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After plea negotiations stalled, a federal judge on Friday set a trial date for a former Nebraska teacher accused of fleeing to Mexico with a middle school student.

The case of 26-year-old Kelsey Peterson -- who disappeared with her former student in October after school officials told her they were investigating their relationship -- is scheduled to go to trial July 8.

Her lawyer, James Martin Davis, had hoped to reach a plea deal that would allow her to face state, rather than federal, charges.

Peterson is facing federal charges of crossing the border to have sex with a minor, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years. Davis argued that's too much time.

"That's totally inappropriate," Davis said after a hearing. "They (prosecutors) want to be judge, jury and executioner."

Stephen Schneider's lawyer is trying to stop a subpoena from federal prosecutors to obtain confidential settlements in medical malpractice cases against the indicted Haysville doctor.

Lawrence Williamson of Kansas City filed a motion Friday to quash the subpoena and find out what similar information the government is trying to obtain about Schneider's civil lawsuits and other "administrative actions."

Williamson's brief includes a copy of a subpoena sent by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway to lawyers involved in at least five medical malpractice lawsuits against Schneider. All were settled out of court, and the terms of the agreements were confidential.

Treadway, however, has ordered lawyers for Schneider, his clinic and the former patients suing him to turn over the settlement documents by Monday.

Malpractice defense lawyers have objected to the subpoena, and Williamson argues that prosecutors are illegally intruding on Schneider's right to privacy.

A man was shot in the face and neck at Club Rodeo early Friday, the latest in a series of clashes at the east Wichita nightclub.

Because of those persistent problems on Thursday nights, police were monitoring the parking lot at 10001 E. Kellogg, near Webb Road, when they heard a single gunshot at 1:48 a.m. as the club prepared to close, authorities said.

Hundreds of people were milling around in the parking lot at the time, Capt. Brent Allred said, and a witness gave a description of the vehicle used by a suspect.

Police pulled over the car a short time later in the 200 block of South Hillside and took four people to City Hall for questioning. Two were subsequently released, Allred said, while a third was arrested on an outstanding warrant and a 22-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting.

The 25-year-old victim was taken to Wesley Medical Center, where he was treated and released for what turned out to be minor injuries, police spokesman Gordon Bassham said.

Russell Barrett said he knew trouble was coming last June when some gang members tried to force their way into the Half-Time Sports Bar at 3120 E. Harry.

He said it started when a man who'd been kicked out tried to come back in.

"He walked back in the bar and it was total mayhem," Barrett told a Sedgwick County district judge Wednesday. "It was just total chaos. Bars and chairs and glass busting.... I had no idea who was fighting who."

Barrett's testimony came during a preliminary hearing for Donovan Thompson, 21, who was ordered to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder in the shooting death of bar owner Teresa Hastings.

Barrett, who described himself as a close friend of Hastings, testified that when the fight began, Hastings and some of her employees pushed the fighting patrons outside.

A Sedgwick County judge has dismissed a racial profiling claim filed by a Wichita man whose case became the first test of the state's 2005 profiling law.

District Judge David Kaufman said Wichita police were engaging in valid law enforcement practices when they stopped and searched Aaron Patterson on Aug. 24, 2005, at 21st and Minnesota. Patterson was cited for failing to use a turn signal, but the charge was later dropped.

The Kansas Human Rights Commission ruled in April 2006 that Patterson was the victim of profiling. That ruling, under the new law, gave him the right to sue the city for damages.

Although Kaufman's ruling dismissed Patterson's lawsuit, both sides said they expected the case to end up before the Kansas Court of Appeals.

City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf said Kaufman's ruling came as welcome news for police.

A 21-year-old man was ordered today to stand trail for first-degree murder in the June shooting death of a Wichita bar owner.

Donovan Thompson is charged in the death of Half-Time Sports Bar owner Teresa Hastings and the wounding of one of her employees.

Wichita police said the shooting occurred as Thompson and some fellow gang members were engaged in a disturbance at the bar at 3120 E. Harry.

Twice before, legal delays forced prosecutors to dismiss and refile charges against Thompson. District Judge Ben Burgess tentatively scheduled his trial for June 2.

Two other men have pleaded guilty to less serious charges for their role in the disturbance.

