Page 5 - Emonte Brown News Today

AUBURN — A DeKalb County man described the wife he strangled as his “soulmate,” while the woman’s daughter sobbed loudly after questioning why her mother had been killed, during a sentencing hearing Monday in DeKalb Superior Court II. Joseph F. Traster, 55, pleaded guilty to intentionally killing Lisa M. Heiser while acting “under sudden heat” in a Waterloo house on Halloween last year. Traster originally faced a charge of murder, but that was amended to a lesser c...

AUBURN — An Ohio man who was arrested in December in connection with a string of vehicle thefts and home invasions now faces additional charges in the case. Nicholas Larkin, 37, of Defiance, Ohio, was arrested on preliminary charges of burglary with a deadly weapon, a Level 2 felony, and auto theft, a Level 6 felony. On Tuesday, DeKalb County Judge Monte Brown granted a request from DeKalb County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Neal Blythe to add seven more charges: resisting law enforcement, a Cl...

AUBURN — A bankruptcy filing this week blocked a sheriff’s sale of the Heron Lake property south of Auburn. Heron Development filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Indiana. A document signed by Heron Development managing member Stephen Brown said the filing is “for the purpose of restricting the company’s finances and stop the Sheriff’s sale scheduled for April 22, 2021.” In December 2020, a DeKalb...

Racist clauses in property deeds can’t be enforced, but still exist. A Texas bill would make it easier to remove them. Texas Tribune Updated:  Tags:  An untold number of Texas properties still have language in their deeds that put racial restrictions on who can occupy them, even though the U.S. Supreme Court declared such restrictions illegal decades ago. (Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune) James McGee knows well the history of housing discrimination against Black people like him...

AUBURN — It took a month of sleuthing, but a man wanted on a Level 3 felony rape charge in DeKalb County has been arrested in Kentucky after nearly a year on the run, police said. Christopher F. Johnston, 30, was arrested by Kentucky State Trooper Mark Spencer at a residence in Thelma, Kentucky, late Friday afternoon. Johnston is going through the extradition process so he can be brought to Indiana to face the charge, according to the Indiana State Police. A no-bond warrant was issued for ...

AUBURN — It took a month of sleuthing, but a man wanted on a Level 3 felony rape charge in DeKalb County has been arrested in Kentucky after nearly a year on the run. Christopher F. Johnston, 30, was arrested by Kentucky State Trooper Mark Spencer at a residence in Thelma, Kentucky, late Friday afternoon. Johnston is going through the extradition process so he can be brought to Indiana to face the charge, according to the Indiana State Police. A no-bond warrant was issued for Johnston on t...

A Lancaster man is in prison after he grabbed a Lancaster General Health employee inappropriately while she was walking to work and then assaulted a hospital security officer on Wednesday evening, according to Lancaster city police.  Police were called around 4:24 p.m. to the hospital for a report of an assault in progress. Lequaan Monte Brown, 36, followed the woman as she walked to work and repeatedly stepped in front of her, police said. Brown also made inappropriate comments to her and t...

AUBURN — A 71-year-old Tennessean was sentenced to four years of probation for dealing in marijuana by Judge Monte Brown in a video hearing Monday in DeKalb Superior Court II.

AUBURN — Charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery filed against a man involved in a stabbing incident in St. Joe have been dismissed.

AUBURN — An Auburn man who possessed a “huge amount of methamphetamine” was ordered to serve one year on work release, followed by 18 months on home detention, as terms of his probation by Judge Monte Brown during a hearing in DeKalb Superior Court II Monday. Michael Pinkerton, 44, of the 300 block of West 9th Street, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine, a Level 3 felony. Brown imposed a nine-year suspended sentence and placed Pinkerton on probation, with the work rel...