Lincoln-area crime blotter, Jan. 13-19
A recap of recent Lincoln-area crime news.
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
A federal grand jury has indicted a Lincoln man on child pornography charges following his arrest last month in a child sexual assault investigation.
Randall Hughes, 57, of 5133 W. Wilkins St., faces two counts of producing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the indictment.
Lancaster County sheriff's deputies and U.S. Homeland Security investigators arrested Hughes on Dec. 15 following a four-hour standoff where he barricaded himself inside his northwest Lincoln home.
Investigators had come to the home to serve a search warrant, and Hughes hid in the basement and threatened to harm himself, according to Sheriff Terry Wagner.
The standoff was resolved peacefully when Hughes surrendered to the LSO Tactical Response Team, the release said.
Investigators seized computers and hard drives belonging to Hughes and discovered child pornography they believe he made, according to court documents.
Hughes was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault of a child and taken to the Lancaster County jail.
He faces four felony child sexual assault and child pornography charges in Lancaster County Court.
He remained in jail Friday on $1 million bond.
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
Police arrested the owner of several Lincoln bars this week after they say he allowed after-hours drinking, then refused to cooperate with an officer's investigation.
In addition, one of the taverns owned by Bryan A. McFarland — a Watering Hole location that opened in the Haymarket in October — closed earlier this month without explanation, although that appears unrelated to this week's incident.
At about 3 a.m. Wednesday, a Lincoln police officer noticed a suspicious number of cars in the parking lot at Cliff's Martini Lounge on South 56th Street just north of Nebraska 2, and went to investigate.
Watching from outside, the officer saw McFarland, the owner, holding a beer can as three others sat and stood around the bar, police said in court documents.
The officer announced his presence and asked McFarland to open the locked front door and let him in, police said in court documents.
But McFarland instead began dumping alcohol bottles into the trash, court documents said.
McFarland went out the back door and became uncooperative with officers, who told him they needed to go inside because they were conducting a tavern investigation, the police report said.
They eventually handcuffed him, and an employee who had originally hid from officers opened the door and let police inside. They found glasses on the bar where McFarland was previously seen standing.
Police took McFarland to jail, and prosecutors charged him Wednesday with four misdemeanors: refusing to comply with a police order, drinking on duty, drinking after-hours at a licensed premise and refusing to allow an officer to conduct a tavern investigation.
A city ordinance bans bar owners, managers or employees from drinking while on duty and mandates they allow police officers inside to conduct tavern investigations.
The 49-year-old Lincoln man pleaded not guilty to the four misdemeanor charges.
He didn't respond to a request for comment. His company, Mo Chara, owns the three remaining Watering Hole locations in Lincoln as well as Cliff's.
The fourth Watering Hole, at 710 P St., previously had been an Irish pub called McFarland & Son’s, which opened in 2014. McFarland converted it to a Watering Hole last year, saying at the time that business there "wasn't as good" as his Watering Hole locations.
He said he wanted to test out a Watering Hole in the spot to see if it would do enough business to make it worth renewing the lease.
Thursday, a sign on the door apologized for any inconvenience and asked people to "please try our other locations."
McFarland's legal troubles could jeopardize his remaining bars.
His arrest will trigger a hearing before the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, which could suspend, revoke or cancel his license at Cliff's if the commissioners find him guilty of allowing alcohol consumption after hours.
Nebraska law prohibits drinking at bars between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
"Just because you own it doesn’t mean you can consume on it after hours,†Commission Executive Director Hobert Rupe said Thursday.
McFarland already has a pending second-degree assault charge in Lancaster County Court, according to court records.
In that case, police allege McFarland started a fight with a man at a downtown bar Nov. 5, punching him from behind and leaving him with a gash on the back of his head.
If convicted of the felony charge, McFarland would be unable to renew the liquor licenses at his remaining bars because state law prohibits felons from holding the licenses.
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Chicago-area charter flight broker accused of stealing more than $20,000 from a Lincoln business executive who arranged a trip from Sweden to Italy.
The executive contacted Dennis P. Jans of Charter Jet International in July 2016 to arrange the private flight from Malmo, Sweden, to Naples, Italy, for four days later that month, a Lincoln police investigator wrote in court documents.
The executive gave Jans his credit card information to secure the reservation and had his Lincoln bank wire Jans $22,830 on July 22 for the flight and the broker's commission.
