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Douglas County DA: No charges planned in fatality accident on Kansas Highway 10

Douglas County Sheriff's officials investigate the scene of a fatal accident on the South Lawrence Trafficway near Clinton Parkway Tuesday, May 31, 2011. Undersheriff Steve Hornberger said officers believed the metal object fell from an eastbound pickup truck hauling a trailer, struck the windshield of a northbound vehicle and injured a passenger who later died. Enlarge video

Douglas County prosecutors won’t file criminal charges in connection with a May 31 accident on the South Lawrence Trafficway in which a Lyndon woman was struck and killed by debris that fell from a pickup truck.

“This appears to be just a horrific accident,” District Attorney Charles Branson said. “But there was no conduct that rose to the level warranting filing of criminal charges.”

Douglas County Sheriff’s officers had forwarded information in June to Branson’s office for review. Detectives had said witnesses indicated a metal object fell from a westbound Dodge pickup truck hauling items and eventually pierced the windshield of an another pickup truck following it, according to the accident report.

The metal object, described as a tooth from the bucket of a front-end loader, struck 47-year-old Cindy Burnett, a passenger in her husband’s pickup truck. She later died from her injuries. The sheriff’s office identified 20-year-old Nicholas Rockhold of Baldwin City as the driver of the truck that lost the piece of debris.

But Branson said prosecutors would only refer the case back to the sheriff’s office to consider any citations for traffic infractions. Sgt. Steve Lewis, a sheriff’s spokesman, said Tuesday Rockhold was ticketed for failing to secure a load.

“We’ve completed our review of the investigation in this matter,” Branson said. “We’ve determined that there are no criminal charges appropriate to file in this case.”

According to the accident report, Rockhold told Detective Jay Armbrister that all items on his trailer were chained down and that he stopped twice to make sure the load hadn’t shifted and the chains had not loosened.

The accident occurred just north of the Kansas Highway 10 bridge over Clinton Parkway southwest of Lawrence. Armbrister said Rockhold told him the object possibly could have come out of a container when he hit bumps where the pavement meets the bridge deck on K-10.

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US Govt Raid Small Farmers, Health Stores, Organic Markets | Daily ...

Daily News @ RevolutionNews.US ~ VENICE, CA — Raw Food SWAT Police Confiscate Yogurt at Gunpoint… It was an average weekday morning last month at Rawesome Foods in Venice, California when federal, state, and local authorities busted in, guns drawn, looking for an illicit stash of raw milk. Law enforcement at its finest. The Los Angeles Times has the details of the raid, and Rawesome Foods’s surveillance video, which shows police entering the premises as if they’re busting into a warehouse full of cocaine. The authorities were there to confiscate jugs of raw goat and cow milk, which Rawesome sells to local connoisseurs. One official told the LAT, “This is not about restricting the public’s rights. This is about making sure people are safe.” Still reeling from the experience, Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, who “still can’t believe they took our yogurt,” throws the neighborhood potheads under the bus “There’s a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they’re raiding us because we’re selling raw dairy products?” Nice. The raid was executed on June 30 by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture. Afterward, they posted a sign on the front door that said Rawesome had been “operating a food facility without a valid public health permit.” The interagency raid hauled in an impressive amount of contraband, too …

@Hsitmuh lol, like most you openly admit the police are too stupid to be critical of their orders, so asking them to be individually accountable for their actions is an exercise in futility.

But I call bullsh*t…..they are ignorant dumbfucks for carrying out raids on these people. They’ll follow any order given to them. They’re not your friends, and neither are the politicians. Don’t trust a politicians lap dog (the cops) and sure as hell don’t trust a politician.

End the fed.

Everyone should be outraged by the abuse of force and ‘authority’ reported here. The violations of Constitutional rights, and the exceeding of Constitutional authority in this situation are many layers deep.

Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. This has been happening across the country, most horrifyingly on small, privately owned family-farms.

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