A Wichita day care provider has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the March 25 death of a 1-year-old girl who was left in a car seat, officials say.

The charge, filed Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court, accuses Jessica D. Cummings of unintentionally causing Kailee Hundley to become asphyxiated.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which licenses day care homes, knows of no other day care provider facing such a serious death-related charge in at least the past five years, agency spokesman Joe Blubaugh said Wednesday.

Kailee died at Cummings' day care home after being partly strapped into an infant car seat that was too small and left for about 2 ½ hours in a laundry bathroom, KDHE has said.

Cummings found the girl slumped over, her lips blue, and called 911, the agency said.

Criminal complaints from police beats in Wichita. Missing dates indicate days where no reports were filed.

Beat 11

Burglary

3700 block of W. 15th, April 4.

700 block of Woodrow, April 7.

Wichita police arrested 22 people during a 16-hour prostitution sting Tuesday and Wednesday on South Broadway.

"I wanted to get our officers out there and send a message early, as warm weather sets in for spring and summer months," said Capt. John Speer, commander of the Patrol South Bureau.

The sting was conducted between 9 a.m. Tuesday and 1 a.m. Wednesday along Broadway from Kellogg to 47th Street South.

Eighteen women and four men were arrested on various offenses -- most of them related to prostitution.

A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being a pimp, Speer said. That's just the second time in his three years at Patrol South that such an arrest has been made, he said.

Amick, Ryan Z. and Woods, Rachel L., both of Wichita.

Benson, Freddie R. and Dupree, Crystal L., both of Wichita.

Bista, Rajesh, and Luhellier, Hollie M., both of Wichita.

Booker, Derrill D., Valley Center, and Terry, Nicki D., Wichita.

Booker, Gary T. and Utting, Mary M., both of Bel Aire.

Evidence about Justin Thurber's behavior toward young women can be presented by prosecutors during his trial, a judge ruled this week.

Thurber could receive the death penalty if convicted of the abduction, rape and killing of 19-year-old Jodi Sanderholm on Jan. 5, 2007.

Cowley County District Judge Jim Pringle based his ruling on evidence in three pretrial hearings that included the testimony of 13 women of similar size and appearance to Sanderholm. They said Thurber had pursued, stalked or sexually assaulted them in the days, months and years before Sanderholm's killing.

Under Kansas law, such behavior can be used to show a pattern of behavior consistent with that of Sanderholm's attacker, Pringle said in his ruling Monday.

Thurber is scheduled to stand trial this summer, although the defense has asked for more time to prepare and will argue to move the trial out of Cowley County. Those issues will be discussed at a hearing next week in Winfield.

A man denied a drink at a Kansas City, Kan., bar opened fire in the tavern, fatally wounding the bartender early Saturday morning.

According to authorities, the man tried to order a drink at the Gossip Inn Bar at 24th and Park Drive about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The bartender, identified only as a woman in her 40s, asked him for identification first.

The man said he didn’t have any on him, and the bartender refused to serve him.

The man then started shooting, striking the bartender. He also fired at the remaining patrons in the bar before fleeing the scene.

The bartender was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her name was not released Saturday.

With his failed legal battle over, Max Ary, founder of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, heads to prison this week and expects to immerse himself in an effort to clear his name.

"We've fought this very hard, with everything we had, for the last four years," Ary said in an interview with the Hutchinson News. "There's so much evidence that's not been looked at by the proper people, so much information."

Ary, who directed Hutchinson's space museum for 26 years, begins serving three years in the minimum-security camp at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Okla., on Thursday. He was convicted on three counts each of mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property and two counts each of wire fraud, theft of government property and money laundering.

"This has been a travesty of justice," Ary said. "I totally profess my innocence to this day. We're going to continue to fight this, even while I'm spending my time in prison camp."

He admits to selling some artifacts that belonged to the National Air and Space Administration and the Kansas Cosmosphere through specialized auctions. He claimed at trial, however, and continues to argue, that it was a mix-up because he was legitimately selling items for both himself and the Cosmosphere at the time.

John Forrest figures he did three good deeds on Jan. 18.

He took a kitchen knife over to a neighbor's to help her carve a pork roast.