Police believe Jans took the money for himself and claimed the wire transfer never went through, saying he would provide the jet company with the executive's credit card information until the issue was resolved.
After the trip, the executive noticed the jet company had charged his American Express card for $23,519.
He disputed the charge, and learned in November that the jet company had never received the wired payment even though that money was no longer in his account.
He tried getting answers from Jans, but Jans never replied, so he contacted police in April, the investigator said.
In a phone call, Jans told the investigator his business had some difficulties.
Bank statements showed Jans' account was overdrawn by 22 cents in the days before the executive wired money to him for the flight, the investigator said. But over the next 17 days, the account showed withdrawals totaling more than $10,000 at a casino and more than $5,000 at ATMs.
Bank records showed those were common withdrawals for Jans, who spent more than $46,000 at the same casino between February and December 2016, the investigator found.
There was no indication from bank records that Jans ever transferred money to the jet company for the executive.
Lancaster County prosecutors have charged Jans, 59, of Northbrook, Illinois, with theft by deception of more than $5,000. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Jans had not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.
- LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
- Updated
A Crete man accused of defrauding a local contractor now faces a federal indictment for wire fraud.
The indictment offers a look at what Mark Ackerman, a former office manager for Vertical Horizons Contracting Inc. in Lincoln, allegedly bought with the nearly $1.1 million he's accused of embezzling from the company.
The indictment seeks the return of 10 vehicles — four trailers, two motorcycles, a motorcycle trailer, a compact tractor, a truck and a car.Â
The indictment alleges Ackerman used accounts designated for reimbursement fees to transfer funds to his personal account for items never purchased. It also alleges that he falsely represented legitimate business expenses and made checks payable to himself from company accounts.
Ackerman still faces a charge of theft of more than $5,000 in Lancaster County.Â
-
- Updated
A grand jury leveled more than a dozen new charges this week against Aubrey Trail and nearly as many against his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, though no charges have come yet in connection with the disappearance and death of a Lincoln woman in November.
The indictment provided the first details about Trail and Boswell's alleged gold coin scheme, which bilked two people of more than $400,000, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Russell.
And it means a delay for the trial that had been set for next month.
The FBI, which is leading an investigation into Sydney Loofe's suspicious death, has stopped short of calling Trail and Boswell suspects in the case; though Trail has said he believes they will be charged.
As that investigation quietly continues, the pair remained in federal custody on a single charge for transportation of stolen property, until this week, when the federal grand jury signed off on more charges against them.
Thursday, Trail's attorney, Korey Reiman, said he had just seen the indictment and anticipated Trail would be brought to court next week, would plead not guilty and be set for trial.
The court filing provided a window into the lives of Trail and Boswell, who met in late 2016 in Missouri and traveled the country, going to antique shows and shops.
Trail has a criminal history that includes 11 felony convictions, mostly theft- or fraud-related. Boswell has an open case in Pennsylvania but no felony convictions.
Investigators asked for the public's help finding them because they were believed to be the last people to see Loofe alive. She disappeared Nov. 15 after going with Boswell to the apartment she and Trail shared in Wilber.
In social media videos, Boswell and Trail quickly denied their involvement in Loofe's disappearance, saying they weren't criminals but made more than $100,000 a year as antique dealers.
The FBI caught up with them a day later near Branson, Missouri, and federal prosecutors charged them with interstate transportation of stolen property from Hiawatha, Kansas, to Nebraska.
In the newly filed indictment, Russell laid out how Trail had used a false name, Alan Russell, and approached his Kansas victims in November 2015, proposing they jointly buy a gold coin, sell it and share in the profits.
Trail asked the couple, identified only as M.E. and B.E., for money to set up the deal. But the coin wasn't worth what he had claimed, Russell said.
Trail asked for money and property to pay for travel and other expenses, purportedly to arrange the sale.
"As part of the scheme, Trail and Boswell set up false documents and websites to convey the appearance of a legitimate transaction," he said.
Enter Boswell, who prosecutors allege contacted the two pretending to be a broker.
In truth and fact, Russell said, Trail and Boswell were trying to get money out of the couple.
On two occasions in June, Trail and Boswell got the alleged victims to drive from Kansas to Nebraska to give them gold bars, valued at more than $16,000, according to the complaint.
Between Oct. 2 and Nov. 5, the couple brought them $24,000.
In all, Russell said, M.E. and B.E. lost more than $400,000 in money and property "due to the false pretenses, representations and promises made by Trail and Boswell."
