WestChesterBuzz.com

Kay Rogers covers her face as she walks out of federal court in downtown Cincinnati after being sentenced to two years in prison on fraud charges in July of 2011. Photo taken by Liz Dufour.

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

Update: A federal judge refused Tuesday to let former Butler County Auditor Mary “Kay” Rogers out of prison early.

Rogers, who is serving a two-year sentence for wire and mail fraud, asked Monday to serve the remaining five months of her sentence on home incarceration. Her attorney said Rogers has “suffered tremendously” and needs to support her family.

But U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith denied the request Tuesday in a one-page order, saying the request “does not satisfy the terms” that would allow an early release.

Earlier story: Could former Butler County auditor Kay Rogers be home for Christmas?

That’s what she wants.

Rogers, sent to federal prison for two years in a fiber optics scandal that rocked Butler County, has asked U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith to release her on home incarceration for the remainder of her sentence, which ends in May 2013.

In a motion filed Monday, Rogers’ attorney Brad Kraemer said Rogers has a $50,000-a-year job waiting for her. An attached letter from Steven Potter, Rogers’ former boss, says Rogers would check tax returns, work on clients’ books and set up accounting systems for clients.

Kay Rogers. Provided photo.

“(Rogers) has six children and has suffered tremendously for her mistakes and has already suffered tremendous losses,” Kraemer wrote. “She is tremendously remorseful for her offenses and would like the opportunity to return to being a productive member of society.”

Rogers pleaded guilty more than three years ago to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to filing a false income tax return. She was sentenced in July 2011 to Kentucky Federal Woman’s Camp in Lexington, Ky. She’s also been ordered to pay back $4 million that two banks lost in the Dynus scandal.

Rogers was accused of signing several documents on behalf of the county wrongly certifying that Dynus had a multimillion contract for a 100-mile fiber optics network. Her signature allowed Dynus executives to walk off with the money.

The federal probe resulted in the conviction of several Dynus executives. A spin-off investigation involving public corruption sent former Butler County Commissioner Michael A. Fox to federal prison for four years.

While in prison, Rogers has worked as an orderly and for a prison counselor, Kraemer’s motion said. She also was on a cleaning crew that was allowed to work at a building off prison grounds and has co-chaired community relations projects and other events, he said.

No hearing has been set for Rogers’ request.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: attorney Konrad Kircher, Butler County Auditor, Butler County crime, crime, Dynus, Dynus case, Jim Smith, Kay Rogers, Konrad Kircher, Liberty Township crime, Sandra Beckwith, u.s. district judge sandra beckwith, West Chester crime

Police arrested two suspects Wednesday in connection to what they believed to be a potential meth lab in one of the rooms at the Tri-County Inn in West Chester.

At around 8:30 a.m., the police received a report of a possible methamphetamine lab in a room at the local hotel. According to West Chester Police Public Affairs Officer Jeff Newman, precursors for a meth lab were found in room 417.

Newman would not identify what the precursors were, but described them as items that are notoriously used to create a meth lab.

Upon arriving at the scene, police found Jerry D. Marcum Jr. and Brenda Lee Dungan, both of Hamilton, in the room. They were both interviewed, then charged and transported to Butler County Jail.

Marcum was charged with Illegal manufacturing of drugs (a felony two), illegal assembly of chemicals to manufacture drugs (a felony three) and tampering with evidence (a felony three). While, Dungan was charged with Illegal manufacturing of drugs (a felony two) and illegal assembly of chemicals to manufacture drugs (a felony three).

The West Chester Fire Department was called to the scene to neutralize the threat. Several rooms close to room 417 were evacuated, but the immediate area is in no danger, according to police.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: crime, West Chester crime, West Chester Police

Rachel Richardson reports:

A spike in the number of automobile break-ins – up to 17 in one night – has prompted police in the neighboring city of Mason to warn residents: If you like it, lock it.

Police say that 28 break-ins have been reported in several of the city’s northwest neighborhoods that border West Chester, including Birchwood Farms, Codington Reserve and Hickory Woods.

Most of the break-ins occur at night to vehicles simply left unlocked, said Mason Det. Sgt. Jerome Deidesheimer.

“Nobody deserves to be a victim or expect to have their stuff stolen, but it’s an easy target,” he said. “There’s been no smashing of the windows or breaking into the vehicles. Simply locking the door will prevent it.”

Cars parked on the street and even in home driveways are being targeted, police warn.

The most common items stolen are GPS units, iPods, loose change, sunglasses and wallets, said Deidesheimer. “It’s stuff that can be turned around really quick for cash,” he said.

Police say they don’t believe the suspects are local, but rather are being dropped off in the neighborhoods and later picked back up.

