On Oct. 21 the entire Lenexa, Kansas police patrol division was hunting Canyen Ashworth.
At 1:50 that afternoon, the department issued a BOLO — police shorthand for “be on the lookout” — for the 28-year-old information technology consultant and sometimes writer.
There were two problems. They didn’t have a charge, and he was the wrong man.
“The first emotion that comes to mind is, is jarring for sure. And then I think after that comes being pissed off,” he said after KCUR informed him of the criminal probe.
A KCUR investigation discovered that Lenexa city officials linked two vastly different events that led police to wrongly suspect Ashworth of an unspecified crime.
The first was pasting posters on city property near Lenexa City Hall and the city recreation center just off 87th Street Parkway.
The second was a guest column critical of Lenexa Police that Ashworth wrote for the Kansas City Star.
The department issued the BOLO three weeks after the column published.
“I really don't know how else to interpret that, other than somebody didn't like what I said. So, they started looking for reasons to get me in trouble,” Ashworth said.
Micah Kubic, the ACLU of Kansas Executive Director, called the investigation a wanton and disgraceful abuse of power by Lenexa police.
“George Orwell told us about thought crime as a cautionary fable, and this instead seems like an attempt to put it into action,” he said.
The “Paper Hanger”
Emails obtained by KCUR using the Kansas Open Records Act show Lenexa police’s interest in Ashworth started Sept. 26, four days before his Star column, with a completely unrelated event.
At 7:37 that morning, then-Police Chief Dawn Layman sent an email to several city staff members. The subject line said “Poster ‘Paper Hanger’ Update.” She attached a photo of a poster pasted to a light pole. It showed a federal agent wearing a vest with “Police ICE” and “Kidnapping Taskforce” on it and the words “remember when we killed fascists.”
City Manager Beccy Yocham responded eight minutes later to say the city was removing that poster and other similar ones.
Six minutes after that, Lenexa police responded to the recreation center. The report, obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act, said four posters were discovered “around the civic campus in violation of Lenexa city ordinances.” It did not cite the specific ordinance. Posters about lost pets and community events were generally not removed.
The email from Layman also suggested a criminal investigation was underway.
First Amendment attorney Bernie Rhodes said a city can have rules about posters in a public place, for example, to make sure they don’t obstruct drivers’ vision. But those rules must be “content neutral.”
Removing posters that offend some city officials is not allowed.
Rhodes has represented KCUR in past reporting, but not for this story.
“The idea of putting out, the equivalent of, an all-points bulletin, BOLO, on an individual for putting up posters is both a rejection of the First Amendment, and a really ridiculous misuse of resources,” said Kubic, from the ACLU.
None of this had anything to do with Ashworth, at first.
“Is everyone really welcome here?”
On Sept. 30, the Star published his op-ed that was somewhat critical of the Lenexa police.
Ashworth took the department to task for investigating former city councilwoman Melanie Arroyo’s citizenship and having advance warning of a July ICE raid even though they did not assist federal agents.
He wrote the police and city “must ensure policy and practice embody their stated values and hopes of fostering greater inclusion and trust if those values are to be meaningful.”
“I don't think that that's an extreme of a statement,” Ashworth told KCUR.
But former police chief Layman — who now leads the Breckenridge,
Colorado department — apparently disagreed.
The morning the column published, the department’s public information officer distributed it to the command staff.
An hour later, Layman sent the email, obtained with an open records request, to Lindsey Calvillo, a department crime analyst. Calvillo is a seasoned investigator who works with the Kansas City Metro Squad and is a vice president with the International Association of Crime Analyst, according to the IACA websote.
Layman was leaning toward a criminal investigation into Ashworth.
The investigation was handed off to Meagan Laffey, another Lenexa crime analyst.
At some point, the department linked Ashworth to the “Paper Hanger.”
“I'm not going talk about internal communications within our department, especially if it has an investigative matter to it,” Lenexa Police Chief Eric Schmitz told KCUR. Schmitz was named chief in December and was deputy chief during the Ashworth investigation.
He said the “Paper Hanger” investigation had nothing to do with Ashworth’s critical column in the Star.
“This is a case where some posters were attempted to be permanently affixed to the building. This wasn't like somebody used Scotch tape,” he said. ”They're gluing them to the side of the building. That's why they're being removed, because they're doing damage the building,” he said.
Lenexa Mayor Julie Sayers said she knows nothing about the police investigation into Ashworth. “I do not have any information or knowledge about the details of the criminal investigation,” she said in an emailed statement.
She also said the “Paper Hanger” posters had the potential to damage municipal property.
“It was readily apparent to City staff that the adhesive had the potential to damage the City property it was affixed to, which it did,” her statement said.
"Make your own case"
On Oct. 21, Laffey sent the BOLO email to all patrol officers, dispatchers and commanders. “A suspect has been developed in the case of the City Center Posters,” it began.
That suspect was Canyen Ashworth.
The email contained a screen grab of a man in a black hoodie, black pants and black sneakers. It was from surveillance video of the “Paper Hanger.”A photo of Ashworth’s car showing the rear license plate was paired with it.
The department had been tracking Ashworth’s movement around Lenexa using the city’s license plate reader system.
The email also said the car was parked at his apartment “as of this afternoon,” indicating an officer had checked to make sure he was home.
“He doesn’t get out much; he last hit a week ago today and appeared to come from McKeevers,” Laffey wrote. McKeevers is a market just south of 87th Street.
“This is MYOC,” Laffey said.
In Lenexa police parlance, MYOC is shorthand for “make your own case.” With no arrest warrant for Ashworth, police were looking for any reason to stop him.
The case seemed to hinge on shoes. “If you contact him (Ashworth) please note his shoes, as the suspect has only worn the ones pictured below,” officers were instructed.
Chief Schmitz described MYOC this way: “You need to build your own probable cause, your own reasonable suspicion. It's pretty much that, make your own case.”
Kubic, from the ACLU, is especially worried about that.
“The idea that you can essentially just make something up to throw against the wall and see if it sticks to be able to go after someone, is a really chilling and dangerous thing,” he said.
Rhodes said it is much worse than an attempt to merely chill free speech.
“I would say that this is subzero,” he said.
Rhodes also called it a misuse of police resources by the former police chief.
“She's using the city's license plate readers not to combat a wave of armed robberies, but to track down the everyday movements of an everyday citizen who dared to write the Kansas City Star and express their opinion,” Rhodes said.
Posters and police
Mayor Sayer said the city does not have a formal policy about posters on city property.
“It stands to reason that a single, small poster or flyer affixed with something like Scotch tape about a lost dog or garage sale may not be reported or removed as quickly as numerous larger posters designed to attract attention,” she said.
All of this happened while Layman was interviewing for the job in Breckenridge.
The town announced her hiring on Oct. 29, and she took over the department on Dec. 1.
“Dawn Layman brings a wealth of experience, innovative leadership, and a strong community-focused philosophy that aligns perfectly with Breckenridge’s values,” Shannon Haynes, Town Manager of Breckenridge, said in the announcement.
Ashworth isn’t so sure about her values.
“I'm thinking, okay, if I wrote this one article and I got people that pissed off to where they were trying to criminally indict me or charge me with something, what the hell are they doing to other people that don't have what I have?” he said.
Ashworth says he likes Lenexa, and will continue to write and speak out.
“I'm a little bit more scared now,” he said, ”but if anything, I'm also more pissed off because they shouldn't be doing that. And they should know that.”
