Wichita, KS Foster Care Worker, Foster Parent, Warrant Out For Former Youthville Employee Noble "Rick" Pendland

Rick Pendland not only worked for Youthville as he was

ALSO sponsored as a foster parent for Youthville

Police Have Issued 2 Warrants For An Individual Who Is A Former Youthville Employee, Wichita Children's Home Employee, And Wichita School Teacher. 

Pendland Has Multiple Accusations For Child Molestation

Noble "Rick" Pendland





"""There are numerous children who have alleged to have been victimized by Mr. Pendland," Arkansas City police Lt. Mark McCaslin said.
The children come from multiple families""" http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/19/2023785/arkansas-city-police-looking-for.html#storylink=misearch

Sedgwick County, KS has shown it's citizens how

"the best interest of child"

works here by placing children in the hands of pedophiles

 

By Melissa Scheffler KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

7:10 p.m. CDT, September 20, 2011

Accused child molester worked in Wichita public schools

Rick Pendland only worked as a teacher in the Wichita School District for five years.  But he made quite an impression on Wendell Turner.  His grandson was in Pendland's sixth grade math class in 2006 at Hamilton Middle School.  But Turner said Pendland wanted to be more than just a teacher.
"He would call up and say, 'Barry do you want to go swimming with me?'  Grown men don't do that.  And, we wouldn't let him go,” Turner said.

The Wichita School District confirmed Pendland worked at Hamilton Middle from 2003 to 2008.  Turner says, during Pendland's last year in Wichita, he tried to foster Turner's two grandsons.
"When they said we couldn't have them, I said well then where are they going.  And they said that teacher is going to take them.  I said, no that teacher is not going to take them,” Turner said.
Turner says Pendland did not end-up fostering his grandchildren.  But Fact Finder 12 learned Pendland was a foster parent sponsored by Youthville.  The Wichita Children's Home also confirmed Pendland worked for that organization from 1986 to 1997 as a staff member.
Now, the Exploited and Missing Child Unit is looking into whether any victims are from Wichita.  We know when Pendland left Wichita in 2008, he was hired by the Arkansas City School District.  His employment ended in May 2010.  A month later, the Ark City Police Department started investigating Pendland after several children came forward reporting they had been molested.  Officers believe Pendland left Ark City when he learned he was being investigated.
Pendland remains on the run tonight.  He’s wanted on two warrants that include aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

2 warrants issued for Ark City ex-teacher
http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/19/2023785/arkansas-city-police-looking-for.html#storylink=misearch
Arkansas City police looking for former teacher suspected in child molestation cases
http://kansas.com/2011/09/19/2023785/arkansas-city-police-looking-for.html#storylink=misearch

Wichita police officials join Ark City child molestation casehttp://www.kansas.com/2011/09/21/2026686/wichita-police-officials-join.html#ixzz1YdTTdduP

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/19/2023785/arkansas-city-police-looking-for.html#ixzz1YadD2oiP

Kansas Lt Gov Colyer Said The State Will Cut Medicaid $720 Million Over Several Years

KANSAS NEEDS TO STOP DRUGGING LITTLE CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE AND THAT WILL NOT ONLY SAVE CHILDREN'S LIVES BUT SAVE THE STATE

MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

Posted on Mon, Sep. 19, 2011

Colyer: State must reform Medicaid

TOPEKA — Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer today described a bleak future for the state's Medicaid program — unless reforms drive down costs and people begin making healthier lifestyle choices.
Without changes, rapidly growing costs will overwhelm the state and affect funding for things such as K-12 education.
Colyer said Medicaid, the health program for low-income residents, should do what some insurance companies do and reward patients who quit smoking, work their way out of obesity and take their medicine. And the 40-year-old program should work to transition users to private health insurance, he added.
"This (Medicaid) is the most complex thing I've seen in government," he said. "And we aren't going to fix it in one year."
Colyer's call for reform and improved services comes when federal funding is expected to decrease. Some say Colyer's descriptions of cutting costs and improving services are too rosy.
"I don't see how it can possibly work in any way, shape or form," said Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan.
He said he works with patients who need a lot of care. If they don't have adequate finances for proper care, they'll be in emergency rooms, which is part of the disaster the state is trying to avoid.
"You're never going to cut medical costs down, you know that," Reitz, who is a doctor, said to Colyer, who is also a doctor.
Colyer said that federal cuts to Medicaid announced today translate to roughly $720 million in reductions to Kansas over several years.
He said ideas gathered from more than 1,200 people in four public forums on Medicaid reform this summer — plus concepts used in other states — show Kansas needs to create a safety net for its neediest, a system that links outcomes to price, provides employers with incentives to hire people with disabilities and provides people to coordinate patients' care.
Reitz said there's no way the state can improve while drastically cutting funds without embellishing services.
"It won't happen; it can't happen," he said. "If it does, you're going to have people marching on the Statehouse, tearing the place apart, saying, 'We can't go on this way. Try something else.' "
Colyer disagreed.
"I believe economic forces do work and do force us into better patient care," he said. He cited laptop computers as an example, saying they were once thousands of dollars and now are cheaper and have better technology.
Colyer said the state can save money by having someone coordinate health care for patients with serious problems.
"If we can navigate them through, you can save money on not institutionalizing them," he said.
Reitz said he and other doctors already help their patients manage their care.

Reach Brent D. Wistrom at 785-296-3006 or bwistrom@wichitaeagle.com

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/19/2023944/colyer-state-must-reform-medicaid.html#ixzz1YS6RTP7E

Nola Foulston to retire as district attorney

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2011

District Attorney Nola Foulston, who prosecuted Sedgwick County's most notorious criminals for nearly a quarter-century, has decided to retire.
"At some point in time, you have to say it's time to give someone else a chance," she told the Eagle in explaining her decision to leave office.
In a letter she plans to share today with her staff, friends and colleagues, Foulston said she will enter private practice when her current term expires.
"After over 30 years in public service, I have made the decision to 'retire' at the end of my term as district attorney in January of 2013 and plan to return to the private practice of law at that time," she said in the letter.
"I have had a wonderful experience as district attorney, and feel that it's time now for me to step down from this position and become a private citizen."
Foulston said in an interview at her home that she had been thinking for some time about returning to private life.
"It's kind of like being a football player," she said. "I don't want to play until my legs are broken or I can't work any more."
Foulston, 60, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, but she said the disease is in remission and her health had nothing to do with her decision. She said she had no specific plans other than to resume the practice of law as a private citizen.
She was first elected in 1988, and was never seriously challenged in her five bids for re-election.
Foulston said she seriously considered not entering the 2008 race, but decided she had to run after Republican Mark Schoenhofer entered the contest. She said she was concerned about changes Schoenhofer might make in the office, which now has an $8 million annual budget and 130 employees, 55 of whom are lawyers.
"I felt an obligation to keep the staff intact," she said.
She won the election with about 55 percent of the vote.
Foulston said a half-dozen of her top assistants were qualified to run the office, but to date only Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett has expressed an interest in the job. Bennett, a Republican, is the only announced candidate in the race.
"Any of them could handle the reins of that office without a hitch, and that includes Marc," she said.
Foulston said she has no plans to endorse any candidate, and said voters should have the only say in deciding who occupies the office during the upcoming term.
"You and I both know that hand-picked successors never go anywhere," she said.
Before her first race in 1988, Foulston switched parties to become a Democrat, then criticized incumbent Republican District Attorney Clark Owens for his handling of two high-profile murder cases.
The cases — the Dec. 30, 1987, slayings of Wichita accountant Phillip Fager and his two daughters, and the New Year's night murder that same week of Wichita State University student Alice Mayfield — both ended in not-guilty jury verdicts.
Foulston campaigned on a promise to take high-profile cases into the courtroom herself. She won the election with 60 percent of the vote.
In the 1992 election, Foulston defeated Republican challenger Clarence Holeman — a member of Owens' staff who had been fired by Foulston — by a ratio of more than 2-1. She ran unopposed in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Foulston said she has been approached by Democratic Party officials several times over the years about running for another office. She said she was asked often about running for the 4th District seat in Congress, which has been in Republican hands since 1994. She said she never had an interest in that job.
"I'm not a politician; I'm a prosecutor," she said.
During her six terms in office, Foulston has twice appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases ended with the Court upholding 1994 Kansas laws by 5-4 votes.
In June 2006, the Court upheld the state's death penalty. A year later, the Court upheld the state's Sexual Predator law, which allows for the indefinite confinement of some sex offenders for mental health treatment after they have served their criminal sentences.
Both cases originated in Sedgwick County District Court.
Foulston gained national attention in 2005 for her role in the prosecution of Dennis Rader, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder as he confessed to being the BTK serial killer.
She also was in the national spotlight in the fall of 2002 as she prosecuted Reginald and Jonathan Carr, who were convicted and sentenced to death after a crime spree that left five dead.
Nearly a decade earlier, in 1994, Foulston was the prosecutor in an equally troubling murder case — the July 30, 1990, abduction, rape and strangulation of 9-year-old Nancy Shoemaker.
In those pre-capital punishment days, Doil Lane was convicted of Nancy's murder and given a Hard 40 prison sentence — a sentence of a minimum of 40 years without parole — which at the time was the maximum allowed under Kansas law.
Foulston and her husband, Wichita lawyer Steve Foulston, have been married for about 29 years and have a son, Andrew, who is a senior at the University of Kansas. He is majoring in finance with a minor in Chinese, Foulston said, and has expressed no interest in becoming a lawyer.