Boswell remains in jail in Wilber.
On Jan. 3, Trail, 51, was transferred to the Leavenworth Detention Center, a maximum-security facility in Kansas, after he stopped eating in a move that he told the Journal Star was not a hunger strike.
"There is nothing I want or nothing I am trying to get from my actions," he wrote in a letter Dec. 29.Â
In an interview that month, Trail said he and Boswell, 24, moved to a basement apartment in Wilber last summer, but traveled at least half of the month antiquing.
He was teaching the trade to Boswell, whom he met in late 2016 at a "social event" in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Asked what brought the man from Tennessee and the Iowa woman to Wilber, Trail said: "We were just looking for a nice, quiet spot."
Thursday, an FBI spokesman didn't return a call seeking an update on the investigation into Loofe's death.
The 24-year-old's body was found along a country road southeast of Clay Center on Dec. 4.
- Lincoln Journal Star
- Updated
A man found a bullet shot into his home near 33rd and J streets early Sunday, Lincoln police said Thursday.
The 47-year-old man awoke to a loud sound at about 1 a.m., but he went back to bed because he didn’t see anything, Officer Angela Sands said.
Later that morning, he found damage to his home and called police.
The bullet went through an upstairs triple-paned window and got stuck in the ceiling of a bedroom, Sands said.
No one was injured.
Police ask anyone with information to call 402-441-6000.
- Lori Pilger
- Updated
Two Lincoln sisters face rarely seen criminal charges for an alleged switcheroo at the Department of Motor Vehicles, where one sister is accused of impersonating the other to help her pass her driver's license test.
The Lancaster County Attorney's Office charged Niketa Williams, 28, and Angela Myles, 35, with possession of a forged vital statistics certificate of record.
If convicted, they could get up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Lincoln women appeared in court Wednesday and are out of jail on personal-recognizance bonds.
In an affidavit for their arrests, an investigator in the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles Fraud Unit said on Nov. 6, a person obtained a driver's license in Myles' name at the Lancaster County DMV Driver's Testing Station at 500 W. O St.
But, the investigator said, the license application had begun Nov. 2, and photos were taken of the applicant that day, the next day and finally Nov. 6.
"A facial-recognition system identified the similarity between the images of the applicant identified as Angela Myles ... and images on the record of Niketa S. Williams," Deputy State Sheriff Marlan Hohnstein wrote.
He said interviews of the women led officials to believe Williams had impersonated Myles and that Myles had given Williams her birth certificate to get the license.
- Lincoln Journal Star
- Updated
A Lincoln woman is accused of stealing more than $40,000 in a check scam.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Raina R. Potter of Lincoln deposited checks totaling $40,250 into a Union Bank and Trust account belonging to her husband, Daniel Potter, drawn from a bank in Zimmerman, Minnesota, in November 2017.
The checks were returned because the Minnesota account was closed. But before Union Bank could reverse the deposits, the Potters had withdrawn the funds, according to the affidavit.Â
In an interview in December, Raina Potter told police she made the deposits because her husband had told her to and she didn't know the account in Minnesota had been closed.
She was arrested Jan. 12 and Tuesday was charged with theft by deception of over $5,000. She was released from jail on $2,500 bond.Â
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
Lincoln police are looking for a man who they believe robbed another man he met on Craigslist who was trying to buy a cellphone Tuesday.Â
The two had agreed to meet outside the buyer's workplace at about 11:30 a.m., but the seller told him that they needed to go to 17th and E streets because he didn't have the cellphone, Officer Angela Sands said.Â
There, the seller took the $700 for the phone and drove off, Sands said.
The victim followed him until the seller stopped and got out of his vehicle with his hands in his pockets, she said. He told the buyer to stop following him, and something dropped to the ground, which the victim thought was a gun.
Investigators had a suspect but had not arrested him as of Wednesday.Â
Lincoln police encourage anyone arranging transactions online to use the Swap Spot location at the police substation at 27th and Holdrege streets. That location is well-lit and has video surveillance to provide a safe location for these type of exchanges.
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
A Lincoln woman is accused of fraudulently collecting more than $27,000 of her uncle's Social Security benefits that was supposed to pay for his care center expenses.
Lancaster County sheriff's investigators arrested Dawn D. Clover, 52, of 1721 S.W. 22nd St., Friday, and prosecutors have charged her with theft by unlawful taking and abuse of a vulnerable adult.
