Pair in stolen car start Johnson County crime spree, are jailed while OP house burns

Charges have been filed against two people arrested in a spree of car thefts, burglaries and a lengthy police stand-off in Johnson County.

And hours after Jason Emerson and Rita Lee Long were taken into custody, a fire broke out at the Overland Park house they both listed in jail records as their address.

The incidents started about 3:30 p.m. Sunday when Lenexa police stopped a car that had been reported stolen.

Long, 29, was allegedly driving the stolen car and was arrested. She was charged Tuesday in Johnson County District Court with felony theft.

But a man who was a passenger in the car fled on foot and eluded officers, who searched for him for several hours.

Police in Lake Quivira were called to the area of Glenview and Lakeshore West when someone reported seeing a man who looked like the suspect who fled from Lenexa police.

Lake Quivira officers arrived and found that the suspect had gone into an occupied residence.

Officers entered the house, but the suspect got into a car inside the garage and drove toward officers as he fled, according to a news release from Lake Quivira police.

Then, about 7:30 p.m. that evening, Lenexa police got a call about the same suspect breaking into an unoccupied house in the 16000 block of West 79th Terrace.

Officers surrounded the house, but the man refused to leave the residence.

Around 2 a.m. Monday, Emerson, 35, was taken into custody after officers fired bean bag rounds to subdue him.

On Wednesday, Johnson County prosecutors charged Emerson with two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and single counts of burglary, theft and criminal damage to property.

In Johnson County jail booking records, an address in the 12200 block of West 129th Terrace in Overland Park was listed for both Long and Emerson.

Shortly before noon Monday, while Emerson and Long remained in custody, a fire was reported at that house.

Overland Park firefighters extinguished a small fire in the basement, and there were no injuries.

The cause of the fire is now under investigation.

This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 5:30 AM.