Dorchester Times: Former DPS Superintendent Takes Plea Deal

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Former DPS Superintendent Takes Plea Deal

A former Dorchester Public School superintendent who was accused last year of threatening to kill his wife by driving into an oncoming semi and choking her took a plea deal Wednesday in Hall County District Court. That's according to the Hastings Tribune.

Brian Redinger, 45, of Hastings, pleaded no contest to third-degree domestic assault and reckless driving. Instead of facing 20 years in prison, he is most likely to receive between a couple months to a maximum 15 months.

Redinger had been superintendent of Shelton Public Schools at the time of the incident.

From 2008 through 2011, Redinger served as Dorchester's superintendent. Prior to that, he served as principal of DPS.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped charges of terroristic threats, strangulation and attempted first-degree assault, which is a Class 2A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Third-degree domestic assault is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Reckless driving is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.

Hall County District Judge John Marsh ordered a pre-sentencing investigation and scheduled Redinger’s sentencing for June 8 at 10 a.m.

The Hastings newspaper reports that "according to the arrest affidavit, Redinger was driving with his wife, Kelleene, in rural Hall County when he threatened to kill her on April 10, 2016. Kelleene told police that Redinger told her to pick a color and he was going to drive in front of a semi of that color to kill them.

"Kelleene was scared and turned the vehicle off. Brian then allegedly put his hand around the back side of her head and started hitting her head against the dash. Then she said he started to choke her.

"Kelleene was able to get out of the vehicle and Brian continued driving. She said he turned around and started driving toward her at a high rate of speed, but she jumped off the side of the road so he didn’t hit her. She then flagged down a truck driver who took her to a truck stop, where she called police."

Due to the sensitive nature of this story, and out of respect for the Redinger children who attended DPS, comments on this story will not be published by the Times.

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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."