County Attorney waiting on autopsy to call for Grand Jury

1-17-17 Nebraska:

North Platte, NEB. - Lincoln County Attorney, Rebecca Harling, is waiting on the final autopsy before making a request for a grand jury after a North Platte man killed himself during a police pursuit on Sunday.

37-year-old Robert Mills died after North Platte Police tried to arrest him on felony warrants. Mills was facing several charges of sexual assault of a child and felony child abuse. Mills had missed his December court appearance.

Mills was spotted on the Buffalo Bill Viaduct by a witness, who then called 911. Officials say as police tried to make contact, Mills ran away with a hand gun and then shot himself in an alley. He died at the scene.

Grand jury deems prison death suicide, finds no wrongdoing

11-28-16 Nebraska:

A Lancaster County grand jury has determined a 33-year-old inmate at the Lincoln Correctional Center committed suicide in January and found no wrongdoing in his death, according to reports filed last week.

Charles Gipson was found unresponsive in a prison shower around 1:30 p.m. Jan. 13 after an inmate notified a caseworker, the grand jury's report said.

Prison staff found him him lying on his side, fully clothed with a bedsheet bound with a prison-issued belt around his neck, the report said.

Attempts to revive Gipson were unsuccessful.

Inmate found dead in Adams County hanged himself

8-15-2014 Nebraska:

An inmate found dead in the Adams County jail hanged himself, according to the County Attorney.

County Attorney Donna Fegler Daiss investigated the death of inmate Matthew Arterbrun in her role as county coroner. Arterbrun was found dead in his fail cell this past weekend. He was 39.

Arterburn was being held at the jail in Hastings, awaiting transfer to state prison.

Adams County Sheriff Gregg Magee says the county had been waiting on paperwork to make the transfer. Arterburn had been convicted on child pornography charges. ..Source.. by Brent Martin

Man accused of sex assault pronounced dead

8-6-2014 Nebraska:

Christopher Taylor, who tried to kill himself in the Lincoln County Jail six days earlier and had clung to life since, passed away at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Taylor, who was accused of child sex assault, was pronounced dead at the intensive care unit of the Great Plains Health medical center in North Platte, where he'd been since he was removed from a cell in the Lincoln County Jail on the night of July 31.

Taylor, 43, was unconscious when officers found him around 8 p.m. He went by ambulance to the medical center.

Taylor was charged July 30 with sexual assault of a child after police went to the 2200 block of West 17th and talked to the alleged victim and her mother. The girl and her mother said Taylor sexually assaulted the girl the day before, according to the police report.

The girl was further interviewed at the Bridge of Hope intervention center, where it was determined that probable cause of guilt existed to charge Taylor, police spokesman John Deal said.

Deal said Taylor was the mother's boyfriend.

Man accused of sexually assaulting children found dead

4-18-2011 Nebraska:

The body of a man charged with sexually assaulting children is found dead in an irrigation ditch. And, the death is being called a suicide.

The body of 43-year-old Daniel Fischer was found Sunday by family members.

Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer said Fischer died from self-inflicted wounds.

The sheriff says Fischer's death was mostly likely last Wednesday, the day his wife was arrested.

Fischer was charged with nine counts of sexual assault of a child earlier this month.

He was released on bond.

When officers went to arrest him Wednesday on a separate charge, they couldn't find him.

Five girls, ages 7 to 15, reported being assaulted by Fischer at his home.

His wife, 38-year-old Deanna, has been charged with child abuse.

Authorities said she photographed one of the assaults. ..Source.. by KHAS-TV5

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Officials: Death of Sunday School Teacher Charged in Sex Assaults was Suicide

A Hershey man recently charged with sexually assaulting children was found dead on Sunday. Authorities say he committed suicide.

43-year-old Daniel Fischer was charged earlier this month with three counts of sexual assault of children. At that time authorities were still investigating, unsure how many more people might come forward. Fischer was released on bond.

"After our first arrest we, through continued investigation, we found more victims and they gave us more information which led us to getting a warrant issued for [Fischer] and his wife," said Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer.

Kramer says deputies went to Fischer's residence northwest of Hershey on Wednesday, April 13 to serve him with that other warrant. When they couldn't locate him, their initial thought was that he may have fled.

"In the beginning we were involved in the search as we would have any other fugitive that we thought was immediately avoiding arrest," Kramer said.

Fischer's truck was found near a canal on his property, and the Nebraska State Patrol assisted with an air search. When Fischer wasn't found, authorities stopped searching, but Kramer said Fischer's family continued to search for him. They found his body Sunday.

"It wasn't too far from his residence," Kramer said. "We knew from when we were out there before that he had abandoned one of the farm pickups nearby, near the canal, and that was the last anybody had seen or heard from him. That's where he was found was in the canal right near the vehicle."

Kramer wouldn't elaborate on cause of death for sake of the family, only to say that Fischer died of self-inflicted injuries. He said that foul play was not suspected.