On Tuesday, her lawyer called the case troubling.
"I think at worst there’s a misunderstanding,â€Â said Clover's attorney, Brad Sipp.
Clover came under investigation after state health officials notified an area care center that her 68-year-old uncle's coverage had not been appropriately switched from Medicare to Medicaid, an investigator said in court documents.
He was first admitted to the nursing home for a short-term rehabilitation stay in July 2013, which is covered by Medicare, the investigator said. But he ended up staying longer, which should have been covered by Medicaid.
The man hadn't been paying his share of the cost for the nursing home coverage, investigators said, and staff became concerned because he would still be receiving Social Security payments but they didn't know where that money was going.
The investigator tried to interview the man, who is developmentally delayed, but he wasn't able to answer questions about his money, according to court documents.
Clover was named the man's court-ordered guardian in 2012 and had an agreement allowing her to withdraw a fixed amount of money to cover living expenses when he was staying with her.
Investigators discovered that Clover withdrew $639 monthly from the man's bank account between October 2013 through October 2017, all while the man was living at the care center, according to court documents.
The loss totaled more than $27,000.
Clover was arrested at her home and has been released from jail on $1,000 bond.
Sipp said his client had been documenting the withdrawals, which she is authorized to make as part of an ongoing probate case.
While her uncle was in the care center, she maintained a room for him at her home, Sipp said. The uncle moved back in last month.
If convicted, Clover would face as much as 23 years imprisonment.
"I don’t understand why the state has chosen to take this route,†Sipp said.
- Lori Pilger
- Updated
The Lancaster County Attorney's Office charged two Lincoln men Tuesday with conspiracy to deliver marijuana for an alleged plot to bring pounds of pot from farms in northern California to sell here.
Paul A. Clark, 35, and Dominic Aguirre, 36, both were arrested early Friday.
The two made brief court appearances Tuesday from the jail where prosecutors informed them of the charges and possible punishments, and Lancaster County Judge John Freudenberg set their bonds at $500,000.
In court records, Lincoln police said they believe Aguirre had been helping Clark in the distribution of marijuana imported from farms in northern California for the past three years.
Investigators believe the operation netted around $800,000 a year.
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
A pistol stolen during Lincoln's largest-ever gun heist surfaced during a Sioux City, Iowa, murder investigation, more than 10 years after it was taken, Public Safety Director Tom Casady said Monday.
It was unclear Monday whether the pistol was the murder weapon, but it is the latest of the 79 guns stolen from Scheels at SouthPointe Pavilions on Oct. 1, 2007, to turn up outside Nebraska following a crime.
Sioux City police said last week they recovered multiple handguns, including two stolen ones, while they searched the home where they believe a 24-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded Jan. 10.
A suspect arrested in that case has since been charged with trafficking stolen guns, according to Iowa court records.
Ten years ago, three men broke into the Scheels in Lincoln and, in three minutes, took 79 guns.Â
That's a staggering number, especially in Lincoln, where guns are usually stolen one at a time from homes or vehicles.
Police recovered 30 of the guns the following day, arrested the burglars and quickly turned their attention to finding the remaining guns and those fencing them on the black market.
“We’re talking about a great deal of danger when these stolen guns diffuse to the four winds and we’re very anxious to recover as many as we can,†Casady said in 2007.
Fifty-five have been recovered so far, some under similar circumstances as the handgun found in Sioux City — a crime is committed, after which investigators trace the gun's serial number back to Lincoln.
Casady said stolen Scheels guns have been found by law enforcement in California, Arizona, Texas and even Mexico, as authorities investigated kidnapping, robbery, various drug crimes and even a suicide.
Ten years later, 24 of the Scheels guns remain unaccounted for, Casady said Monday.
"I doubt if they all ultimately surface."
- Riley Johnson
- Updated
A 22-year-old man has been charged with child sexual assault after police say he raped a young girl several times over a five-year period, according to court documents.
Lincoln police arrested Zackery M. Wright, of 3939 N. 26th St., on Jan. 10, one day after the girl told a forensic interviewer at the Child Advocacy Center that she was abused by Wright between 2009 and 2014.
The girl, who knows Wright, was younger than 10 when the sexual assaults occurred, police said in an affidavit for Wright's arrest.
Wright appeared in Lancaster County Court on Friday and a judge ordered him not to contact the girl or anyone younger than 18.
The Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was appointed to represent him.
Wright remained at the Lancaster County jail Monday on $50,000 bond.
