Minors

STANFORD - Two men are in the Lincoln County Regional Detention Center, arrested Sunday for cooking methamphetamine in an apartment in the presence of five small children, according to Stanford Police. Police arrested William Hopkins, 25, and Timothy Harker, 31, at Lincoln Terrace Apartment 3 on Star Avenue, after they received several complaints of a foul odor coming from the apartment and excessive foot traffic to and from the residence. Upon entering the residence shortly after midnight, police say they found two adult women and two adult men as well as five minors in the home.

A Lincoln County woman remains in the Lincoln County Regional Jail in lieu of a $20,000 cash bond after she was charged with selling drugs to a minor. Police say she also used two high school students to sell drugs for her. Wonda M. Stevenson, 44, 131 Country Drive, Hustonville, is charged with multiple felonies, including selling a controlled substance to a minor, criminal conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. She was arrested Feb. 15 by Stanford Police on an active bench warrant from Boyle County.

STANFORD - A man accused of giving two minors marijuana before raping them pleaded not guilty in Lincoln Circuit Court Friday and was appointed a public defender. Johnny D. Watson, 34, of 2671 Hurricane Ridge Road, Waynesburg, faces two counts of first-degree rape with serious physical injury, two counts of first-degree sodomy and two counts of unlawful transaction with a minor. Watson was arrested Wednesday, two years after a criminal complaint was filed by Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Luster.

Danville High School's Youth in Action group will meet at 4;30 P.M. Monday at Wal-Mart to discuss participation in MADD Kentucky's "Sticker Shock" program. The public awareness program is designed to curtail underage drinking by affixing brightly colored stickers on alcohol products that appeal to underage consumers in liquor and convenience stores to remind minors and store clerks that underage drinking is illegal. The group will be targeting stores in Nicholasville.

LANCASTER - A Garrard County grand jury returned indictments Friday against the following people: Billy Wilson, 30, 2245 Buckeye Road, charged with first-degree assault when he struck Melinda Wilson with a bar stool on June 19. The defendant also is charged with two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment by engaging in conduct that created a substantial danger to two minors. He also is charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault by causing physical injury to two minors.

Couple face endangerment charges STANFORD - A husband and wife each face two charges of endangering the welfare of minors after cocaine and marijuana were allegedly discovered in their possession. Kelly Martin, 36 and Wanda D. Martin, 33, of 460 Lincoln Trail, face multiple drug possession charges in addition to the two counts of endangerment. According to police reports, a search warrant obtained by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office lead to the discovery of cocaine and marijuana.

LEXINGTON - Suspended Lincoln County High School band director Joseph Briley, 40, pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to nine counts of receiving and possessing child pornography. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Briley's trial date was set for 9 a.m. Nov. 6, and he will remain in custody. The alleged crimes occurred from November 2005 through March 2006. The allegations stemmed from an FBI investigation after a 14-year-old female student said that he touched her inappropriately during a band trip.

Clark County residents are going to be experiencing sticker shock on Tuesday, Aug. 26 when they try to buy alcohol. But this sticker shock won't be because of high prices. Instead, the shock is being delivered by a group of local youths who are participating in the Sticker Shock campaign, a concept developed by M.A.D.D. to help curb underage drinking. On Tuesday, local Boy Scouts and the youth groups will be escorted by the Winchester Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Department to liquor stores and convenience stores in Winchester to warn adults about the consequences of buying alcohol for minors.

A Winchester man pleaded not guilty Thursday in Clark Circuit Court on charges that he sexually exploited young boys. Alan Mark Myers, 44, of 1120 Old Ruckerville Road, was indicted by a grand jury Oct. 5 on six counts of use of a minor in a sexual performance, six counts of promoting a sexual performance by a minor and one count of third-degree sodomy. The alleged offenses occurred from April 1999 through Sept. 30, 2003. The indictment says that Myers committed the offenses by inducing, authorizing and employing minors under the age of 18 to engage in sexual performances, and that he directed, produced and promoted photographs that included sexual conduct by minors in the presence of other males under the age of 18. The indictment also states that Myers knowingly and unlawfully engaged in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 18 years old. According to police, Myers befriended most of the boys through his work at a local church.

Winchester Police Charged - Desiree M. Jones, of 30 Elizabeth St., was charged Friday with curfew violation for minors. - Billy J. Hays, of 112 E. Hickman St., was charged Friday with curfew violation for minors. - Chester S. Beets, of 1435 Westwood Drive, was charged Friday with curfew violation for minors. - Jessica E. Wilson, of 500 B. Shaftburg Road, was charged Friday with curfew violation for minors. - Joey W. Johnson, of 10A Euclid Ave., was charged Friday with non-payment of fines, theft by unlawful taking, contempt of court, alcohol intoxication, fourth-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment.

