Summary:
Patricia Kilpatrick called into the Jerry Agar talk show (6/20) on 980 KMBZ
saying that a highly unflattering article in The Pitch (6/15) about her troubles
was "about 25 percent true." Even at 25 percent it isn't very good...
Deficit Spending
A Kansas state rep goes out with the law on her heels.
On inauguration day 2005, freshman Kansas state
Rep. Patricia Kilpatrick told The Kansas City Star to call her Trish.
"I don't know Patricia," said the Republican from
Overland Park. "That's only if I'm in trouble."
Court records obtained by the Pitch reveal that Kilpatrick has seen
plenty of trouble over the past five years. She has bounced checks and refused
to pay rent. A month after a trip to Aruba to join the search for Natalee
Holloway, Kilpatrick was arrested for shoplifting at a SuperTarget.
Kilpatrick scored a big victory this session with the passage of Jessica's Law,
which increases penalties on sex offenders who prey on children, mandating
25-year prison sentences and lifetime electronic monitoring. The law is named
for Jessica Marie Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl murdered by a sex offender
in February 2005.
But Kilpatrick faces penalties of her own.
Kilpatrick and her campaign have been sued twice for outstanding debts. A
lawsuit filed in Wyandotte County District Court in May alleges that Kilpatrick
repeatedly refused to pay the Record News, a Kansas City, Kansas, bulk-mailing
company, for campaign signs; the company is seeking $2,300.82.
She's also being sued by The Source, a Topeka marketing firm run by GOP
political operatives Kristian Van Meteren and Jared Suhn. The Source's client
list reads like a who's who of conservative Kansas politicians: U.S. Sen. Sam
Brownback, Attorney General Phill Kline and five conservative Kansas Board of
Education members, as well as Kansans For Life and the Intelligent Design
Network.
In her October 2004 campaign finance report, Kilpatrick listed a $500
expenditure to The Source for campaign mailers and postage. The report says
Kilpatrick's campaign paid The Source on October 7, 2004 — the same date listed
on court records showing The Source's attempt to collect $4,499.34.
The Source won a judgment of $5,024.92 on December
29, 2005, but has been unable to collect the money. Now, The Source is
attempting to garnish Kilpatrick's legislative paycheck for $5,335.08, according
to an order filed on May 15 in Johnson County District Court.
Kilpatrick has tried to balance the bad with good. In October 2005, Kilpatrick
went to Aruba for 14 days, where she joined Dave Holloway, Natalee Holloway's
father, in a search for the missing teen. Kilpatrick didn't find Natalee. But
she did return with photos of the trip, which she posted on her campaign Web
site — though they look more like vacation slides than documentation of a
search-and-rescue mission.
One month after her Aruba adventure, Kilpatrick was arrested for shoplifting at
the SuperTarget on Blue Valley Parkway in Overland Park. According to a Kansas
Bureau of Investigation report, Kilpatrick was arrested, fingerprinted and
released on November 30.
Kilpatrick was attempting to slip out of the store with $209 worth of
merchandise in her cart when a security guard stopped her. Among the 20 items
listed on the three-page incident report: green grapes, toys (Star Wars, G.I.
Joe and Yu-Gi-Oh) and Neutrogena products (balm, lip gloss and eye shadow).
The Target is just outside Kilpatrick's district. She had run for office on a
basic conservative platform — anti-gun control, anti-abortion and anti-same-sex
marriage — and won with 66 percent of the vote.
Nine days before the 2004 election, Overland Park police responded to a
domestic-violence call at the duplex she was renting with then-boyfriend
Nicholas Ryan Harms. Kilpatrick told officers that she and Harms had locked her
out of the house following an argument. "She broke a window to gain access and a
physical altercation took place between the parties as she came through the
window," records say.
Convicted of domestic battery for the incident, Harms spent 90 days in jail,
Johnson County District Court Records show. (He had previously served time for
stealing a 1995 Honda Prelude in 2001.)
Later, the duplex owner, J.H. Property Investment Co., sued Kilpatrick for back
rent, claiming that she owed the company $5,025 and had refused to vacate the
house. A judgment was entered against Kilpatrick and Harms for $6,111.
It wasn't the first time a landlord had sued Kilpatrick. In February 2003, AMLI
Management Company sued her for $1,234.95. Kilpatrick was living at the AMLI at
Regents Crest apartment complex. The court ruled in AMLI's favor for $1,230.95
for rent and court costs.
Her most recent trouble came on January 21, when Kilpatrick wrote a worthless
check for $18.26 at the Westlake Ace Hardware of Overland Park. A warrant was
issued for her arrest on May 19, but it was recalled and the case was dismissed
when Kilpatrick paid the hardware store and court costs, court records show.
Kilpatrick has a history of bouncing checks. LaMar's Donuts filed a lawsuit in
September 2001 over a bad check for $9.24, dropping the suit after Kilpatrick
paid the $240.24 judgment and court costs. On March 3, 2005, she wrote a bad
check for $20.17 at a Conoco. Carey Johnson Oil Co. sued on August 9, 2005, and
received a judgment of $336.17.
There's more. Capitol Federal Savings sued Kilpatrick for $1,940.28 plus court
costs last month. A court date was scheduled for May 18, but the case was
dismissed when Kilpatrick paid what she owed. In July 2003, the Kansas
Department of Revenue came after Kilpatrick for $219.10 in delinquent taxes from
2001.
Kilpatrick did not return several calls and e-mails from the Pitch. And she
declined to answer questions on June 5, when a reporter tried to speak with her
after an event at the University of Kansas.
There, Kilpatrick had been a guest speaker at the Sunflower Girls State
leadership conference. Speaking at the Lied Center in Lawrence, she gave 400
soon-to-be high school seniors her guidelines for becoming "the best you that
you can be."
Kilpatrick talked about the good things she'd done. She saved a life, helping a
motorist suffering an asthma attack. She helped look for Holloway in Aruba
(added bonus: eight days of scuba diving). And she sponsored Jessica's Law.
"Success is definitely not an overnight thing," Kilpatrick said. "It still
isn't. Because I'm going to wake up tomorrow, and I'm going to fail. But that's
OK because I'm going to get up and I'm going to say, 'What did I learn from
it?'"
Apparently, Kilpatrick has learned that she is unlikely to be re-elected. She is
leaving the Legislature to become the director of government affairs for the
Jessica Marie Lunsford Foundation in Homosassa Springs, Florida.
Note: KMBZ reported (6/22) that
Kilpatrick had been terminated by the Lunsford Foundation after just three weeks
of employment.