Two indictments have been handed down by a Scotts Bluff County grand jury  that has concluded its investigation into the July 11, 2008 death of two year old Juliette Geurts of Gering. 

KNEB Radio in Scottsbluff reports the indictments filed in Scotts Bluff County District Court by special prosecutor Jim Zimmerman charge the boyfriend of the child’s mother, Dustin Chauncey, with child abuse resulting in death (a penalty of 20 years to life in prison if convicted), involuntary manslaughter (1 to 20 years in prison if convicted) and furnishing false material to authorities to impede their investigation (up to a year in jail if convicted).

The child’s mother Charyse Guerts, is charged with being an accessory to a felony (up to five years in prison if convicted) and furnishing false material to authorities to impede the investigation (up to a year in jail if convicted).

Geurts, Chauncey and another male were in the Gering home when Charyse reported she found Juliette dead in her crib. The case has been investigated as a homicide after the autopsy showed the child died of blunt force trauma.

The grand jury had been meeting since Wednesday of last week. Juliette’s aunt Monica Hall, who had been critical of the investigation, organized a petition drive that was successful in getting enough signatures to convene the grand jury.

Oglala Sioux Present Bryan Brewer was scheduled to go home Tuesday after more than two weeks in the hospital with a broken hip and ribs suffered late last month in a single-vehicle accident.

Tribal spokeswoman Toni Red Cloud says Brewer still needs surgery in the future for the broken hip, but expected to be back in his office on Wednesday.

Brewer was injured December 29th when his vehicle crashed on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Red Shirt Table area. He’s been in Rapid City Regional Hospital since then, most of the time in its rehabilitation unit.

The career educator who made a successful entry into politics by winning the Oglala Sioux presidency in November had been in office less than a month at the time of the accident.

      The Chadron School Board has rolled over the 3-year contract of Superintendent Dr Caroline Winchester. Winchester’s salary will remain $113,000 a year plus benefits under the contract that now expires July 1st, 2016.

Board members Gary Hoffman and Dr Dave Johnson both voted against the renewal, but made it clear they had no objections to Winchester or the job she’s been doing, only to rolling over the contract.

They felt letting a contract run through or at least run down gave more incentive to both sides to continue to work for improvement.

Winchester scored high in her annual evaluation, completed by the school board late last year, but asked that her next evaluation be goal-based. A board committee is currently working on such a format.

Last night also saw the seating of the new Chadron school board…with Hoffman taking the oath of office as a new member. Sandy Roes was reelected as board president while Terri Haynes was elected as vice-president, who did not seek reelection to the board after serving for 10 years.

One of two people charged as accessories in a November murder in Sidney has pleaded guilty and will testify against the man accused of the actual killing.

35-year old Billy Fields admitted with his plea that he helped 33-year old Jason Custer flee Sidney after Custer allegedly killed 36-year old Adam McCormick on November 3rd in a dispute over $160 in drug money.

Fields faces up to 5-years in prison on the felony charge of Accessory to a Felony, but won’t be sentenced until the murder case against Custer is done.

As part of his plea bargain, Fields is also required to tell police whatever he knows about the location of a short, black rifle believed to be the murder weapon.

Prosecutors say Fields and Custer’s girlfriend, Amber Davis, both helped Custer flee to Big Springs after the shooting, then provided misleading information to police.

Fields denied being with Custer during the evening, and Davis said initially that she had been returning home from Colorado. She then said Fields had told her that Custer had been fighting with McCormick and needed a ride out of town because of arrest warrants from California.

The pair later admitted to investigators that they’d driven Custer to a hotel in Big Springs, with Fields saying he knew Custer had shot someone. Custer was arrested a short time at the hotel.

Davis has pleaded Not Guilty to two misdemeanor accessory charges…obstructing justice and false reporting…and is scheduled for a status hearing later this month on the 28th. Her trial is scheduled for March 15th.

Everyone has tried New Year resolutions, and many often succeed. Resolutions come in all forms, be it to improve one’s interaction with other people or family, or to improve one’s health by eating healthier or quitting smoking. Box Butte General Hospital urges area residents to try something new this year and consider resolutions to practice preventive health by taking advantage of health screenings.