Then he took his wife's car to a downtown repair shop to get the heater fixed.

Then he stopped by City Hall to answer the mayor's call for mentors for at-risk kids. Forrest wanted to share his plan for a youth rugby league.

"For all my good deeds I spent six hours in the Sedgwick County Jail, which is not one of the loveliest places to be," Forrest said. "I'm very bitter about it."

In the months and weeks before 2-year-old Daytona Robertson became a homicide victim, her divorced parents, her day-care provider, a judge and SRS suspected she was being abused.

Some of them thought there was clear evidence -- pictures of extensive bruising.

And yet no one prevented her death.

To the parents, who had been in a custody battle over Daytona, it shows a failure by the judge and the state's system for protecting children.

To the judge, it illustrates how family disputes can be difficult to sort out, with competing and limited information to act on.

Wichita police are looking for a blue Ford Expedition that may have been involved in a drive-by shooting on Sunday morning.

A 43-year-old man reported that someone fired about nine shots into his house shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday in the 2600 block of North Vassar. While the man told police he did not see anyone, he did provide a description of the vehicle.

Police found shell casings in the street. No one inside the house was injured.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Daniel Collins, 18, to five years in prison for bombing a south Wichita apartment building.

Collins was convicted in January of one count of setting off explosives that damaged the Kingsborough Apartments, 2732 S. Seneca.

Two others involved in the case, Antonio Ray and Nathan Gunter, pleaded guilty to two counts of arson by means of explosives. Gunter earlier was sentenced to 60 months and Ray to 36 months.

Former Haysville doctor Stephen Schneider could get out of jail as early as Thursday, with more than $4 million in bond and more than a dozen conditions for his release.

Schneider and his wife have been held in the Butler County Jail without bond since their December arrest and indictment accusing them of running a "pill mill." The couple is charged with 34 counts related to their practice of prescribing painkillers at their medical clinic.

But Monday, a federal judge agreed to let Stephen Schneider go back home to his two adopted daughters, as long as he doesn't practice medicine and puts up as collateral the clinic, his home, cars and bank accounts.

"We're satisfied with the ruling and the conditions," said Schneider's lawyer, Lawrence Williamson of Kansas City. "Dr. Schneider is anxious to get out and start preparing for his defense."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Don Bostwick said he will not rule on whether Linda Schneider will be released until after he sees the results of psychological evaluations ordered this month. She was a licensed practical nurse who managed the Schneider Medical Clinic.

Stephen Schneider won't win his freedom without an argument.

Federal prosecutor Tanya Treadway has asked a judge to modify the conditions for the former doctor's bond, set for a hearing at 2 p.m. today in Wichita.

Schneider, 54, is charged with his wife in a 34-count indictment accusing them of writing illegal prescriptions for painkillers to the patients at their Haysville clinic.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Don Bostwick ruled Monday that Schneider should be released under 15 conditions, including that he not practice medicine or be involved in his clinic.

The judge allowed the prosecution and defense to file objections until Wednesday.

A woman accused of the hit-and-run deaths of two highway workers near Lawrence has been convicted of leading police on a chase after the men were struck.

An Osage County District Court jury on Tuesday found Ramona I. Morgan, 48, of Chewelah, Wash., guilty of felony fleeing, reckless driving, failure to use a turn signal and failure to maintain a single lane. She was acquitted of two speeding counts.

Morgan, who remains in the Osage County Jail on $100,000 bond, will be sentenced May 20.

Morgan's attorney, Billy Rork, told Judge Phillip Fromme that he would seek a new trial.

Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones said he was happy with the jury's decision, despite the verdicts on the speeding charges.

Alexander, Andrew L. and Taylor Sonya D., both of Wichita.

Basinger, Joel L. and Palmer, Lorna G., both of Haysville.

Belgard, Thomas J. and Bakken, Angela R., both of Rose Hill.

Bell, Jerry D. and Murrell, Shawntel E., both of Wichita.

Bender, Joshua M., Wichita, and Frid, Camilla H., Katrineholm, Sweden.

Jodi Sanderholm's parents didn't mind leaving the Cowley County Courthouse on Wednesday not knowing when the trial would begin for the man accused of killing their daughter.

