Month: December 2016

BPU to meet tonight

The Board of Public Utilities is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, for a work session at 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan.

On the agenda for the work session is a closed executive session, a board update and general manager update, and a presentation on the lobby redesign.

The regular BPU meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at 540 Minnesota Ave.

On the agenda will be approval of customer service policies; United ay wrap up report; 2017 budget approval, board comments and general manager comments.

Judge Serra to retire Jan. 9

Judge Robert Serra

Wyandotte County District Court Judge Robert Serra will retire Jan. 9, after 16 years on the bench.

“It has been a great privilege and honor to serve as a district judge for the 29th judicial district,” Serra said. “I will be eternally grateful to the people of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County for the support and trust they showed me by electing me to four terms in the district court.”

Serra graduated from Pittsburg State University and the University of Kansas School of Law.

He enjoyed a number of professional pursuits in the legal field before becoming a district judge. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He was an assistant county attorney, a municipal judge for Kansas City, Kan., president of the Kansas Municipal Judges Association and in the private practice of law for many years.

“I am grateful to my fellow judges, the attorneys who practiced before me, all of the clerks and other staff of our judicial district,” Serra said. “I am particularly grateful to my very competent administrative assistant, Ann Griffin, my late wife Kathleen, without whom I would have never filed nor been elected to this position, and to my wife Marla, who gives me support and encouragement daily.”

Serra said that retirement is bittersweet, as he has enjoyed serving as a district judge. He has no specific plans other than to spend more time with his wife and family, dedicate more time to his collections, and to travel.

Woman pleads guilty to sex trafficking of minor

A Topeka woman pleaded guilty Monday to the sex trafficking of a minor, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Michaela Hekekia, 36, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. In her plea, she admitted training a minor female to work as a prostitute and transporting the girl from Kansas to a motel in Joplin, Mo., to work as a prostitute.

Hekekia admitted conspiring with co-defendants to run a Topeka-based prostitution business that operated in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. At times, as many as 20 females were working as prostitutes for the organization. The leader of the organization rented houses where some of the prostitutes were allowed to live. The organization used Web sites, social media and cell phones to advertise sexual services and to keep track of prostitutes.

Hekekia admitted she started working for the organization as a prostitute and gradually took on other duties including recruiting and training sex workers and managing advertising for sex services.

Sentencing is set for March 20. The government has agreed to recommend a sentence not to exceed 70 months in federal prison.

Co-defendant Frank Boswell, 42, Topeka, Kan., is set for trial March 7. Co-defendants Rachel Flenniken, 34, Topeka, Kan., and Sean P. Hall, 47, Topeka, Kan., are awaiting sentencing. Shannon Nelson, 23, Topeka, Kan., is set for sentencing Jan. 23.

Beall commended the FBI, the Topeka Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Kenney for their work on the case.