Boyfriend shocks clerk by proposing to her in KC courtroom, and the judge plays along

Of all the courtrooms, in all the world, he walked into hers.

It seemed like just another day at work for court clerk Kalina Blosser that Friday afternoon. She sat next to Judge Joe Locascio in municipal Courtroom H in Kansas City, waiting for the next case.

Then the door to the courtroom door opened, and in walked her boyfriend, Mike Severo, who works in the city’s communications department. He walked straight to the defendant’s stand.

“Mr. Severo,” the judge addressed him. “There’s several charges against you.

“You’re accused, in 2013, while training Kalina Blosser as a court clerk, of failing to maintain a demeanor as a stone cold fox and allowing her to trespass on your heart.

“In count two, you’re accused of following the said Kalina Blosser around this courthouse for three solid years like a puppy dog in an attempt to gain entrance into her heart.

“How do you plead to these charges?”

“Guilty, your honor.”

Severo is “guilty” of loving Blosser from almost the first day he met her after he started training her to be a court clerk in 2013.

How smitten was he? Co-workers joke that Blosser showed up more than anyone else in some of the videos Severo made around work for the city’s communications department.

Before long the two were dating. Earlier this year, “I decided it was time go ahead and propose,” Severo said.

But he didn’t want just any old proposal over a fancy dinner. He called Locascio and explained that he wanted to do something extraordinary: propose in court, the place that brought them together.

So Severo, who co-owns Studio 902, and the judge worked out a script together and picked downtime on a Friday to stage it.

(The City of Kansas City wants everyone to know that the making of this video did not interfere with regularly scheduled court business, nor did it “waste city resources.”)

Severo, who brought family members and co-workers to watch, said he felt like he was on stage. “The pressure was so high for me,” he said.

Blosser said she wasn’t surprised to see her boyfriend walk into the courtroom because they often do lunch together. But when she saw his mom, she thought, “Oh my gosh, this is something big.”

Severo posted the video on his Facebook page on Oct. 28, a week after it was filmed. It scored more than 4,000 views in three days.

They haven’t set a date yet. But now that the proposal has become so public, the bride-to-be is wondering how big the guest list will get.

Their romance was already well-known between City Hall, where he works, and municipal court next door where she works. One prosecutor calls them “my lovebirds.”

“I want to invite everybody,” said Blosser, “but I don’t know if that’s in the budget.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Boyfriend shocks clerk by proposing to her in KC courtroom, and the judge plays along."