Neujahr gets year on drug charge

COLUMBUS -- A 49-year-old Columbus man has been sentenced in Platte County District Court to a year in prison for drug possession.

The case is the second in a web of four cases stretching from Seward to Ord.

Judge Robert Steinke sentenced Gregory Neujahr to a year in prison for possession of methamphetamine after noting the defendant’s “voluminous previous criminal history.”

The judge gave Neujahr credit for 213 days already served in connection with a June 17, 2008, raid on his Columbus home by about dozen law enforcement officers.

Steinke ordered that Neujahr serve his sentence in the Platte County case concurrently with a prison term of 18 to 36 months recently imposed in Merrick County District Court.

Neujahr was sentenced for failure to appear in Merrick County in exchange for a theft charge being dismissed.

In exchange for Neujahr’s no contest plea last month to the drug charge in Platte County, the prosecution agreed to dismiss a habitual criminal charge against the defendant.

Neujahr was previously convicted of felonies in Butler County in April 1980 and in Platte County in May 2001. The charges included receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Charges are pending against Neujahr in Seward County District Court, and he is being sought by a criminal court in Valley County.

Neujahr has been charged with theft by unlawful taking-over $1,500, a Class III felony, and criminal mischief-over $1,500 and possession of burglar’s tools, Class IV felonies, in Seward County.

Neujahr was acquitted of theft of irrigation wire by a jury in a York County District Court trial last year.

Neujahr’s Platte County case stemmed from an incident in June 2008 in which a team of police officers employed a flash-bang grenade and stormed into the defendant’s Seventh Street home looking for property stolen in York County.

About a dozen officers from the Platte County Sheriff’s Department, the Columbus Police Department, the Nebraska State Patrol and York County were involved in serving the search warrant.

Officers blocked off streets in the area of Neujahr’s home at 2521 Seventh St. while other officers, including a SWAT team, served the warrant.

A State Patrol helicopter hovered overhead as officers busted into the home.

Neujahr was arrested for possession of a controlled substance (meth), possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia after officers were unable to find property linking the city man to the theft of hydraulic equipment in York County.

The pending Seward County case stems from the June 2006 search of Neujahr’s camper home and vehicles, which were located on in Polk County.

At the time of the search, Neujahr was being sought on a Platte County warrant. He was set for a trial in Platte County for strangulation and third-degree domestic assault, but had failed to appear in court.

Law enforcement authorities said the stolen property seized at the site included copper wire, aluminum irrigation pipes, an air compressor and batteries stolen in York and Seward counties.

Neujahr was never charged in Polk County in connection with the case because the thefts occurred in other jurisdictions.