“Unless you’re out and about on foot, it’s hard to catch these guys,” said Deidesheimer.

Police are stepping up foot patrols, surveillance activity and patrols by unmarked vehicles in the areas, he said.

Police are advising residents to keep possessions hidden from plain view in their vehicles. Other basic precautions include: locking your car, parking in your garage if possible, and calling police if you notice anything unusual in your neighborhood: 9-1-1 for emergencies or 513-925-2525 for non-emergencies.

“It may not seem like much, but some things are more than what they appear,” a news release said, adding: “Information from alert citizens often leads to arrests…Mason police officers would rather respond to a dozen calls that lead to nothing than not get the one call that would help them catch a thief.”

Janice Morse contributed

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: break ins, break ins Mason, break ins West Chester, crime, Mason crime, West Chester crime

Michael Murray. Photo provided.

Danny Burke. Photo provided.

Victoria Burke. Photo provided.

A traffic stop late Tuesday night eventually led to the arrest of three people in connection to a meth lab operation in West Chester Township.

Danny Burke, 58, of West Chester and Michael Murray, 33, of Oxford, were both charged with illegal manufacture of drugs and illegal possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs. Victoria Burke, 57, of West Chester was charged with possession of drugs and permitting drug abuse. All three were taken to the Butler County Jail.

An investigation by the Butler County Sheriff’s Regional Narcotics (BURN) Taskforce led to the traffic stop at the 6800-block of Hamilton-Mason Road in West Chester. During the stop, Murray and Danny Burke were in possession of some materials common to meth lab activity, according to the sheriff’s office.

The possession of those materials led to a search of the residence of Danny and Victoria Burke, which was located where the traffic stop took place. According to the sheriff’s office, investigators found all the elements of a full meth lab operation.

The West Chester Fire Department and their Hazmat Unit were called to the scene and assisted with the removal of the potentially volatile materials. The Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigations also assisted with cleanup efforts.

The investigation is currently ongoing and additional charges could be filed.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County crime, crime, Danny Burke, Michael Murray, Victoria Burke, West Chester crime, West Chester meth lab

Jennifer Edwards Baker reports

Police are searching for a gunman who held up United Dairy Farmers, 8976 State Route 747, according to emergency communication reports.

The suspect entered the convenience store just after 6 a.m., brandished a gun and demanded cash.

No injuries were reported, a police dispatcher said.

Police are not sure yet how much money was taken during the offense, he added.

The suspect remains at large. He is described as black, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-7 with blue or black clothing.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: crime, robbery, West Chester crime, West Chester Police, West Chester Police Department, West Chester robbery, West Chester UDF, West Chester United Dairy Farmers, West Chester United Dairy Farmers robbery

Dan Horn reports

A Mason man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for molesting boys at his mother’s in-home day care and sharing photos of the abuse over the Internet.

A federal judge sentenced Andrew Keith, 29, to 80 years in prison Wednesday for producing and sharing child pornography.

Andrew Keith. Photo provided.

Prosecutors say Keith used his mother’s West Chester day care as a “personal hunting ground for victims” and routinely photographed the boys while he abused them. Keith pleaded guilty last year to 15 counts related to child pornography.

He faced a minimum 30-year prison sentence and had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott to consider such a sentence. An evaluation of Keith found he had been abused as a child and his attorneys said that could qualify him for a lesser sentence.

But federal prosecutors said Keith did great harm to his victims and poses a continued threat to others if he ever is released.

They also said his use of the Internet to share images of the abuse will inflict damage on his victims for years to come.

“Keith continued to exploit children by trading hundreds of sexual abuse images,” said U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart. “The photographs are forever in the stream of commerce. They can never be removed from the worldwide web.”

Keith admitted last year that he abused and photographed at least three young boys from 2002 to 2003, traded those images with others and collected 600 photos of child pornography on his computer.

Prosecutors say he obtained many of those images by bartering with other pedophiles over the Internet, swapping his images of abused children for theirs.

Keith also could have been charged in state court, but police and prosecutors are increasingly choosing to use federal child pornography charges when possible. That’s because federal sentencing rules are tough and pornography cases often are easier to prove than abuse cases that require the testimony of young victims.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: andrew f. keith, andrew fares keith, Andrew Keith, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Muncy, theresa bailey, u.s. district judge sandra beckwith, West Chester crime

Kay Rogers covers her face as she walks out of federal court in downtown Cincinnati after being sentenced to two years in prison on fraud charges in July of 2011. Photo taken by Liz Dufour.

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers has to shell out $58,967.74 from her savings to start paying off a $4 million tab in a fiberoptics scandal that landed her in federal prison.

Federal authorities wanted to garnish all of the money — $250,000 — from Rogers’ retirement accounts. But Rogers had argued that her children needed something to live on and pay the mortgage while she was in prison for two years.