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/16/2018836/foulston-to-retire-as-da.html#ixzz1YKpyey9O

Sedgwick County DA's post already drawing GOP interest

Posted on Sun, Sep. 11, 2011

BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

The 2012 race for Sedgwick County district attorney is starting early, and may pit two Republicans with extensive experience in the District Attorney's Office.
Friday night, Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett announced that he is running as a Republican for the position held by his boss — Nola Foulston, a Democrat who has been district attorney for 22 years. Bennett, 41, is the first to file for the job.
Foulston, 60, hasn't said publicly whether she will seek re-election. But Bennett's candidacy — while he works for her — is seen by observers as a sign that she may not run again.
"I'm making an announcement soon," Foulston said Saturday. "It will clear up any confusion."
Meanwhile, Kevin O'Connor, a 47-year-old former deputy district attorney in the office, said he is giving serious consideration to running after receiving encouragement from the county Republican Party leadership.
O'Connor said Saturday he found it puzzling that Bennett is a candidate while working for Foulston and while "the Republican Party has been recruiting me, not Marc Bennett."
"Mr. Bennett apparently agrees with me that fundamental changes need to occur in that office," and needs to spell out what those changes should be, he added.
"How's he going to do that if he works for her? He needs to be able to criticize Nola Foulston. If he doesn't, he's just a status-quo candidate, and we've had enough of the status quo.
"He needs to resign. ... I had enough guts to leave," said O'Connor, who resigned from the District Attorney's Office in January 2010.
Bennett responded: "I have a wife and three kids to support. I'm not going to resign just to throw rocks at Nola. I'm proud of the office I've worked for, proud of the job I've done."
As for O'Connor, Bennett said, "He's got his own reasons for not announcing (his candidacy), and I'd like him to respect the choices I've made."
O'Connor said that he's not ready to say what changes should occur in the office. "If I run, I will" spell them out.
Bennett said that as district attorney he would call for a "renewed emphasis" on dealing with financial crimes and identity theft, saying those crimes directly affect many people. Financial crimes will have an even bigger impact as the baby boom population ages and becomes more vulnerable, Bennett said.
After "a great deal of reflection," Bennett said, he decided last week to file as a candidate. He told Foulston he wanted to run, and she said something like "that'd be fine, go for it," he said.
It is his first run for public office.
Bennett acknowledged that he had not talked with Republican Party leaders but had met informally with some Republicans to get their feedback.
"I finally decided I was going to make a decision on my own," he said.
Bennett said he considers O'Connor a friend and noted that the two have worked together prosecuting some high-profile murder cases, including the killing of pregnant, 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks of Wichita.
Bennett, who grew up in Goddard and west Wichita and graduated from Washburn University School of Law, has a reputation for being assertive without being combative.
He has played bluegrass music, on acoustic bass and guitar, since he was a child.
He and his wife, Tamara, have three daughters.
O'Connor, the son of Irish immigrants, grew up in a suburb north of Chicago. He is a former college rugby player —"mainly known for my tackling ability" — who has a reputation for combativeness in the courtroom. As his boss, Foulston publicly referred to him as the "Fighting Irish" on her staff.
He now does contract work on criminal cases around the state as a special assistant attorney general.
Party backs O'Connor
The chairman of the Sedgwick County Republican Party, Bob Dool, said last week: "Kevin O'Connor is certainly the person that we are encouraging at this point" to run for district attorney.
"We think he's very well qualified, and we have encouraged him to pursue this race.
"He is highly respected by law enforcement, which is obviously important," Dool said. The district attorney is the chief law enforcement officer in the county and the gatekeeper — deciding whether charges are filed in cases presented by law enforcement. The office prosecutes everything from misdemeanors to death penalty cases and consumer fraud and juvenile custody cases.
