Man arrested for alleged threats
An man allegedly threatened to
blow up the Hall of Justice on
Wednesday.
Sometime between 10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m., Benjamin Karpick, 22,
3510 Daniel Road, was arrested for
threatening to use explosives, Lincoln
Police Ofc. Katherine Finnell said.
Karpick was at the Hall of Justice,
575 S. 10th St., in the city attorney’s
office and was told that charges against
him for previous offenses were not
going to be dropped, Finnell said.
Karpick was not pleased, and peo
ple in the building told police they
heard him threatening to blow up the
building, Finnell said.
The charge is a felony, and Karpick
was put in jail, Finnell said.
Former Babydolls employee
accused of threatening boss
An employee of Babydolls, 5600
Cornhusker Highway, was accused
Wednesday of threatening to shoot his
former boss.
Jeremy White, 20,4208 Browning
St., was at Perkins, 121 N 48th St., at
3:15 a.m. and had a loaded .22-caliber
Remington automatic rifle in the front
seat of his car, Finnell said.
According to court documents,
White allegedly told friends and for
mer fellow employees he was going to
walk into Babydolls and shoot John
Ways, his former boss, regardless of
who was around.
He was charged with making ter
roristic threats. Charges were reduced
to third-degree assault in Lancaster
County Court on Thursday.
Ways said he had not been noti
fiedofficially at the time of the threats.
White had been fired from the club,
Ways said.
It was possible that White knew he
was going to be fired and was upset, so
he made the threats, Ways said.
According to court documents, the
friends contacted Ways and the police
because they were concerned that
White would go into the club and start
shooting innocent people.
According to court records, a wit
ness persuaded White to let him unload
the gun. White was arrested at
Babydolls at 4:36 p.m. Wednesday.
Ways said he did not feel threat
ened at any time by White’s statements.
Bond was set at 10 percent of
$2,500 for White.
Police looking for man
who exposed himself
A gas station clerk found out
Saturday that it doesn’t always take two
to tango.
In a report filed Wednesday, the
manager of the store said a man came
into Fast Fuel, 5501 Superior St, at 10
a.m. and said if the clerk wanted to see
something weird she should come out
side, Finnell said.
She said no, and the man left.
The man got into a small gray car,
possibly a Pontiac, and pulled in front
of the window, Finnell said.
The clerk said his penis was
exposed, and he was performing oral
sex on himself, Finnell said.
The man is described as a white
man with dark hair, about 45 years old,
5 feet 4 inches tall and thin, Finnell
said. Police are still investigating.
Police respond to call
for lewd conduct
A cleaning worker who was fin
ished with her work saw a man mastur
bating outside a bank Wednesday.
When the 46-year-old cleaning
worker left First Federal Lincoln Bank,
3301 S. 13th St., she saw the man on the
left side of the south doors, Finnell said.
The woman ran back into the bank
and called 911, Finnell said.
She described the man as a white
man in his 20s with blond hair. He is
about 5 feet 10 inches tall and about
150 pounds. He was wearing a blue
stocldng cap and blue jeans, Finnell
said.
Police came to the area, but the man
was not found.
Student cuts tip of finger off
Jeffery Walderstadt, a UNL senior,
cut off the tip of his finger Wednesday
with a table saw in Henzlik Hall,
University Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing
said.
Walderstadt turned 21 the same
day.
He refused transport to a Lincoln
hospital but went to the University
Health Center for treatment, Bushing
said.
Jury selection continues in case
Jury selection for a trial involving
first-degree murder and first-degree
arson charges continued Thursday.
The case to be heard before
Lancaster District Court Judge Paul
Merritt has been a long time coming.
According to court documents,
Clifford J. Davlin was arrested in con
nection with the 1993 death of a 27
year-old Lincoln woman.
Tamara Ligenza was found by fire
fighters in the bedroom of a house at
1620 Washington St. at 4:50 a.m. on
Sept. 7,1993.
According to Lancaster County
Attorney Gary Lacey, an autopsy
revealed Ligenza had been strangled to
death before the fire.
Davlin is currently serving a 25- to
35-year sentence in the Nebraska State
Penitentiary for charges of first-degree
assault, first-degree sexual assault and
the use of a frearm to commit a felony;
all previous chaiges are unrelated to the
current chaiges.
Davlin was sent to jail for the
charges about 10 weeks before
Ligenza’s death.
Compiled by staff writer
Michelle Starr
the secret to becoming an eGrad
is just around the comer, keep reading
and soon you'll know how to get
the right start in the real world.
Phone
program to
aid victims
■ New system releases
prison status of adult
offenders.
By Michelk Starr
Staff ivriter
Making crime victims feel safer and
more in control of their lives were the
motivation behind Victim Information
and Notification Everyday.
VINE, a computerized system
available starting today, provides a way
for victims to call into a system and reg
ister by a touch-tone phone to be noti
fied of an adult offender’s status within
the legal system and county and state
prisons throughout the state.
The system is free, anonymous and
available 24 hours a day in English or
Spanish.
“It’s important to not take this sys
tem as the only way to stay safe, but it is
an important tool,” said Lincoln Sen.
DiAnna Schimek. “We owe it to the vic
tims to do our best to ensure their safe
ty.”
Chief Deputy County Attorney
John Colbome agreed and said it was
time to take the focus off the prosecuted
offenders and place more emphasis and
concern on the victims.
Lancaster County Corrections
Director Mike Thurber said the system
is important because of the 10,000 peo
ple booked each month in Lancaster
County Jail; 35 percent will be out on
bond within a month.
Angela Hacker, program specialist
with the Public Awareness and
Community Education in Kentucky -
where the system originated - said the
system will call the victim within 15
minutes of updated records if an offend
er were released from prison, escapes,
returns to custody or was transferred
The system will call every half hour
if no one answers or every two hours if
an answering machine picks up or 24
hours has elapsed since the message
was given.
The victim should call into the sys
tem and confirm that the message was
received by using a personal identifica
tion number created during registration.
To register in the step-by-step auto
mated process, the victim needs to
know the name, booking number or
case number of the offender to receive
information about his or her status,
Hacker said.
They should also be prepared to
create a four-digit personal identifica
tion number.
Alien eums, executive director oi
the Nebraska Crime Commission, said
VINE also provides information about
an accused person’s status in the court
system; this service is in an experimen
tal stage and only available on offenders
in Lancaster County.
The system also can be accessed
out of state lines in case a victim had
moved. Also, 37 other states already use
VINE, but only seven provide a
statewide system. If a prisoner is moved
to another state, the victim can register
and receive calls from that state.
Hacker said only Dodge and Hall
counties in Nebraska are not hooked up
to the system because of software prob
lems, but they hope to be connected
within the next few months.
The VINE service began in
Louisville, Ky., after a 21-year-old
woman was shot and killed in a parking
lot after work by a former boyfriend in
1993. She thought he had been in jail
and would be notified of his release, but
she was not
The VINE system was developed
two years after the murder.
In Nebraska, law enforcement’s
researching of the system began three
years ago. Implementation began a year
ago. J
The VINE number is 1-877-NE 4
VINE (1-877-634-8463).