Rogers’ attorney Konrad Kircher said the settlement, signed by a magistrate on Friday, was reasonable.

“They understand the family situation. They understand that Kay has suffered tremendously already,” Kircher said Monday. “There’s no sense in beating her down so far that she’ll never get up.”

The settlement takes $25,000 from Rogers’ 401(k) and $33,967.74, which is everything in her IRA account.

Kircher has said that Rogers’s 26-year-old son, Sean, is handling family finances while his mother is in prison and was using the retirement account to pay the mortgage and care for the other children, including two minors. Rogers is a single mother of six.

Rogers pleaded guilty more than three years ago to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud to to filing a false income tax return. She was sentenced last July.

Federal authorities wanted Rogers’ money to pay back some of the $4 million that banks lost in the Dynus case. The scandal reached into Butler County government and resulted in four convictions, including Dynus executives.

Rogers was accused of signing several documents on behalf of the county wrongly certifying that Dynus had a multimillion contract for a 100-mile fiber optics network. Her signature allowed Dynus executives to walk off with the money.

The recent settlement involving Rogers guarantees that federal officials won’t go after her retirement accounts provided no significant deposits are made into them.

But that doesn’t get Rogers off the hook completely, Kircher said.

She’ll have to get a job and set up a payment plan with the government “to try to work off $4 million,” he said.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: attorney Konrad Kircher, Butler County Auditor, Butler County crime, crime, Dynus, Dynus case, Jim Smith, Kay Rogers, Konrad Kircher, Liberty Township crime, Sandra Beckwith, u.s. district judge sandra beckwith, West Chester crime

To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday. (Stories are listed in order of date)

Lakota schools’ budget ax falls – The Lakota school board approved just more than $10.5 million in budget cuts for next school year at its meeting last Monday. Overall the school district will cut 141 teaching, classroom specialist, school nurse and school staff positions, in addition to nine school and central office administrators, according to The Enquirer.

Kay Rogers pleads to keep her savings – Former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers’s attorney asked a federal judge to intervene last Monday to stop federal prosecutors from following through with the garnishment of about $250,000 in retirement savings, according to The Enquirer. According to her attorney, without her savings she will be “unable to support her family” upon her release.

Parents worry about Lakota’s future – The Enquirer’s education reporter Michael D. Clark wrote a story about the parents and their concerns after the Lakota school board made roughly $10.5 in cuts last Monday.

Lakota freshman visits spring training as MLB.com writer – An exceptionally gifted writer from Lakota West Freshman School in West Chester visited spring training sites last week and interviewed dozens of baseball players for MLB.com.

Lakota East students make video to stop cyber bullying – Lakota East and Butler Tech digital media arts students are participating in The Great American NO BULL Challenge in order to fight and bring awareness to cyber bullying. The NO BULL Challenge is a video contest where teens create a two-to-five minute video on how to combat cyber bullying. The local students’ solution is simple – “Post Positive.”

Lakota West grad Matt Klinker retires from pro baseball – After bouncing between the Cincinnati Reds’ AAA and AA minor league teams for the past three seasons, West Chester native Matt Klinker has decided to retire from the game of baseball and is currently training to become a salesman for Pipe Products.

NoLakota spokesman booted after controversial blog post – A blog posted by Rich Hoffman, who up until last week was the spokesman for the anti-school tax levy group NoLakota, went viral and offended many community members. In the post, Hoffman was very descriptive on his opinion of Lakota mothers, who he referred to as “prostitutes.” After The Enquirer featured the post’s content in a separate article, Hoffman was banned from further association with NoLakota. Hoffman has since responded to The Enquirer article on his blog Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.

Local businesswoman Liz Rogers in the news again – Liberty Township resident Liz Rogers was in and out of the news this past week after she surrendered to authorities on a warrant related to a debt. Later in the week, she would pay off the debt and criticized the media. Rogers’ financial situation has become newsworthy after the city of Cincinnati decided to give her and her husband nearly $1 million in funds to open a soul food restaurant at The Banks.

Lakota West community mourns the loss of a student -A Lakota West junior died and four other students were injured in an automobile crash Friday night. Ezekiel “Zeke” Stepaniak of Liberty Township was the junior who died. Lakota West sophomore Ashley Stacy, 16, was treated for serious injuries at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. According to the school district, her condition has improved. The school district is making counselors available this week at both Lakota West High School and Lakota West Freshman School.