More like this...
- Riley Johnson
A federal grand jury has indicted a Lincoln man on child pornography charges following his arrest last month in a child sexual assault investigation.
Randall Hughes, 57, of 5133 W. Wilkins St., faces two counts of producing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the indictment.
Lancaster County sheriff's deputies and U.S. Homeland Security investigators arrested Hughes on Dec. 15 following a four-hour standoff where he barricaded himself inside his northwest Lincoln home.
Investigators had come to the home to serve a search warrant, and Hughes hid in the basement and threatened to harm himself, according to Sheriff Terry Wagner.
The standoff was resolved peacefully when Hughes surrendered to the LSO Tactical Response Team, the release said.
Investigators seized computers and hard drives belonging to Hughes and discovered child pornography they believe he made, according to court documents.
Hughes was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault of a child and taken to the Lancaster County jail.
He faces four felony child sexual assault and child pornography charges in Lancaster County Court.
He remained in jail Friday on $1 million bond.
- Riley Johnson
Police arrested the owner of several Lincoln bars this week after they say he allowed after-hours drinking, then refused to cooperate with an officer's investigation.
In addition, one of the taverns owned by Bryan A. McFarland — a Watering Hole location that opened in the Haymarket in October — closed earlier this month without explanation, although that appears unrelated to this week's incident.
At about 3 a.m. Wednesday, a Lincoln police officer noticed a suspicious number of cars in the parking lot at Cliff's Martini Lounge on South 56th Street just north of Nebraska 2, and went to investigate.
Watching from outside, the officer saw McFarland, the owner, holding a beer can as three others sat and stood around the bar, police said in court documents.
The officer announced his presence and asked McFarland to open the locked front door and let him in, police said in court documents.
But McFarland instead began dumping alcohol bottles into the trash, court documents said.
McFarland went out the back door and became uncooperative with officers, who told him they needed to go inside because they were conducting a tavern investigation, the police report said.
They eventually handcuffed him, and an employee who had originally hid from officers opened the door and let police inside. They found glasses on the bar where McFarland was previously seen standing.
Police took McFarland to jail, and prosecutors charged him Wednesday with four misdemeanors: refusing to comply with a police order, drinking on duty, drinking after-hours at a licensed premise and refusing to allow an officer to conduct a tavern investigation.
A city ordinance bans bar owners, managers or employees from drinking while on duty and mandates they allow police officers inside to conduct tavern investigations.
The 49-year-old Lincoln man pleaded not guilty to the four misdemeanor charges.
He didn't respond to a request for comment. His company, Mo Chara, owns the three remaining Watering Hole locations in Lincoln as well as Cliff's.
The fourth Watering Hole, at 710 P St., previously had been an Irish pub called McFarland & Son’s, which opened in 2014. McFarland converted it to a Watering Hole last year, saying at the time that business there "wasn't as good" as his Watering Hole locations.
He said he wanted to test out a Watering Hole in the spot to see if it would do enough business to make it worth renewing the lease.
Thursday, a sign on the door apologized for any inconvenience and asked people to "please try our other locations."
McFarland's legal troubles could jeopardize his remaining bars.
His arrest will trigger a hearing before the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, which could suspend, revoke or cancel his license at Cliff's if the commissioners find him guilty of allowing alcohol consumption after hours.
Nebraska law prohibits drinking at bars between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
"Just because you own it doesn’t mean you can consume on it after hours,†Commission Executive Director Hobert Rupe said Thursday.
McFarland already has a pending second-degree assault charge in Lancaster County Court, according to court records.
In that case, police allege McFarland started a fight with a man at a downtown bar Nov. 5, punching him from behind and leaving him with a gash on the back of his head.
If convicted of the felony charge, McFarland would be unable to renew the liquor licenses at his remaining bars because state law prohibits felons from holding the licenses.
- Riley Johnson
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Chicago-area charter flight broker accused of stealing more than $20,000 from a Lincoln business executive who arranged a trip from Sweden to Italy.
The executive contacted Dennis P. Jans of Charter Jet International in July 2016 to arrange the private flight from Malmo, Sweden, to Naples, Italy, for four days later that month, a Lincoln police investigator wrote in court documents.
The executive gave Jans his credit card information to secure the reservation and had his Lincoln bank wire Jans $22,830 on July 22 for the flight and the broker's commission.
