Neosho man's arraignment on child kidnapping charge scheduled

A Neosho man will be arraigned Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court on a child kidnapping charge.

Matthew Honeycutt, 24, was bound over for trial June 1 after waiving his preliminary hearing. 

According to the probable cause statement, a Sarcoxie woman allowed Honeycutt to take her car and her 7-year-old daughter to pick up a dog April 15, but Honeycutt did not return with the dog, the child or the car.

An Amber Alert was issued for the girl and and authorities were able to pull Honeycutt over as he returned to Missouri the following day.

Online court records indicate the Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's office was planning to reduce the charge against Honeycutt to a lesser kidnapping count at the time he waived his preliminary hearing, but court records indicate he is still facing the more serious charge.

 

Crowder College buys Joplin facility to provide workforce training

(From Crowder College)

Crowder College is purchasing a facility in Joplin to provide workforce training to the region. The College has offered programs in the Joplin Advanced Training and Technology Center since 2017.

"The City of Joplin and the Joplin Chamber of Commerce have been terrific supporters of Crowder College, assisting with the first grant that allowed Crowder to start workforce training programs in Joplin,” stated Andy Wood, Board of Trustees Chair.

The state is providing $6M from American Rescue Plan Act funds to aid in the purchase. “We are grateful for Governor Parson and the state legislatures who saw the need for a training facility,” stated Dr. Katrina Pierson, Crowder College president.

 “Short-term training and employment demand have created an increase in the students we have seen at the ATTC. The new facility will provide expansion options to meet the needs for our area.” The facility is located on Hammons Blvd near between I-44 and 32nd Streets in Joplin in the former Victory building.

Crowder College is a two-year community college located in southwest Missouri, serving a nine-county region as well as the surrounding states. The college provides pathways to careers and transfer opportunities to universities along with non-credit workforce training. The main campus in Neosho provides on-campus housing, athletics, a working farm with hands-on training, and over 80 degree and program options. The College provides Instructional Centers in McDonald County (Jane) just north of the Arkansas state line, Cassville, Webb City, Nevada, and Joplin.

Agenda posted for Carthage City Council meeting

 

Phill Brooks: Does power corrupt in the Missouri House?

By Phill Brooks

for the Missouri Independent

This column is prompted by the problems plaguing Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher who is facing calls by his colleagues to resign because of financial double-dipping by seeking reimbursement from the House for travel expenses that had been paid by his campaign.

His troubles continue a pattern of House speakers who have run into trouble despite holding one of the most powerful positions in Missouri government.

Of the 15 House speakers I’ve covered in the past half century, five were subjects of criminal investigations or allegations of improper behavior.

That is a staggering percentage of scandals for the top leader of the House compared to the Missouri Senate’s top official, the president pro tem.

The only involuntary removal of a Senate president pro tem I covered was the ouster of Sen. Earl Blackwell in 1970 after he successfully won statewide voter approval to overturn the tax increase pushed by the fellow Democratic governor, Warren Hearnes.

So why the difference between the two chambers?

One obvious factor is the enormous powers of the House speaker to control the political futures of House members as well as the fate of legislation sought by special interests.

In contrast, the powers of the Senate’s top leader are restricted by rules and a long-history of tradition that no leader has absolute control of the Senate chamber.

Almost every time a House speaker faced allegations of wrongdoing, I remembered the quote attributed to British Lord Acton two centuries ago that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Another factor could be the Senate is much smaller, with only 34 members compared to 163 members in the House.

For years I’ve sensed that the smaller number of Senate members helped create a stronger bipartisan community within the chamber that fosters adherence to appropriate behavior.

It can be a bipartisan standard as demonstrated when Senate Democrats joined Republicans in 2017 to censure a fellow Democrat, Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, for a social media post expressing hope about a presidential assassination.

Every Republican voted for the admonition against her, but so did six of the Senate’s nine Democrats, including the Senate Democratic leader.

I wonder if fewer Missouri House members might be a vehicle for imposing stronger standards and pressure for appropriate behavior by their leaders.

Some senators confidentially described how the Senate was like a family where they could provide personal advice of “don’t go there” when a colleague was considering unwise behavior.

The five House speakers I’ve covered who might have benefited from that advice were:

1976: Richard Rabbit was the first speaker I covered when I became a full-time statehouse reporter. Rabbitt resigned in 1976 to make an unsuccessful race for lieutenant governor. However, he also faced a federal criminal investigation that subsequently led to conviction for seeking funds in exchange for favorable treatment of legislation backed by transportation interests.

