A failed attempt for an acquittal, coupled with a separate indictment of federal charges of collecting $400,000 in fraudulent tax refunds from the City of Lawrence, made 2018 a very.
Thomas S. Fritzel leaves the Frank Carlson Federal Courthouse in Topeka, Kan. on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018.
After serving four months of his one-year sentence in a federal prison, Lawrence developer and four-time felon Thomas Fritzel has been transferred to a reentry program that is designed to help him transition back to the community upon his upcoming release.
Fritzel began serving his sentence at the minimum-security federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D., on Aug. 25, and the Bureau of Prisons database reflected that he had been moved to the Residential Reentry Management program in Kansas City, Kan., sometime in the past week. As part of such programs, the BOP contracts with residential reentry centers, also known halfway houses, to help inmates nearing release transition back to the community, according to the BOP website.
Staff Report
photo by: Orlin Wagner
Big Jay shows off his face mask during the Jayhawks football game against Oklahoma State on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
2020 will always be remembered as the year of the coronavirus pandemic, which, to date, has infected nearly 20 million Americans and killed more than 340,000, including more than 2,500 Kansans.
It will be the story of 2021 as well, and for many of us, the story of our lifetimes. The deadly virus not only relentlessly dominated headlines for 10 months of the year but also affected virtually every aspect of our community and the way we live our daily lives how we interact socially, how we work and attend school, how we entertain ourselves, how our local governments operate and how our businesses and the economy function.
Lawrence s Oread Hotel, left, and Eldridge Hotel, right, are pictured along with Thomas Fritzel, center.
Certain parts of Lawrence love a good Thomas Fritzel question. My phone started ringing after The Kansas City Star earlier this month published an article raising questions about the propriety of a $9 million federally backed, pandemic-related loan that was given to a little-known company tied to the Fritzel family.
I’ve been looking into the issue too. The Star’s article is definitely interesting, and the loan it focused on is certainly noteworthy. But perhaps more significant and not mentioned is $700,000 to $2 million worth of federal assistance that Fritzel entities have received through another program. Why is that smaller amount more interesting? One, because that money very well may end up being a federal grant, unlike the $9 million loan that will have to be repaid. And secondly, the companies involved in that federal program the Paycheck Protection Program crea