As mentioned, people make choices every day to do things to improve their health, be it to exercise, eat healthier, drink less alcohol or stop smoking. But for whatever reason, having a preventive health plan for the year doesn’t make the list of healthy things to do.

A preventive health plan would include a discussion with a medical provider on what screenings would be appropriate. Screenings are tests or exams conducted to find a medical condition before symptoms begin. Screenings help find diseases or conditions early, which make them much easier to treat. Some screenings detect pre-cancerous conditions, with the suspect tissue (polyps, cysts, etc.) removed before they turn cancerous.

Some of the more common preventive health screenings and the most common type of testing done include:

— Breast cancer in women: Breast self-exam and mammography can help find breast cancer early when it is most treatable.

–Cervical cancer in women: Pap test – examining cells from the cervix under a microscope. By getting regular Pap tests and pelvic exams physicians can find and treat changing cells before they turn into cancer.

— Colorectal cancer: Everyone who is 50 or older should be screened for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy is one method doctors use to screen for colorectal cancer.

— Diabetes: A blood test can show if a person has either Type I or Type II diabetes.

— High blood pressure: Everyone who visits a doctor has their blood pressure taken as a normal procedure. High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, but it can cause serious problems such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure.

— Osteoporosis: A bone mineral density test  (DXA) is the best way to evaluate bone health.

— Prostate cancer in men: A physician can diagnose prostate cancer by feeling the prostate through the wall of the rectum or doing a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Other tests include ultrasound, x-rays, or a biopsy.

Another preventive measure recently made possible through new technology is using ablation (the use of radiofrequency energy to heat unwanted or diseased cells to the point of cell death) to treat Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus (cancer of the esophagus).

While these are the most common, there are additional preventive services the public can obtain and the new Affordable Care Act has eliminated most of the cost, if certain conditions are met.

According to HealthCare.gov, preventive services are covered under the Affordable Care Act. If a person has a new health insurance plan or insurance policy beginning on or after September 23, 2010, the following preventive services must be covered without the covered person having to pay a copayment or co-insurance or meet a deductible. According to HealthCare.gov, this applies only when these services are delivered by a network provider.

There are 16 covered preventive services for adults, ranging from Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm or Cholesterol screenings to Type 2 Diabetes screening or immunization vaccines for adults.

Women, including pregnant women, have 22 covered preventive services, ranging from screenings for anemia and mammography every one to two years (for women over 40), to screenings for cervical cancer and gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes.

And finally there are 27 types of preventive services for children, ranging from autism screenings at 18 and 24 months to hearing screenings for newborns.

A complete list of covered preventive services can be found at https://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/ . Then search for “preventive services.”

What tests a person should do depends on age, sex, family history and whether the person has risk factors for certain diseases. Make this New Year resolution different by visiting with a primary care provider soon about what preventive health tests are best for you.

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman delivers his annual State of the State Address to the legislature tomorrow morning at 9:00 MT.

He’s not giving any details in advance, but  says with the next biennial budget the #1 focus of this year’s legislative session, the bulk of his speech will outline his budget recommendations for the next two years…with tax reform also getting an emphasis.

One budget item Heineman announced last week is a request for an additional $47-million dollars for the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska State College System to pay for a 2-year tuition freeze for in-state students.

The governor will hold a news conference in Lincoln immediately after the speech, then he and Lt Governor Rick Sheehy will head out on separate trips across the state to13 different cities to highlight some of the governor’s proposals.

Heineman will fly on Tuesday to North Platte, Grand Island, and Norfolk while Sheehy will fly to McCook, Sidney, Scottsbluff, and Alliance on Tuesday and to Chadron, South Sioux City, Falls City, and Beatrice.

Sheehy’s Panhandle schedule has him at the Western Nebraska Community College Aviation Campus in Sidney at 2:10, at the terminal in Scottsbluff at 3:30, and at the Alliance Airport Terminal at 4:45…all on Tuesday…and at the Best Western West Hills Inn conference room in Chadron Wednesday morning at 8:00.