1996: Bob Griffin was one of the most influential speakers I’ve covered. He served longer than any other Missouri House speaker. But he resigned in 1996 and eventually pled guilty to charges that involved recommending to various special interests they hire a lobbyist from whom he subsequently got payments.

2005: Rod Jetton served a full four-year term as speaker. But he subsequently pled guilty for sexual assault of a woman and was investigated for a pay-for-play scheme involving legislation to restrict sex shops. Jetton now has been hired by Plocher to be his chief of staff.

2012: Steve Tilley resigned as speaker five months before his term as speaker would end to become a lobbyist. He faced FBI scrutiny over his activities both before he left the legislature and for years afterward, but he’s never been charged with a crime.

2015: John Diehl resigned after the Kansas City Star reported he had been sending sexually inappropriate text messages to a 19-year-old House intern. He announced his resignation after he could not win sufficient support from a closed-door caucus of fellow Republican House members. Diehl’s tenure as speaker lasted less than six months.

I’m indebted to Springfield News-Leader reporter Kelly Dereuck for her story on Plocher’s problem that included a list of Missouri House speakers who resigned.

Her story helped confirm my own memories of those speakers.

(Phill Brooks has been a Missouri statehouse reporter since 1970, making him dean of the statehouse press corps. He is the statehouse correspondent for KMOX Radio, director of MDN and an emeritus faculty member of the Missouri School of Journalism. He has covered every governor since the late Warren Hearnes.)

Former Joplin Globe reporter was first to tell world President Kennedy had been assassinated

 

Seventeen years ago, current Joplin Globe reporter John Hacker asked me to write a weekly column for GateHouse Media's shortlived effort to gain access to the Joplin market, the Joplin Daily. Hacker was the editor of that publication

When the Daily launched in January 2006, I wrote a column about the 15th anniversary of the death of Nancy Cruzan, whose right-to-die case began in Carterville, went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court and then back to Jasper County Circuit Court.

As it turned out, that was the only column I ever wrote for the Daily. The powers that be at GateHouse Media told Hacker they did not want a weekly column from me, but that he could run my columns every once in a while.

Since I was just as arrogant then as I am now, I decided if they did not want a weekly column from me, they would not receive any columns.

When I made that decision, I already had a second column written, a look at the role a former Joplin Globe newspaper delivery boy and later Globe reporter Jud Dixon played in a historical event that forever changed the United States.

I published the column in the Turner Report in January 2006 and for the past several years, I have reprinted it each year on November 22, the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 59 years ago.

***

"Get your Joplin Globe, five cents. Get your Joplin Globe five cents."

The job didn't pay much, but the country was in the midst of a depression, and every cent counted. Even more importantly for teenager Jud Dixon, it was his entry into the magical world of news.

That road took Jud from the Globe street sales to reporting jobs with the Globe and the Springfield Daily News to a seven-decade career in journalism that ended last month with his death at age 85 at his Dallas home.

Jud Dixon spent the last five decades of his life in the Dallas area, and it was there on Nov. 22, 1963, that the Joplin High School and Joplin Junior College graduate had a brush with history.

Jud was in charge of the United Press International (UPI) bureau in Dallas when he received word that President Kennedy had been assassinated during a political trip to the city. 

Within seconds, with the cool demeanor that characterized his entire reporting career, he sat behind his manual typewriter pounding out the story that no reporter ever wants to write, but at times like that, when people absolutely have to know what is going on, that’s when reporters must be at the top of their game.

"He was completely stone-faced, pouring it out of that typewriter," Jack Fallon, who was UPI’s Southwest Division editor at the time, told the Dallas Morning News. "Just by his presence, he kept everyone else around him calm."

Within moments, it was Jud Dixon’s version of the death of President John F. Kennedy that went out over the UPI wire to radio stations and television stations across the United States.

Though Jud Dixon’s coverage of that watershed moment in American history was what led his obituary, he perhaps did his greatest service to journalism and to the public after his retirement from UPI two decades ago.

Jud spent the next 18 years of his life as editor of the newsletter for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas fighting for the public’s right to know.

When Jud retired for a second time, Freedom of Information director Tommy Thomason praised his years of service. "Jud’s a journalist’s journalist. His entire career has been committed to open government as the basis of solid reporting of the issues and events important to his readers."

Jud Dixon knew the importance of a free and unfettered press serving as the public’s representative. He knew that when the workings of government were open to the public that this country could survive anything from unpaved streets to official corruption to the death of a president.