Police believe Jans took the money for himself and claimed the wire transfer never went through, saying he would provide the jet company with the executive's credit card information until the issue was resolved.
After the trip, the executive noticed the jet company had charged his American Express card for $23,519.
He disputed the charge, and learned in November that the jet company had never received the wired payment even though that money was no longer in his account.
He tried getting answers from Jans, but Jans never replied, so he contacted police in April, the investigator said.
In a phone call, Jans told the investigator his business had some difficulties.
Bank statements showed Jans' account was overdrawn by 22 cents in the days before the executive wired money to him for the flight, the investigator said. But over the next 17 days, the account showed withdrawals totaling more than $10,000 at a casino and more than $5,000 at ATMs.
Bank records showed those were common withdrawals for Jans, who spent more than $46,000 at the same casino between February and December 2016, the investigator found.
There was no indication from bank records that Jans ever transferred money to the jet company for the executive.
Lancaster County prosecutors have charged Jans, 59, of Northbrook, Illinois, with theft by deception of more than $5,000. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Jans had not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.
- LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
A Crete man accused of defrauding a local contractor now faces a federal indictment for wire fraud.
The indictment offers a look at what Mark Ackerman, a former office manager for Vertical Horizons Contracting Inc. in Lincoln, allegedly bought with the nearly $1.1 million he's accused of embezzling from the company.
The indictment seeks the return of 10 vehicles — four trailers, two motorcycles, a motorcycle trailer, a compact tractor, a truck and a car.Â
The indictment alleges Ackerman used accounts designated for reimbursement fees to transfer funds to his personal account for items never purchased. It also alleges that he falsely represented legitimate business expenses and made checks payable to himself from company accounts.
Ackerman still faces a charge of theft of more than $5,000 in Lancaster County.Â
A grand jury leveled more than a dozen new charges this week against Aubrey Trail and nearly as many against his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, though no charges have come yet in connection with the disappearance and death of a Lincoln woman in November.
The indictment provided the first details about Trail and Boswell's alleged gold coin scheme, which bilked two people of more than $400,000, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Russell.
And it means a delay for the trial that had been set for next month.
The FBI, which is leading an investigation into Sydney Loofe's suspicious death, has stopped short of calling Trail and Boswell suspects in the case; though Trail has said he believes they will be charged.
As that investigation quietly continues, the pair remained in federal custody on a single charge for transportation of stolen property, until this week, when the federal grand jury signed off on more charges against them.
Thursday, Trail's attorney, Korey Reiman, said he had just seen the indictment and anticipated Trail would be brought to court next week, would plead not guilty and be set for trial.
The court filing provided a window into the lives of Trail and Boswell, who met in late 2016 in Missouri and traveled the country, going to antique shows and shops.
Trail has a criminal history that includes 11 felony convictions, mostly theft- or fraud-related. Boswell has an open case in Pennsylvania but no felony convictions.
Investigators asked for the public's help finding them because they were believed to be the last people to see Loofe alive. She disappeared Nov. 15 after going with Boswell to the apartment she and Trail shared in Wilber.
In social media videos, Boswell and Trail quickly denied their involvement in Loofe's disappearance, saying they weren't criminals but made more than $100,000 a year as antique dealers.
The FBI caught up with them a day later near Branson, Missouri, and federal prosecutors charged them with interstate transportation of stolen property from Hiawatha, Kansas, to Nebraska.
In the newly filed indictment, Russell laid out how Trail had used a false name, Alan Russell, and approached his Kansas victims in November 2015, proposing they jointly buy a gold coin, sell it and share in the profits.
Trail asked the couple, identified only as M.E. and B.E., for money to set up the deal. But the coin wasn't worth what he had claimed, Russell said.
Trail asked for money and property to pay for travel and other expenses, purportedly to arrange the sale.
"As part of the scheme, Trail and Boswell set up false documents and websites to convey the appearance of a legitimate transaction," he said.
Enter Boswell, who prosecutors allege contacted the two pretending to be a broker.
In truth and fact, Russell said, Trail and Boswell were trying to get money out of the couple.
On two occasions in June, Trail and Boswell got the alleged victims to drive from Kansas to Nebraska to give them gold bars, valued at more than $16,000, according to the complaint.
Between Oct. 2 and Nov. 5, the couple brought them $24,000.
In all, Russell said, M.E. and B.E. lost more than $400,000 in money and property "due to the false pretenses, representations and promises made by Trail and Boswell."
Boswell remains in jail in Wilber.