"You always have to take that into consideration, that somebody might be very upset," Kramer said. "We didn't have contact with anybody that was that upset that they would have given us any impression that they would be emotionally involved enough to do something that extreme."

Fischer's wife Deanna was arrested on April 13 when deputies went to their residence. She has been charged with felony child abuse. Investigators say she photographed one of the assaults. Kramer said that investigation was completed when she was arrested, and that her court cases are still pending. ..Source.. by Megan Johnson

Man dies in Saunders County custody

6-27-2010 Nebraska:

A month ago, Michael Ellis was arrested in Wahoo on suspicion of growing marijuana with intent to sell it.

Early Friday morning, Ellis, 46, died at Saunders County Medical Center after being taken there from the Saunders County jail.

Saunders County Sheriff Kevin L. Stukenholtz said in a news release that Ellis was taken from the jail to the hospital about 4:30 Friday morning and was pronounced dead about two hours later. Cause of death is unknown, Stukenholtz said in a news release, but a preliminary investigation indicated Ellis died of natural causes.

He was supposed to be in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing on the pot charges, but had asked earlier this month for a continuation until July 22, according to court records.

Ellis was on the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry for life, based on a 1998 conviction in Lancaster County for first-degree sexual assault and sexual assault of a child.

Nebraska State Patrol troopers visited Ellis's home in Wahoo on May 27, in part, to check his compliance with sex offender registry rules, when they smelled pot. A search turned up 72 plants, grow lights, chemicals and a watering system, according to court documents.

Ellis and Michelle Crawford, 41, were arrested and both had been in jail since.

An autopsy will be performed, as is required by state law any time someone dies in custody or in the process of being apprehended. ..Source.. by the Lincoln Journal Star

NE- Accused child rapist commits suicide

1-21-2009 Nebraska:

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — Scottsbluff police have found the body of a Mitchell man who was set to appear in court on child sex assault charges.

Authorities had charged 53-year-old Gerald Dittbenner with dozens of counts, including two counts of forcible rape, two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two pornography counts and two counts of incest.

Investigators have said Dittbenner had repeatedly assaulted the two girls over 10 years, beginning when they were 6 and 9 years old.

Police found Dittbenner’s body in his home Tuesday morning, the same day he was set to enter a plea to the charges. Scotts Bluff County Attorney Derek Weimer says Dittbenner apparently shot himself. ..Source.. by Omaha World-Hearld

Suspect in child sex assault commits suicide

10-8-2007 Nebraska

LINCOLN (AP) - A clerk listed as a suspect in a child sex assault shot himself in the back room of a store after giving a police officer the store surveillance tape that may have shown the assault.

Lincoln police say Glen Sutton, 53, of Bennet was not under arrest and had not yet been contacted as a suspect.

Sutton is listed on the Nebraska State Patrol Sex Offender Registry as a Level 3 offender — one of the offenders judged by authorities as most likely to reoffend. He had been convicted in 1993 of two counts of first-degree sexual assault in Dodge County.

On Monday, Lincoln police spokeswoman Katherine Finnell gave this account of what happened Saturday at a convenience store in northwest Lincoln:

A 10-year-old boy told his mother about being molested Saturday afternoon at the store. She contacted the police, and an investigator was assigned the case.

Another officer who went to the store had been a state corrections officer. He recognized Sutton and knew he was a registered sex offender.

So the officer made some small talk and asked Sutton for the surveillance tape of that day. Sutton went in back, got the tape and brought it out to the officer.

After the officer went outside to call the investigative officer, Sutton went in the back and shot himself.

A friend of Sutton who was in the store didn't hear the gunshot, but when he went to find his friend to help a customer at the counter, the friend found Sutton's body.

An incident report filed Saturday night before the suicide listed Sutton as a "PR" — person responsible. The boy had told the investigator that Sutton had molested him, but Finnell said the investigator had not yet told the officer at the store that Sutton was the primary suspect. ..more.. by Omaha World Hearld


Level 3 Sex Offender Commits Suicide
10-10-2007 Nebraska

A Level-3 sex offender is dead after he shot himself at the Lincoln convenience store where he worked.

It happened Sunday night, when police showed up at the store to get surveillance tapes that may have shown the alleged incident, which involved a 10-year-old boy.

The boy reported the alleged sexual assault to police on Sunday afternoon.

About 10:30 Sunday night, a Lincoln police officer went to the Kabredlos on West Cornhusker to get the store's video surveillance tapes.

The clerk on duty was 53-year-old Glen Edward Sutton. Investigators said after the officer picked up the videotapes, Sutton went to a room in the back of the store and shot himself.

The police officer was still in the parking lot and heard the gunshot.

Tom Casady, Lincoln police chief, said, “He had no inkling the suspect would actually be the person he talked to, and got assistance from in retrieving the tape. The officer did not mention why he needed the tape or anything about the sex assault at all.”

In 1993,Sutton was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual assault. He was labeled a Level-3 sex offender, which means he was likely to re-offend. ..more.. by KETV.com