Month: July 2021

Arrest made in homicide on 8th Street

The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department has made an arrest in the July 8 shooting death of 37-year-old Ashley Jones in her home in the 1400 block of North 8th Street.

Officers arrested Verlee McCullough, 39, on Tuesday, a police spokesman stated, and on Wednesday the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against him for first-degree murder.

McCullough, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, is currently being held in the Wyandotte County Jail on $1 million bond, the spokesman stated.

Officers were dispatched to Jones’ home at 9:40 a.m. Thursday, July 8, to assist the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department and EMS on a medical call regarding a female in respiratory arrest, according to the spokesman. Upon arrival, officers were advised that she was deceased on arrival by EMS. She was the victim of a gunshot wound.

This incident remains under investigation by the KCKPD Major Case Unit, the spokesman stated. Anyone with information on this case is urged by police to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

Telephone scams targeting BPU customers

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities is warning customers to be aware of utility scams telling residents their utilities will be shut off immediately.

According to a BPU spokesman, the scams are ongoing, and have increased in the past few days. About a dozen or so customers have let the BPU know they were contacted by scammers, he stated.

According to BPU representatives, multiple reports have been made about calls stating if payment is not made, services will be shut off within 30 minutes. The caller claims to represent a local utility, and sometimes uses caller ID spoofing to convince victims the call is from a real customer service number, according to a BPU spokesman.

The caller tries to get the customer to provide credit card information or other personal information, telling the customer a check has bounced or he or she has a past-due bill, according to the spokesman.

Imposters will often ask customers to use a pre-paid card for payment, the spokesman stated.

BPU will never ask a customer to purchase a pre-paid debit card, gift card, or any form of cryptocurrency, to pay for service, according to the spokesman.

BPU never asks for payment over the phone or threatens to disconnect utilities due to non-payment, the spokesman stated.

Customers who suspect they are being targeted by a scam need to hang up right away and call the BPU Customer Service Department at 913-573-9190, according to the spokesman. If you feel you have been a victim of a scam, work with your local law enforcement agency to report the crime.

Although BPU sometimes uses pre-recorded messages to notify customers about future dates for possible disconnection, they do not cold-call customers to demand immediate payment, the spokesman stated.

BPU offers these tips for customers to protect themselves if they are unsure about a call, email, or visit from a utility representative:

• Never give credit or debit card, Social Security, ATM, checking or savings account numbers to anyone who comes to your door, calls, texts, or sends an email asking for information regarding your utility bill. Verify the request is authentic by either asking to see company identification or calling the BPU Customer Service Department.

• Be suspicious if you receive an email regarding your utility bill if you have not requested online communications from BPU.

• Never provide personal information via email or click any suspicious links or attachments.

BPU said electric customers have been targeted by scammers using a variety of such scam attempts for a number of years in several states besides Kansas, including Nebraska; Alabama; Arkansas; Connecticut; the District of Columbia; Florida; Louisiana; Maryland; Massachusetts; Mississippi; Missouri; New Jersey; New York; Oklahoma; Texas; Wisconsin; and New Mexico.

Opioid settlement announced with drug companies

A $26 billion national opioid settlement has been reached with Johnson and Johnson Company and three opioid distributors.

Kansas has reached a settlement with a major pharmaceutical company and three opioid distributors as part of the state’s ongoing efforts to bring accountability to those that fueled the opioid-addiction crisis and provide funds to support addiction services, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today.


The settlement announced today includes Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corporation and AmerisourceBergen Corporation, the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors, as well as pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson.

In addition to financial terms, the distributors have also agreed to changes in the pharmaceutical industry to help prevent a similar prescription-drug crisis from happening again. Johnson and Johnson will stop selling opioids, will not fund or provide grants to third-parties for promoting opioids and will not lobby on activities related to opioids.

Schmidt said the terms of the agreement resolve the claims of Kansas and other participating states, as well as local governments nationwide. States will have 30 days to sign onto the deal and local governments in participating states will have up to 150 days to join. The majority of the funding from the agreement is to be spent on opioid treatment and prevention.

“We continue to move forward in our efforts to hold pharmaceutical companies and others accountable for the destruction their business practices caused to the lives of Kansans,” Schmidt said. “These settlement negotiations are extraordinarily complex. However, my objective remains simple: Get as much money as possible into the hands of state and local governments, and service providers, in Kansas to pay for addiction treatment as soon as possible – and of course, change corporate behavior to stop the practices that fueled this damage in the first place.”


The total value of the settlement is approximately $26 billion. Each state’s share of the funding will be determined by agreement among the states using a formula that takes into account the impact of the crisis on the state – the number of overdose deaths, the number of residents with substance use disorder, and the number of opioids prescribed – and the population of the state. The state’s share also will be affected by the number of local jurisdictions that decide to join the settlement.


The conditions of today’s 10-year agreement with the pharmaceutical distributors include:


• Establishing an independent clearinghouse for tracking where drugs are going and how often.
• Maintaining a data-driven system to detect suspicious opioid orders from customer pharmacies.
• Terminating customer pharmacies’ abilities to receive shipments, and report those companies to state regulators, when they show certain signs of drug diversion.
• Prohibiting sales staff from influencing decisions related to identifying suspicious opioid orders.
• Requiring senior corporate officials to engage in regular oversight of anti-diversion efforts.


The agreement is the latest result of ongoing efforts by Schmidt’s office to combat the opioid epidemic. In February, Schmidt joined a coalition of attorneys general from 46 other states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories in reaching a settlement with McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. The settlement resolved allegations the company violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act by helping opioid companies illegally promote their drugs and profit from the opioid epidemic.

Kansas will receive $4.8 million from the McKinsey agreement to be used for drug treatment and addiction abatement.


Schmidt has also reached separate agreements in principle to resolve the state’s claims against Purdue Pharma and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals plc, but each of those companies then filed for bankruptcy and negotiations through bankruptcy court continue.


Kansas also is engaged in ongoing negotiations with other companies the state believes played a role in fueling opioid addiction.


Earlier this year, Kansas legislators approved Schmidt’s proposal to ensure funding recovered through these settlements is used to address addiction and help ensure services are provided throughout the state. Funding will be available through a grant review board created by the statute. State agencies, local governments and not-for-profit entities may seek funding for addiction treatment and abatement through the board, which is currently being formed.