Anderson woman charged with murdering sleeping husband bound over for trial

An Anderson woman who allegedly shot her sleeping husband to death November 16, 2021, was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing Tuesday in McDonald County Circuit Court.

Dawn Renee Wynn, 51, who is charged with first degree murder and armed criminal action, will be arraigned in the trial court 9 a.m. Monday, December 11 before Judge Kevin Selby.

  

Citing long criminal history, government recommends 19-year sentence for Carterville man on meth charge

In a sentencing memorandum filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the government recommended a 19-year sentence for a Carterville man charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

The long criminal history of Cody Wayne Goucher, 44, was cited by Assistant U. S. Attorney Cameron A. Beaver as the reason for the recommendation.

In connection with the instant offense, the defendant is responsible for a significant quantity of methamphetamine that he intended to disburse into the community. 

Further, the defendant’s actions in this case, which include his flight from law enforcement in a vehicle on two separate occasions – in one instance reaching speeds of more than 75 miles per hour on residential streets – both ending in the defendant’s vehicle crashing, created an extreme danger to the community as a whole and the law enforcement officers attempting to conduct the traffic stops. 

Notably, during his flight on October 7, 2022, in addition to the approximately 300 grams of methamphetamine, the defendant was also found to be in possession of more than 100 rounds of ammunition for two separate types of firearms. 

The defendant’s significant methamphetamine distribution, his repeated flight from law enforcement, and the credible threat made against a law enforcement officer demonstrate the danger that the defendant poses to the community. Those actions also demonstrate the blatant disrespect he has for the rule of law and the officers that are tasked with enforcing our laws. 

Because of those considerations, the Government believes that a significant sentence is necessary and appropriate in this case. 

Further supporting the need for a significant sentence is the defendant’s abysmal criminal history. He appears before this Court as a criminal history category of VI, the highest category contemplated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, based both on his amassed criminal history points and his status as a career offender under the Guidelines. 

The defendant’s criminal history includes six prior felony convictions and numerous misdemeanor or other convictions, and is diversified to include felony property crimes, felony drug crimes, and felony and misdemeanor acts of assault and violence.

In 2004, he committed the acts that resulted in his first three felony convictions. He was convicted of second-degree domestic assault after he threatened his girlfriend with a firearm, put the firearm to her chin and pulled the trigger, though a bullet was not fired. 

That same year, he was arrested and later convicted for being in possession of a stolen motorcycle and possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Upon release from his incarceration sentences, he violated his parole and was returned to prison for possessing Xanax without a prescription, as well as driving while intoxicated.

After serving more time in the department of corrections, the defendant was later convicted of two additional instances of domestic assault, two instances of violating an order of protection, felony receiving stolen property, and felony possession of methamphetamine.

The defendant has been leading a life of crime for more than two decades. Most concerning to the Government are his violent, assaultive acts or threats made to girlfriends and law enforcement personal. 

The defendant has habitually created dangerous situations for the community, and his repeated return to crime throughout his life demonstrates that he has absolutely no respect for the rule of law, he is not deterred by law enforcement or criminal justice intervention, and when he is allowed to be part of the community, he presents a very real danger.

Goucher was arrested October 7, 2022 by the Carl Junction Police Department. According to the criminal complaint, officers found a green backpack containing a large amount of methamphetamine.
He pleaded guilty May 18.

Goucher's sentencing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday, November 28, in Springfield.

Missouri voter ID trial digs into purpose, results of strict 2022 law

By Rudi Keller

Missouri Independent

Almost one out of every 10 voters who cast ballots in Missouri’s two largest jurisdictions during recent elections lacked the identification now required at polls in the state, an expert testified Monday at a trial over the voter ID requirement.

Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist from the University of Wisconsin, estimated that about 175,000 votes cast in St. Louis County – or 8.4% of the total – between 2018 and 2022 were cast by people who did not have a Missouri-issued drivers license, nondriver identification or a federally issued ID with their birth date. The numbers were a little higher in Jackson County, he said, and nearly double that in Boone County, home of the University of Missouri’s flagship campus.

(Photo- Missouri NAACP President Rod Chapel, center, speaks at a news conference Monday during a recess of the trial over the state’s voter ID law. Chapel was joined by attorneys and leaders of NAACP chapters across the state- Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).

Before the November 2022 election, acceptable identification at the polls included a voter registration card, a student identification card, a bank statement or utility bill or even an out-of-state drivers license if it had not expired.