STANFORD - A gas leak on Lancaster Street Monday afternoon caused the evacuation of several homes, but no one was injured and responders were able to clear the scene in about half an hour. The leak was created when Richard Naylor, who was mowing the yard of his daughter's home at 908 Lancaster Street, hit a gas meter with his lawn mower a little before 3 p.m., Stanford Police Officer Tim Morris said. Morris was the first one on the scene after the leak sprung, and he said he could hear the gas pipe leaking from four or five properties away.

By the time you read this, House Bill 310 may already be law in Kentucky. The bill, which is being opposed by a consortium of supermarkets including Kroger and Meijer, is labeled "an ACT relating to underage access to alcoholic beverages. " It is no such thing. It is a poorly disguised attempt to assuage a group composed of independent liquor stores who fear the loss of business to supermarkets.  Oddly, supermarkets can even now sell wine and liquor as long as the sales take place in a location outside the confines of the supermarket itself.  The local Kroger is a perfect example of how the current law operates and HB 310 would codify and continue this separation and - apparently - address the U.S. District Judge ruling that the separation requirement is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.  Although keeping things as they are - even under Kentucky law - does not seem to address a Constitutional issue.

STANFORD - Drivers across Lincoln County found themselves in a slippery situation Friday as freezing rain created chaos on many roads. But despite a huge number of accidents, there were no major injuries reported. The Lincoln sheriff's office received more than 80 reports of vehicles skidded off the road, Sheriff Curt Folger Said. Out of all of them, there were only a few reports of minor injuries. "Most of them were just people running off the road at a slow speed," Folger said.

Slippery roads were a major factor in a morning accident that sent three people to the hospital Wednesday morning, Jessamine County sheriff's deputy Patrick Ebbitt said. Deputies say around 7:50 a.m. a blue Dodge pickup truck driven by an 18-year-old female with a 17-year-old passenger was heading west on Union Mill Road when it fishtailed and struck an eastbound car head-on. The Dodge bounced off the car into another truck. Early-morning rains most likely caused the road to be slick, Ebbitt said.  E bbitt said three people - two from the Dodge and one from the first car it hit - suffered only minor injuries and were taken to a hospital in Lexington for treatment.

Christopher Koteras was convicted in open court for eight counts of first-degree sex abuse of a child by a Jessamine County jury on Tuesday. The jury recommended 40 years, five years for each count, for his sexual contact with the victim between July 9, 2007, and June 15, 2010. Koteras, 36, was taken back into custody and is being held in the Jessamine County Detention Center until his formal sentencing by Judge Hunter Daugherty set for Sept. 20. Originally, Koteras was indicted in May of 2011 on 24 counts of first-degree sex abuse.

I agree with the NAACP's disappointment regarding the recent principal selection process and lack of minority educators in Danville schools.   As a parent representative on the Danville High School SBDM council, I participated in the hiring process, and I asked Superintendent Coleman repeatedly if we were adhering to KRS 160.380(2)(d) as it relates to recruiting minorities. The superintendent must report annually the district's recruitment process and the activities used to increase the percentage of minority teachers.

LANCASTER - A recent audit of Garrard County Fiscal Court exposed a few weaknesses in bookkeeping procedures that county officials plan to remedy. State Auditor Adam Edelen released an audit of the 2010-11 fiscal year. Every year, the state audits the financial records of every fiscal court in Kentucky. “The good news is there is no money missing and no bills paid that should not have been paid,” Garrard Judge-Executive John Wilson said Monday. Wilson said it seemed most complaints in the audit related to practices the county has used for many years.

Five Pilot View Elementary School students and the driver of a school bus escaped serious injury Thursday afternoon when their bus ran off the road, went over an embankment and overturned. The accident occurred around 2:30 p.m. about a mile from the fairgrounds on Iron Works Road as the driver was returning the fourth-grade students in the gifted/talented program from Fannie Bush Elementary School. According to Clark County Sheriff Berl Perdue, video from cameras aboard the bus showed that the bus met a utility truck and a car in a curve.

J.B. Holmes started this year's PGA Tour superbly, but in recent months his play dropped off for reasons that were very obvious to those around him. “It's hard to put the ball in the hole when you are seeing three of them (holes),” said Amanda Rowland, Holmes' sister who lives in Danville. Holmes, 29, will have brain surgery next week at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to help alleviate a condition called Chiari Malformation after several weeks of tests and uncertainty about what was wrong with the Campbellsville native and former Kentucky standout.

Boyle County will have some slightly different magisterial districts if a plan being proposed by a reapportionment committee is adopted by the Fiscal Court next week. Reapportionment takes place every 10 years, after the federal Census is conducted, to ensure each district has a relatively similar population and there is no more than a 10-percent difference between the districts with the largest and smallest populations.   “We really strived to not make any changes that were too drastic,” said County Clerk Trille Bottom, a non-voting member of the committee.