On Jan. 3, Trail, 51, was transferred to the Leavenworth Detention Center, a maximum-security facility in Kansas, after he stopped eating in a move that he told the Journal Star was not a hunger strike.
"There is nothing I want or nothing I am trying to get from my actions," he wrote in a letter Dec. 29.Â
In an interview that month, Trail said he and Boswell, 24, moved to a basement apartment in Wilber last summer, but traveled at least half of the month antiquing.
He was teaching the trade to Boswell, whom he met in late 2016 at a "social event" in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Asked what brought the man from Tennessee and the Iowa woman to Wilber, Trail said: "We were just looking for a nice, quiet spot."
Thursday, an FBI spokesman didn't return a call seeking an update on the investigation into Loofe's death.
The 24-year-old's body was found along a country road southeast of Clay Center on Dec. 4.
- Lincoln Journal Star
A man found a bullet shot into his home near 33rd and J streets early Sunday, Lincoln police said Thursday.
The 47-year-old man awoke to a loud sound at about 1 a.m., but he went back to bed because he didn’t see anything, Officer Angela Sands said.
Later that morning, he found damage to his home and called police.
The bullet went through an upstairs triple-paned window and got stuck in the ceiling of a bedroom, Sands said.
No one was injured.
Police ask anyone with information to call 402-441-6000.
- Lori Pilger
Two Lincoln sisters face rarely seen criminal charges for an alleged switcheroo at the Department of Motor Vehicles, where one sister is accused of impersonating the other to help her pass her driver's license test.
The Lancaster County Attorney's Office charged Niketa Williams, 28, and Angela Myles, 35, with possession of a forged vital statistics certificate of record.
If convicted, they could get up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Lincoln women appeared in court Wednesday and are out of jail on personal-recognizance bonds.
In an affidavit for their arrests, an investigator in the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles Fraud Unit said on Nov. 6, a person obtained a driver's license in Myles' name at the Lancaster County DMV Driver's Testing Station at 500 W. O St.
But, the investigator said, the license application had begun Nov. 2, and photos were taken of the applicant that day, the next day and finally Nov. 6.
"A facial-recognition system identified the similarity between the images of the applicant identified as Angela Myles ... and images on the record of Niketa S. Williams," Deputy State Sheriff Marlan Hohnstein wrote.
He said interviews of the women led officials to believe Williams had impersonated Myles and that Myles had given Williams her birth certificate to get the license.
- Lincoln Journal Star
A Lincoln woman is accused of stealing more than $40,000 in a check scam.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Raina R. Potter of Lincoln deposited checks totaling $40,250 into a Union Bank and Trust account belonging to her husband, Daniel Potter, drawn from a bank in Zimmerman, Minnesota, in November 2017.
The checks were returned because the Minnesota account was closed. But before Union Bank could reverse the deposits, the Potters had withdrawn the funds, according to the affidavit.Â
In an interview in December, Raina Potter told police she made the deposits because her husband had told her to and she didn't know the account in Minnesota had been closed.
She was arrested Jan. 12 and Tuesday was charged with theft by deception of over $5,000. She was released from jail on $2,500 bond.Â
- Riley Johnson
Lincoln police are looking for a man who they believe robbed another man he met on Craigslist who was trying to buy a cellphone Tuesday.Â
The two had agreed to meet outside the buyer's workplace at about 11:30 a.m., but the seller told him that they needed to go to 17th and E streets because he didn't have the cellphone, Officer Angela Sands said.Â
There, the seller took the $700 for the phone and drove off, Sands said.
The victim followed him until the seller stopped and got out of his vehicle with his hands in his pockets, she said. He told the buyer to stop following him, and something dropped to the ground, which the victim thought was a gun.
Investigators had a suspect but had not arrested him as of Wednesday.Â
Lincoln police encourage anyone arranging transactions online to use the Swap Spot location at the police substation at 27th and Holdrege streets. That location is well-lit and has video surveillance to provide a safe location for these type of exchanges.
- Riley Johnson
A Lincoln woman is accused of fraudulently collecting more than $27,000 of her uncle's Social Security benefits that was supposed to pay for his care center expenses.
Lancaster County sheriff's investigators arrested Dawn D. Clover, 52, of 1721 S.W. 22nd St., Friday, and prosecutors have charged her with theft by unlawful taking and abuse of a vulnerable adult.
On Tuesday, her lawyer called the case troubling.