Cowley County District Judge Jim Pringle said the capital murder trial of Justin Thurber wouldn't begin this summer, to allow lawyers more time to prepare.

Cindy and Brian Sanderholm said they'd already waited 15 months, so they didn't mind waiting longer. But they don't want to see any mistakes that would taint Thurber's trial.

"Our worst nightmare would be if we'd have to go through this all again," Brian Sanderholm said.

The site of the trial still remains in doubt. Pringle is pondering whether to move the case out of the county where the 19-year-old's brutal death in January 2007 shook the community -- so much so, lawyers say, that it has polarized opinions and poisoned Thurber's chances of a fair trial.

This story contained an incorrect reference to Federal Judge Monti Belot's title. He is a U.S. District judge.

The name on the federal indictment in Wichita is "John Doe."

But the Orthodox Jewish community where he lived for at least the past three years knew him as Nathaniel James Levi. Netan, for short.

His real name: Ted Riley Floyd, 29. He's charged with putting false information on a passport application while he lived in Wichita. He is now in the Sedgwick County Jail.

The news of Floyd assuming the identity of a dead man, however, has caused an uproar in the Hasidic community of Lakewood, N.J., where he lived with his wife and four children. The story quickly spread through the Yiddish press to similar communities throughout Brooklyn and other parts of New York state.

The courts exist to protect individual rights, not to solve society's problems, says legal historian Jonathan Adler.

The law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, represents one side of a debate in the legal community about where to draw the line in protecting constitutional rights.

Adler will present his views in a public lecture Thursday in Wichita, sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute, funded by the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation.

While some might view Adler's position as politically conservative, he said he wants to see politics removed from the courts.

"I think there's a concern about what happens if courts become an instrument of broader policy or broader political movement," Adler said Tuesday in a phone interview.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Steed unexpectedly dropped his plans to seek re-election Wednesday, throwing open the race for the county's top law enforcement job.

Republican and Democratic party officials expressed surprise at the announcement and said they were confident their candidates would run strong races in November.

Steed, a Republican, said in February that he was planning to seek a third term, and he later filed for re-election. In a written statement released late Wednesday, he said he changed his mind, but provided little about why.

"Following deep reflection and with a gratified spirit, I have chosen not to seek election to a third term as Sedgwick County sheriff," he said. "I have determined that for me to meet personal goals and professional objectives, it is necessary to withdraw from the 2008 election."

Steed, a Wichita State University graduate with 34 years of law enforcement experience, said he planned to meet with the media this morning to discuss his decision.

Since announcing her engagement to Henry Hager in January, first daughter Jenna Bush has been relatively quiet about her May 10 wedding at the family's Crawford ranch.

But for the May issue of Vogue, the 26-year-old author and teacher discusses her engagement and reveals a few nuptial details to contributing editor Julia Reed, who also interviewed Laura Bush and Hager for the article.

Oscar de la Renta will design the wedding dress. As Jenna Bush describes it to Reed, it is "a 'very structured' organza... gown, with embroidery and a bit of matte beading, that is 'simple and elegant' with a bit of a train but somehow still casual."

Here are some other highlights from the article:

• Hager, the son of Virginia Republican Party Chairman John H. Hager and a former aide to Karl Rove, asked Jenna Bush to marry him in August after an early-morning hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine.

A former East High School wrestling coach will face trial this summer, accused of having sex with a student.

Bryant Richard no longer works for the Wichita public schools and will go to trial on a charge of "unlawful sexual relations" with a senior.

Richard, who also worked as a paraprofessional teaching aide at the school, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday morning before Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess.

Kansas law prohibits people who work in positions of authority in a school from having sexual relations with students from the same institution.

Burgess set a tentative date of July 8 for Richard's trial following testimony at a preliminary hearing.

The teenage daughters of Stephen and Linda Schneider said the Christmas decorations are still up at their Haysville home.

"We won't open the presents until both our parents are there," 16-year-old Zoyie said Thursday after learning her father will return home from jail today. Her mother remains in federal custody.

Stephen Schneider, a former doctor, and his wife were arrested the week before Christmas and charged in a 34-count criminal indictment related to the prescribing of painkillers at their clinic.

