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	Defrocked Priest Released from Prison, Put in Jail Wichita Eagle March 30, 2006 http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/14219821.htm Robert Larson, a longtime priest in the Catholic Diocese of Wichita who admitted molesting altar boys in the 1980s, was released from Lansing Correctional Facility on Wednesday after serving five years in prison. Larson, 76, was transferred to the Harvey County Jail, where he will stay until a judge determines whether probable cause exists to have the former priest declared a sexual predator. Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline filed a petition in Harvey County last week seeking that declaration. State law allows offenders who are designated sexual predators to be held in state mental hospitals to undergo treatment indefinitely, even after their prison sentences are up. "We're doing everything we can to make sure that he is not put in a position to re-offend," said Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Kline. Larson pleaded guilty in 2001 in Harvey County District Court to abusing three altar boys and a 19-year-old man while he was pastor at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Newton in the mid-1980s. As part of a plea agreement which was offered to Larson in 2001 by then-Harvey County Attorney Matt Treaster, the state agreed not declare Larson a sexual predator. State Attorney General Phill Kline said only his office, and not a county attorney, has the power to waive such a declaration. Larson spent 30 years as a priest in the Wichita diocese before being removed from the pulpit in 1988 and sent out of state for treatment. He was eventually stripped of the title and duties of a priest and ordered not to dress or represent himself as a priest. The charges to which Larson pleaded guilty grew out of a criminal investigation launched after The Eagle published a story in which several former altar boys from various parishes around the diocese claimed Larson had molested them. -- Stan Finger Local couple establishes ag chair at Kansas State A Wichita couple has pledged $675,000 to Kansas State University to establish a chair in the College of Agriculture's Department of Plant Pathology. Alvin and RosaLee Sarachek's donation to the K-State Foundation will support a senior faculty member's study of fungal molecular genetics and plant disease control. Alvin Sarachek graduated from Kansas State in 1957 with a doctorate in genetics and is the co-founder of the Department of Biology at Wichita State University. -- Amanda O'Toole Thief pulls copper tubing from strip-mall project A plumber who arrived to work at a strip mall under construction Tuesday morning discovered thousands of dollars in damage caused by a thief who was after copper used in the project, police said. Copper tubing had been pulled out of walls and from concrete, and was lying on the floor of the mall at 2425 S. Hillside. Police are not sure how much copper might have been stolen in the incident. Metal thefts -- including copper stolen from air-conditioning units -- have become more frequent in recent months as criminals attempt to cash in on higher prices for the material. -- Stan Finger Christina M. Woods
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