Now anyone without the required state- or federally issued identification is given a provisional ballot. For it to be counted, the voter must return to the polling station and show the correct identification or count on the local election authority matching their signature to the one on file.

Overall turnout for 2022 was about 20% lower than the presidential election of 2020, Mayer testified, but the number of provisional ballots cast was four times higher than two years earlier.

Many people worried whether their identification would count likely didn’t vote, Mayer said.

“Voters frequently misunderstand the kind of ID that is required,” he said. “Half the people who don’t vote and say they didn’t vote because they lack ID actually had the proper ID.”

Mayer is an expert witness for the Missouri NAACP and the League of Women Voters, who are challenging the voter ID law as unconstitutional. He testified on the second day of a trial before Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem.

The trial is expected to last through Wednesday.

The NAACP and the league argue the law imposes unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote without actually achieving the state goal of reducing fraud in elections. The current law is the third since 2006 seeking to require a photo ID to vote. The previous two versions have been struck down by the courts.

At a news conference during a mid-day break on Monday, Nimrod Chapel, president of the Missouri NAACP, blamed Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft for pushing the new law as a political measure to suppress turnout.

Passing a photo ID law to vote has been a Republican priority since 2006. Most Democrats have been opposed to the idea.

“Jay Ashcroft, with this ridiculous measure, has worked hard to ensure that African-Americans and other voters throughout the state would be disenfranchised, understanding that the burden would be borne harder and most upon us,” Chapel said.

In court, the state is defending the law as a simple solution to make elections secure.

It is a “common-sense law designed to uphold that sacred right,” Assistant Attorney General Peter Donohue said during opening arguments on Friday.

The lawsuit focuses on the burdens faced by three individuals obtaining state-issued identification. The problems include finding transportation to a state license office, misspellings on important documents or lack of those documents entirely due to age.

Missouri will issue an identification card for a voter who needs one at no cost and help obtaining the documents, Donohue argued Friday. The burdens are minimal and the benefit is substantial, he said.

“Protecting the integrity of elections is absolutely a compelling governmental interest,” Donohue said.

That argument was challenged during expert testimony Monday morning. Over the past 20 years, there have been no instances where someone tried to vote at the polls using someone else’s name.

The only documented instance of someone in Missouri using someone else’s ballot dated from 2007, when a St. Louis County man was convicted of using the ballot mailed to his deceased mother to vote absentee and then voting in person under his own name.

That is not the kind of fraud that would be stopped by a voter ID law, said Lorraine Minnite, professor of political science at Rutgers University.

“Under the previous rules, there was very little voter fraud,” Minnite said.

Minnite also testified that she reviewed legislative hearings, testimony and debate in an attempt to determine the intent of lawmakers as they passed the bill.

“I couldn’t really figure out what the purpose was from what they were saying,” she said.

Carthage Junior High School principal to retire at end of school year

(From the Carthage R-9 School District)

Last night, Carthage Junior High Principal, Jenny Bogle, shared her plan to retire at the end of this school year, marking the conclusion of an extraordinary journey!

 
After teaching for a decade in Oklahoma, she came to Carthage in 1998. Mrs. Bogle has been an integral part of our school's fabric ever since. From teaching 7th and 9th grade English to serving as assistant principal, athletic director, and finally assuming the role of CJHS Principal in 2012, her dedication has been unwavering. 

Mrs. Bogle's commitment to education has earned her accolades, including the prestigious title of Southwest Region Middle School Principal of the Year in 2018-19. With a Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University and Master’s and Specialist’s degrees from William Woods University, she has been an invaluable asset to our school district for 26 incredible years.

 
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Mrs. Bogle's devotion and love extends to her family, her husband, two children, their spouses, and her adorable grandchildren. 

Mrs. Bogle, your impact on Carthage Schools has been immeasurable. As you embark on this new chapter, we celebrate your dedication and the positive influence you've had on countless lives. Your guidance, wisdom, and infectious enthusiasm will be deeply missed.

Newton County jailer accused of delivering meth to inmates pleads not guilty

The Newton County jailer accused of accepting $1,700 from an inmate's girlfriend in exchange for delivering meth to her boyfriend, pleaded not guilty today in Newton County Circuit Court.

During today's hearing Judge Anna Christine Rhoades denied bond to Correy L. Shrum (DOB 1991). A bond reduction hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. November 27. 

More information about the case can be found at the link below:

The Turner Report: Newton County jailer charged with taking bribes, delivering meth to inmates (rturner229.blogspot.com)