Category: Johnson County

Kansas state Rep. Aaron Coleman pleads not guilty to domestic violence charge

Johnson County District Judge James Phelan agreed to release Coleman from the Johnson County jail on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond.

by Dan Margolies, KCUR and Kansas News Service

Kansas Rep. Aaron Coleman entered a plea of not guilty to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Johnson County District Court on Monday.

The first-term Democrat was accused in a criminal complaint of a single count of causing bodily harm to, or having physical contact with, a family member. Although not identified in the complaint, it appears the family member was his brother.

Coleman did not appear at his arraignment, which was conducted via Zoom. His attorney, David Bell, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. At Bell’s request, Johnson County District Judge James Phelan agreed to release Coleman from the Johnson County jail on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond.

Phelan also ordered Coleman to appear for a Dec. 22 hearing on the court’s diversion docket. The docket is intended to give offenders who commit a relatively minor offense a second chance. Phelan also ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Coleman, 21, was arrested Saturday night and booked into the Johnson County jail in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Both Coleman’s brother and grandfather, who were present via Zoom at Monday’s arraignment, told Phelan that they were not afraid of Coleman and were fine having contact with him after his release from jail. Phelan, however, ordered Coleman not to have contact with his brother or grandfather for the first 72 hours after his release.

The incident for which Coleman was arrested took place at his grandfather’s house. No details about what happened emerged at the arraignment, but the criminal complaint signed by Assistant District Attorney Andrew J. Jennings lists as witnesses “Shawnee Mission medical personnel,” suggesting that the incident required medical intervention.

Coleman has a history of misconduct and making alleged threats against women. Soon after he won an upset primary victory in 2020 against Rep. Stan Frownfelter and went on to win the general election for House District 37, which includes parts of Kansas City, Kansas, he faced calls for his ouster. A legislative probe earlier this year resulted in an informal letter of warning.

Last month, the Kansas Department of Labor warned him to stay away from the agency’s headquarters after it said he tried to get into parts of the building restricted to agency employees.

Coleman once threatened to shoot a high school student and has admitted to online bullying and leaking revenge porn when he was a middle-school student. An ex-girlfriend has accused him of slapping and choking her, and he was the subject of a temporary no-contact order issued by a Wyandotte County judge last year after Frownfelter’s campaign manager accused him of harassment. The order was dismissed after Coleman and the campaign manager came to an agreement.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.

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See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-11-01/kansas-state-rep-aaron-coleman-of-kansas-city-kansas-pleads-not-guilty-to-domestic-violence-charge.

Federal charges filed against restaurant owner, managers in multi-state RICO case

The owner of dozens of Mexican restaurants in several states, along with the company’s president, chief financial officer, controller and sales manager, were among 19 defendants charged in a federal racketeering case to hire undocumented workers.

The case was filed in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri. Eight current or former managers also were charged in the case, including one in Overland Park, Kansas. There were 64 counts listed in the indictment. No individuals at Wyandotte County restaurants were named as defendants.

Homeland Security Investigations agents, with the assistance of numerous local, states, and federal agencies, executed a series of search warrants today at 10 locations in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Federal agents have so far arrested 14 of the 19 defendants.

The federal indictment alleges that 17 of the 19 co-defendants were part of an organized criminal enterprise from July 2003 to Aug. 10, 2021, that smuggled Mexican, Guatemalan, and El Salvadoran nationals who were not authorized to live or work in the United States. Conspirators allegedly harbored them in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Charges were brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Jose Luis Bravo, 51, a naturalized U.S. citizen, of Claremore, Oklahoma, was alleged to have, with other persons, created a network of restaurants operating as LLCs in states in the Midwest. According to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri, they allegedly did not pay the appropriate state and federal payroll taxes, did not pay overtime and worker’s compensation for unauthorized employees.

Bravo, identified in the indictment as the leader of the enterprise, is the owner of Specialty Food Distribution in Joplin, Missouri. Bravo is also the owner of a group of restaurants registered as Bravos Group, LLC, including El Charro, El Charrito, Playa Azul, Itza, LLC, Cantina Bravo, and El Chango. Specialty Food Distribution is a wholesale distributor of food, supplies, and equipment to restaurants throughout the Midwest.

The federal indictment named a person who until recently was the manager of Bravos Mexican Grill in Overland Park, Kansas.

According to the federal indictment, the investigation began when the Kansas Department of Labor contacted Homeland Security Investigations regarding allegations that unauthorized aliens were employed at the Bravos Mexican Grill in Overland Park.

When HSI announced a Form I-9 inspection on July 16, 2018, agents discovered that 14 of the 17 Bravos employees whose I-9 forms had been inspected were ineligible to work, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. During another inspection of Bravos on Feb. 28, 2019, agents identified eight unauthorized aliens working there. Five of those employees had been identified previously as ineligible to work.

The indictment also contains forfeiture allegations against several defendants, which would require them to forfeit to the government the funds contained in several bank accounts as well as real estate located in Great Bend, Pittsburg, and Augusta in Kansas; Butler, Joplin, and West Plains in Missouri; and Claremore, Okmulgee, Muskogee, Enid, and Tahlequah in Oklahoma.