Giuffre has done.WHEN WILL THE DOCUMENTS BE MADE PUBLIC?On Dec. 18, the judge gave the people whose names appear in the records 14 days to appeal, then directed the lawyers to confer, prepare the documents for unsealing and post them on the docket.Two people whose name appears in the records have been given additional time to make arguments to the court as to why their names should stay redacted.A small batch of documents was made available publicly on Wednesday.

Read the unsealed Jeffrey Epstein court documents 

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on child sex allegations.

Just after 11a.m. Monday, a sheriff's deputy responded to a Topeka hospital on a report of a sexual crime that occurred in the 2100 Block of SE 102nd Street, according to Sheriff's Lt. Scott Wanamaker.

After a preliminary investigation at the hospital, investigators proceeded to the crime address in an attempt to locate suspect identified as 46-year-old Wayne&nbsp; Partridge of Berryton.&nbsp; Deputies found him there and took him into custody on requested charges of rape, indecent liberties with a child, aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated criminal sodomy.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704234357422.png" alt="Partridge-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Partridge-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on child sex allegations.Just after 11a.m. Monday, a sheriff's deputy responded to a Topeka hospital on a report of a sexual crime that occurred in the 2100 Block of SE 102nd Street, according to Sheriff's Lt. Scott Wanamaker.After a preliminary investigation at the hospital, investigators proceeded to the crime address in an attempt to locate suspect identified as 46-year-old Wayne&nbsp; Partridge of Berryton.&nbsp; Deputies found him there and took him into custody on requested charges of rape, indecent liberties with a child, aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated criminal sodomy.