The Columbus Dispatch

Air Force general charged with sexually assaulting civilian 28 election employees in Missouri county are battling COVID-19 Oklahoma state senator charged with manslaught­er in crash

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WASHINGTON – The Air Force has charged a two-star officer with sexual assault, opening the possibilit­y of the first court-martial for a general officer in its 73-year history.

Air Force Maj. Gen. William Cooley was charged with one count of sexual assault for an incident in August 2018 in which Cooley allegedly made unwanted sexual advances by kissing and touching a woman. The woman is a civilian and not a Defense Department employee, according to the Air Force.

Cooley will face an Article 32 preliminar­y hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury, on Jan. 27, where a senior military judge will review the charge. The judge could decide to send the case to a courtmarti­al.

O’FALLON, Mo. – Twenty-eight employees of the election board in Missouri’s second-largest county have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks, and a director suspects they most likely got infected from voters.

The Jackson County Election Board’s Republican director, Tammy Brown, said Tuesday that eight full-time and 20 part-time employees tested positive for the virus in the past 21⁄ weeks.

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Most are recovering at home, but two part-time workers are hospitaliz­ed, including one in intensive care, Brown said.

The Jackson County board handled votes cast by nearly 200,000 people, including more than 60,000 people who voted absentee or by mail, Brown said. Many of those people passed through the main board office or the absentee voting office in the weeks before the election to to pick up a ballot, vote or drop off a ballot.

CHANDLER, Okla. – An Oklahoma state senator from Tulsa was charged with first-degree manslaught­er after authoritie­s say she was speeding and driving recklessly when her vehicle skidded off a wet road and crashed into a man’s disabled vehicle, killing him.

Democratic Sen. Alison Ikley-freeman, 29, who was seriously injured in the May crash, was charged Monday in Lincoln County.

According to a state trooper who investigat­ed, Ikley-freeman was traveling 91 mph in a 75 mph zone in rainy conditions on the Turner Turnpike. Enrique Lopez, whose vehicle had skidded off the road earlier and was stuck in a ditch, died at the scene. The patrol reported Ikley-freeman was trapped in the wreckage for 40 minutes.

Ikley-freeman, who was elected in 2017, lost her reelection bid last week to Republican Cody Rogers.

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