The girls, Zoyie and 15-year-old Gina, whom the Schneiders adopted from Romania when they were in preschool, sat in the federal courthouse in Wichita on Thursday and watched a judge sign an order to release Stephen Schneider. Schneider winked at them as he entered the courtroom in shackles.

Schneider, 54, could be released from the Butler County Jail this morning. As part of the order Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Don Bostwick required that Schneider wear a global positioning system device.

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to conspiracy Friday in a junk fax scheme that defrauded business owners across the nation of millions of dollars.

Andrew Wang and seven other employees of PBS Global, a Florida consulting firm, are accused of fax-blasting small businesses with fraudulent offers to help them sell their companies.

Their trial has been set for Sept. 9.

As part of a plea deal with the federal government, Wang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and consented to a $6.5 million forfeiture judgment against him. He also agreed to give up his interest in real estate and several bank accounts.

In return, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges and recommend the low end of federal sentencing guidelines. The maximum sentence that could be imposed at his July 7 sentencing date is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years probation and restitution.

Stephen Schneider said if the Kansas Board of Healing Arts had conducted its investigation into his Haysville medical clinic swiftly, he might not be facing federal criminal charges.

"I think there have to be some changes made, so things don't get out of hand like they did with me," Schneider said Friday morning, following his return home after four months in jail.

Schneider said that if the board had handled its investigation properly, he might have been exonerated through a medical review, alleviating the need for criminal prosecution.

"I thought that's the way it was starting out, anyway," he said.

Citing advice from his lawyer, Schneider declined to discuss specifics of the 34-count federal indictment against him and his wife, Linda, related to their prescribing of painkillers.

Deputy Wichita Police Chief Robert Lee announced Friday that he would join a growing field of candidates for the seat being vacated by Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Steed.

Lee, 49, said his campaign would focus on two major issues: a perception by some that Sedgwick County Jail inmates are mistreated, and reports that morale is low among sheriff's deputies and detention officers.

Although he stopped short of saying those issues indicate serious problems in the department, Lee said he planned to take a close look at both if elected in November.

In making his announcement at a news conference at the Scotch & Sirloin restaurant, Lee became the fourth declared candidate in a race that threatens to turn into a free-for-all.

The nature of the race turned sharply Wednesday when Steed unexpectedly announced that he was dropping his re-election bid to pursue other opportunities. He was considered a solid favorite to win a third term.

Three law enforcement officers who played key roles in the investigation of the January 2005 shooting death of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels were honored last week in Kansas City, Kan.

All three received Guardian of Justice awards, which the U.S. Attorney's Office presents annually to recognize outstanding work in criminal investigations. Scott Cheever was sentenced to death for Samuels' murder.

The recipients were:

• Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Bill Halvorsen, who was in charge of the crime scene and managed the investigation during the following days.

Prosecutors said it was Halvorsen who refuted Cheever's claim that he was too intoxicated by drugs to know what he was doing when he killed Samuels. Halvorsen noted that Cheever was clearheaded when he answered medical questions in the back of an ambulance after his arrest.

Wichita police used a helicopter and dogs to search a west Wichita neighborhood for more than six hours Saturday before realizing that reports of a missing 89-year-old woman were false.

Police said a 48-year-old relative of the woman was arrested after the search and could be charged this week with abusing a dependent adult.

Police Lt. Sam Hanley said investigators think the relative dropped the elderly woman off at a home in south Wichita on Friday night and left her there alone.

"We're looking at a dependent-person abuse situation," Sgt. Steve Yarberry said. "She was basically left alone."

Police said the search began about 8:30 a.m. when someone called 911 to report that Virginia Judd, who has dementia, had disappeared from her home in the 6000 block of West School Circle. Judd's dog, Ruby, also was missing from the home, which is south of Sedgwick County Park, near 13th and Ridge Road.

"Who are you?" asked U.S. District Judge Monti Belot.

"Ted Riley Floyd," the 28-year-old man answered.

"Do you sometimes go by the name Nathaniel James Levi?" the judge asked.

"I did for six years," he answered.

Before he pleaded guilty Monday to using a false name to apply for a U.S. passport in Wichita, Floyd lived under the name Levi in the Orthodox Jewish community of Lakewood, N.J.