"I think at worst there’s a misunderstanding,â€Â said Clover's attorney, Brad Sipp.
Clover came under investigation after state health officials notified an area care center that her 68-year-old uncle's coverage had not been appropriately switched from Medicare to Medicaid, an investigator said in court documents.
He was first admitted to the nursing home for a short-term rehabilitation stay in July 2013, which is covered by Medicare, the investigator said. But he ended up staying longer, which should have been covered by Medicaid.
The man hadn't been paying his share of the cost for the nursing home coverage, investigators said, and staff became concerned because he would still be receiving Social Security payments but they didn't know where that money was going.
The investigator tried to interview the man, who is developmentally delayed, but he wasn't able to answer questions about his money, according to court documents.
Clover was named the man's court-ordered guardian in 2012 and had an agreement allowing her to withdraw a fixed amount of money to cover living expenses when he was staying with her.
Investigators discovered that Clover withdrew $639 monthly from the man's bank account between October 2013 through October 2017, all while the man was living at the care center, according to court documents.
The loss totaled more than $27,000.
Clover was arrested at her home and has been released from jail on $1,000 bond.
Sipp said his client had been documenting the withdrawals, which she is authorized to make as part of an ongoing probate case.
While her uncle was in the care center, she maintained a room for him at her home, Sipp said. The uncle moved back in last month.
If convicted, Clover would face as much as 23 years imprisonment.
"I don’t understand why the state has chosen to take this route,†Sipp said.
- Lori Pilger
The Lancaster County Attorney's Office charged two Lincoln men Tuesday with conspiracy to deliver marijuana for an alleged plot to bring pounds of pot from farms in northern California to sell here.
Paul A. Clark, 35, and Dominic Aguirre, 36, both were arrested early Friday.
The two made brief court appearances Tuesday from the jail where prosecutors informed them of the charges and possible punishments, and Lancaster County Judge John Freudenberg set their bonds at $500,000.
In court records, Lincoln police said they believe Aguirre had been helping Clark in the distribution of marijuana imported from farms in northern California for the past three years.
Investigators believe the operation netted around $800,000 a year.
- Riley Johnson
A pistol stolen during Lincoln's largest-ever gun heist surfaced during a Sioux City, Iowa, murder investigation, more than 10 years after it was taken, Public Safety Director Tom Casady said Monday.
It was unclear Monday whether the pistol was the murder weapon, but it is the latest of the 79 guns stolen from Scheels at SouthPointe Pavilions on Oct. 1, 2007, to turn up outside Nebraska following a crime.
Sioux City police said last week they recovered multiple handguns, including two stolen ones, while they searched the home where they believe a 24-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded Jan. 10.
A suspect arrested in that case has since been charged with trafficking stolen guns, according to Iowa court records.
Ten years ago, three men broke into the Scheels in Lincoln and, in three minutes, took 79 guns.Â
That's a staggering number, especially in Lincoln, where guns are usually stolen one at a time from homes or vehicles.
Police recovered 30 of the guns the following day, arrested the burglars and quickly turned their attention to finding the remaining guns and those fencing them on the black market.
“We’re talking about a great deal of danger when these stolen guns diffuse to the four winds and we’re very anxious to recover as many as we can,†Casady said in 2007.
Fifty-five have been recovered so far, some under similar circumstances as the handgun found in Sioux City — a crime is committed, after which investigators trace the gun's serial number back to Lincoln.
Casady said stolen Scheels guns have been found by law enforcement in California, Arizona, Texas and even Mexico, as authorities investigated kidnapping, robbery, various drug crimes and even a suicide.
Ten years later, 24 of the Scheels guns remain unaccounted for, Casady said Monday.
"I doubt if they all ultimately surface."
- Riley Johnson
A 22-year-old man has been charged with child sexual assault after police say he raped a young girl several times over a five-year period, according to court documents.
Lincoln police arrested Zackery M. Wright, of 3939 N. 26th St., on Jan. 10, one day after the girl told a forensic interviewer at the Child Advocacy Center that she was abused by Wright between 2009 and 2014.
The girl, who knows Wright, was younger than 10 when the sexual assaults occurred, police said in an affidavit for Wright's arrest.
Wright appeared in Lancaster County Court on Friday and a judge ordered him not to contact the girl or anyone younger than 18.
The Lancaster County Public Defender's Office was appointed to represent him.
Wright remained at the Lancaster County jail Monday on $50,000 bond.
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