Posted in: Board of Education, Crime, Levy news, News, Schools, Sports, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: Ashley Stacy, Butler County Auditor, Butler County crime, Butler Tech, Cameron Winters, Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Reds baseball, Cincinnati Reds spring training, crime, Cyber Bullying, cyber bullying Butler Tech, cyber bullying Lakota East, Dynus, Jim Smith, Kay Rogers, Lakota, Lakota athletic cuts, Lakota cuts, Lakota East, Lakota elementary cuts, Lakota high school cuts, Lakota junior high cuts, Lakota Local Schools, Lakota preschool, Lakota preschool cuts, Lakota preschool program, Lakota reductions, Lakota school levy, Lakota West, Lakota West baseball, Lakota West sports, Lakota West student death, Liberty Township business news, Liberty Township crime, liz rogers, Liz Rogers Liberty Township, mahogany's bar and grill, mahogany's bar and grill banks, Matt Klinker, Matt Klinker Cincinnati Reds, Matt Klinker retires, Meggie Zahneis, Nathan Phu, NO BULL Challenge video contest, No Lakota, No Lakota levy, NoLakota, NoLakota Levy, Rich Hoffman, Sandra Beckwith, the banks, the banks Cincinnati, The Great American NO BULL Challenge, u.s. district judge sandra beckwith, West Chester crime, Zeke Stepaniak

Kay Rogers covers her face as she walks out of federal court in downtown Cincinnati after being sentenced to two years in prison on fraud charges in July of 2011. Photo taken by Liz Dufour.

Dan Horn reports

Former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers says federal prosecutors will bankrupt her family and leave her children without a home if they seize her retirement savings as part of her punishment for fraud crimes.

Her lawyer described the attempt to take the money as a “draconian action” and asked a federal judge on Monday to intervene on Rogers’ behalf.

He said Rogers, who is serving a two-year prison sentence, would be unable to support her family or herself after her release if prosecutors follow through with the garnishment of about $250,000 in retirement savings.

“How much more can you destroy a person?” said her attorney, Konrad Kircher. “This garnishment goes way beyond punishment. This would prevent her from ever living a normal life again.”

Federal prosecutors could not be reached Monday, but they asked U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith last month to approve a request to seize Rogers’ retirement accounts. They said the goal is to help recover some of the $4 million lost in the Dynus fiber-optics scandal that shook Butler County and resulted in four criminal convictions.

Rogers, a single mother of six children, pleaded guilty more than three years ago to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to filing a false income tax return. She was sent to prison last July.

Prosecutors described Rogers as a catalyst for the scandal and said she signed several documents on behalf of the county wrongly certifying that Dynus had completed certain work in a multimillion-dollar deal to recruit customers for a 100- mile fiber optics network.

Without her signature, prosecutors say, National City Bank would not have released about $4 million in loans for the project. The judge ordered all of the defendants to repay the money, which gave prosecutors the ability to seek assets wherever they could find them.

Kircher said taking Rogers’ entire retirement savings, including her 401K, would leave her “unable to support her family … and without incentive to become a productive citizen” upon her release.

He said Rogers’ 26-year-old son, Sean, is handling family finances while Rogers is in prison and is using the retirement savings to pay the mortgage and to cover expenses for the other children, including two minors.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Auditor, Butler County crime, crime, Dynus, Jim Smith, Kay Rogers, Liberty Township crime, Sandra Beckwith, u.s. district judge sandra beckwith, West Chester crime

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Wiping his eyes with a white handkerchief, a former West Chester Township police officer stood before a Butler County judge Thursday and described how his work as an undercover agent sucked him into a seedy lifestyle of drugs and bad choices.

Former West Chester police officer David Busemeyer was sentenced to six months in jail after being accused of tipping off a drug dealer to an undercover bust. Photo taken March 8, 2012, by Tony Jones.

Now, David Busemeyer will spend the next six months in jail for breaking the law.

Busemeyer, 38, of Hamilton Township in Warren County, was accused of tipping off a drug dealer to an undercover investigation and exposing the identity of a confidential informant. Married and now with a second child on the way, Busemeyer was having an affair with the drug dealer’s sister at the time.

He pleaded guilty in January to felony charges of attempted tampering with evidence and obstructing official business. He quit his job the same day. A charge of obstructing justice was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

“I lost my identity and became someone else,” Busemeyer said Thursday. “This is the fault of nobody but my own. My thought process during that time also became warped and convoluted due to my own drug addiction. I was taking steroids for over four years and the last nine months daily as a police officer. I began to think that illegal drug abuse of any kind was OK.

“At that point I was too bitter, too addicted, too arrogant to think anything I did was wrong. But I was wrong,” he said.

Busemeyer said he contemplated suicide the night before he was to be questioned by members of his own police force about the crimes he had committed. (more…)

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Prosecutor, crime, David Busemeyer, Judge Keith Spaeth, West Chester crime, West Chester Police, West Chester Police Department, West Chester Police Officer David Busemeyer