DISTRICT COURT— Connie Ulmer, 50 of Broken Bow, has reached a plea deal in the case where she was accused of taking $45,494.09 from the Broken Bow Booster Club in 2019 and 2020. Amended court documents filed on July 28 showed three of the four counts regarding the theft had been dismissed with one of the counts being amended to criminal attempt. During Thursday’s court hearing, the information was confirmed and Ulmer pled no contest to criminal attempt (Class IIIA felony).
According to the factual basis, read by Custer County Deputy Attorney Kayla Haberstick, Ulmer deposited two checks from the Booster Club account into a Connie Ulmer Accounting account at Nebraska State Bank and also utilized the Booster Club checking account information for two electronic check payments to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ulmer’s attorney, Brian Davis, stated there is no longer an issue regarding restitution as the money has been paid back.
She will now appear back in court on September 23 at 10:45 AM where she will be sentenced on the lone charge. Ulmer could face up to three years in prison and be fined up to $10,000 if sentenced to the maximum. While no agreement regarding sentencing has been reached, Haberstick stated the state would not be opposed to a five-year probation term.
Derrick Gonzalez, 37 of Ansley, will be back in court for a jury trial in November after both parties agreed to skip the pretrial conference. During the progression conference on Thursday, Gonzalez failed to answer the questions posed by Judge Mark Kozisek regarding service of charges, right to discovery, and right to a court-appointed attorney.
Due to his failure to answer the questions, the court waived the right to the three topics. Initially, the case was set for a pretrial date, but Gonzalez asked that the jury trial be set instead and did not see any use of having a pretrial conference. Special prosecutor Martin Klein agreed with Gonzalez and stated he has tried a number of times to resolve the issue with a plea deal, but Gonzalez had refused them all.
Judge Kozisek agreed with both parties and set the jury trial to start on November 23 at 9 AM beginning with jury selection.
