Citizen’s arrest leads to jail

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Posted on Sat, Aug. 13, 2005

Angry landlord assails official

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12376659.htm

Citizen's arrest leads to jail

By ROBERT A. CRONKLETON

The Kansas City Star

There are ways to express your dissatisfaction with government.

Making a citizen's arrest of a government employee near a police

station is not one.

An Overland Park man unhappy that his Kansas City, Kan., rental home

was cited for code violations allegedly tried to do just that Friday

morning.

Armed with a roll of duct tape, two men confronted Debby Graber as

she arrived at work about 7:30 a.m. at the Neighborhood Resource

Center of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas

City, Kan. in the Indian Springs Business Center, 4601 State Ave.

" They stopped her and asked her name, " Don Denney, a spokesman for

the Unified Government, said of Graber, the program manager of the

Residential Rental Licensing Department.

One man allegedly grabbed her arm and said he was making a citizen's

arrest for a felony.

" He put one of her arms behind her back and started wrapping her

arms in duct tape, " Denney said. " She was able to break away and ran

inside, where she hollered for help. "

Her office is about 50 feet from the Kansas City, Kan., Police

Department's community policing station in the former mall. Three

officers responded and took the two men into custody, Denney said.

Graber was unharmed and reported to work. Denney said she did not

want to be interviewed.

The Wyandotte County district attorney charged L. , 55,

with one count of attempted kidnapping. He was being held in the

Wyandotte County jail; bond was set at $250,000. The other man was

not charged and was released.

The Residential Rental Licensing Department had inspected the single-

family home in the 1300 block of North 28th Street at the request of

a tenant.

The inspector found such violations as mold on a wall, electrical

hazards and heating and cooling problems. A letter noting the

violations was sent Monday to the property owner's home.

The property was not in danger of being shut down, Denney said. He

said officials would have worked with the owner to make the

necessary corrections.

The purpose of the Residential Rental Licensing Department, he said,

is to protect renters and help property owners improve their

properties' values by keeping them up to code.

" The biggest problems, however, have come from landowners that don't

live in the county, " Denney said.

Denney said there were other avenues the property owner could have

taken, even going through an appeals process. And even if he thought

Graber needed to be arrested, he could have asked a nearby police

officer.

" It is just bizarre, " Denney said. " There is a right way to do

things, and they did it the wrong way. "