O'Connor is well-suited for the job, Dool said. "I think he has a reputation of being tough but fair," said Dool, president and owner of Wichita-based Mid-Continent Safety, which sells industrial safety products.
Dool said he didn't know Bennett and had not been contacted by him.
"If he's working there (in the District Attorney's Office) now, it might indicate that Nola's not going to run, but we don't know that."
There could be other Republican candidates besides Bennett, Dool said.
"Right now, I would certainly support Kevin (O'Connor)," he said.
As the incumbent, Foulston has proven herself, said Betty Arnold, chairwoman of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party.
"I don't know if it's her intent to seek re-election, but if it is, we certainly will support her," Arnold said.
The fact that Foulston has been repeatedly re-elected shows "that Sedgwick County has confidence in her ability to run the office," said Arnold, also a member of the Wichita school board.
Sizing up the race
Even before Bennett announced his candidacy, Ken Ciboski, a Republican and Wichita State University associate professor of political science, said he wondered if Foulston might not run again.
"If she thinks that somebody like Kevin O'Connor can defeat her, she may very well step down," Ciboski said. "You kind of want to go out with grace. You don't want to go out as a defeated person."
Ciboski said both O'Connor and Bennett have strong resumes and extensive experience in the District Attorney's Office — about 17 years for O'Connor and about 14 years for Bennett — and either would be a sound candidate, he said.
After years of being in office, Ciboski said, Foulston is "politically vulnerable ... For one thing, she's been in there a long time. But after a while, things begin to wear a little thin. You're bound to make enemies ... you can't make everybody happy."
Ciboski agreed that Bennett's candidacy, while working for Foulston, indicated that she will not seek re-election —"although it's not out of the realm of possibility."
Bennett's early announcement — coupled with the fact that he has a strong resume — could help him keep potential opponents from entering the race, Ciboski said.
Ciboski said he has wondered whether Kim Parker — the chief deputy district attorney, the No. 2 position — might run if Foulston doesn't. But Parker said Saturday that she has no desire to be a candidate, and that although she is "a committed Republican ... I think politics is a hard and nasty business. It doesn't suit me."
O'Connor's experience
O'Connor graduated from the University of Kansas Law School and went to work for Foulston. During part of 2001 and 2002, he worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney in federal death penalty cases, then was rehired by Foulston.
As a prosecutor working under contract with the Kansas Attorney General's Office, he is involved in the capital murder case against Adam Longoria, charged in the killing of 14-year-old Alicia DeBolt of Great Bend.
If O'Connor runs, it will be his second campaign. In 2000, while living in Hutchinson, he lost the race for Reno County district attorney.
With next year's election, he said, he'll make the decision on whether to run "based on what's best for me and my family, without regard to whoever else is running."
He and his wife, Jennifer, have four children, ages 9 to 15.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/11/2011140/das-post-already-drawing-gop-interest.html#ixzz1Xg6oXew2

Bennett announces candidacy for Sedgwick County DA

BY HURST LAVIANA

The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — Veteran prosecutor Marc Bennett announced today that he has filed as a Republican candidate for the office of Sedgwick County District Attorney.
Bennett, who serves as deputy district attorney under Nola Foulston, is the first person to announce his candidacy for the office. Foulston, a Democrat who has been in office since 1989, has not said whether she plans to seek re-election.
Bennett, 41, began his career as an assistant county attorney in Geary County, and has prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases since joining the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office in 1997. He has prosecuted capital murder cases against Elgin Robinson, Ted Burnette, Douglas Belt and Cornelius Oliver.
Bennett is a graduate of Goddard High School, Kansas State University and Washburn University School of Law. He and his wife, Tamara, have three daughters.

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/09/2009558/bennett-announces-candidacy-for.html#ixzz1Xg61FC4P