Dorchester Times: Former DHS Student Arrested For Burglary, Drugs

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Former DHS Student Arrested For Burglary, Drugs

Former Dorchester High student Jason Kotas, 38, and his wife, Sheena Kotas, 28, both of Lincoln appeared in Seward County court recently after being arrested Dec. 8 on counts involving burglary and drug possession. Both individual cases were bound over to District Court where both are set to appear March 25.

The Dorchester Times contacted two former Dorchester teachers. Both confirmed that Kotas was a student at DHS until 1991, when he dropped out of school late his junior year. One teacher said: "It was an unexpected event because Jason had reasonably good grades and was full of potential. I'm sorry to see his life has turned out this way. It's quite sad really."

The Friend Sentinel provides this report:

The Kotases were arrested after being chased from an abandoned farmstead in Waco after a family friend who owns the farmstead spotted suspicious activity in the area, according to York County Sheriff Dale Radcliff. After being spotted, the couple took off in a truck that was full of stolen items. The black truck was also found to be stolen from the Dorchester area earlier that month.

A pursuit led the York County Sheriff Department and the Nebraska State Patrol to Seward County. The pursuit ended in a rural area of Seward County. According to court documents, Jason Kotas was arrested for flight to avoid arrest, possession of methamphetamine, possession of burglary tools and obstructing a police officer. Jason Kotas is listed as a habitual criminal. He was charged with burglary in November 2011 in Saline County and for sexual assault in November 1995. He also is listed on the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry.

According to court documents, Sheena Kotas was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, possession of Oxycodone, possession of burglary tools and obstructing a police officer. Sheena Kotas admitted to authorities in taking part in three burglaries in Saline County from October 2012 to December 2012. She reported that the stolen contents would be sold to Alter Scrap or Capital City Metal Recycling in Lincoln and they would buy methamphetamine with the money. Sheena reported that Jason Kotas and William Rasp would sell three pickup loads of metal per day as often as six days a week. Sheena Kotas posted bond on Jan. 4. She was then arrested for burglary charges in Saline County.

7 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 29, 2013 at 10:36 AM
Lumir Joe, where did you go?
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AnonymousJanuary 29, 2013 at 1:05 PM
Sad.
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AnonymousJanuary 31, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Is this news or just your typical gossip?
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DavidFebruary 1, 2013 at 8:05 AM
Hardly gossip, my dear. "Arrested" means just that.
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AnonymousFebruary 3, 2013 at 2:51 PM
Thanks Dorchester blog for posting that picture. I'm going to have bad dreams for the next two weeks, and here i had been doing so well since Charlie Manson's capture
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DavidFebruary 3, 2013 at 4:06 PM
If that picture is the worst thing you've seen since Charlie Manson's capture, you're very lucky indeed.

Sweet dreams anyway.

PS-Wanna see my divers license photo? Talk about nightmares....
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AnonymousFebruary 3, 2013 at 9:57 PM
I am more frightened by the condition of our streets. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."