Top Democrat says Brownback associate threatened him with finger gun; police involved

The top Democrat in the Kansas Senate has accused Gov. Sam Brownback’s former chief of staff of threatening him and has filed a report with Capitol Police.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat and outspoken critic of the governor, said he filed the report with Capitol Police on Tuesday after David Kensinger, Brownback’s former chief of staff and a prominent Topeka lobbyist, made a threatening gesture in the hallway outside the Kansas Senate.

“David Kensinger made a gesture at me like he was shooting me with a gun. He mouthed the word, ‘Boom,’ ” Hensley said.

Asked if he considered the gesture a threat, Hensley replied, “I don’t know what else you would consider it as. Maybe he thought it was a joke.”

Lt. Terry Golightley, the spokesman for the Capitol Police, confirmed in a phone call that Hensley had filed the report.

“At this point we’re just investigating it,” Golightley said when asked if the police considered it a criminal matter. “He filed the report and we have our investigator looking into it.”

Kensinger initially responded to The Star by emailing a photograph of former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff with his fingers in the shape of a gun.

“Seriously?” Kensinger said in the email.

Kensinger added in a phone call Tuesday evening that he had already spoken to a member of the Capitol Police.

“I had a very good, very brief conversation with a Capitol Police officer and it was very clear he regarded this as a waste of time. And so do I,” Kensinger said. “Sen. Hensley owes these people an apology. These are people with serious work to do.”

Golightley said that any investigative documents produced by the police would be forwarded to the Shawnee County district attorney’s office.

Hensley contended that Kensinger threatened him because of his opposition to a proposed building project at Lansing Correctional Facility.

Kensinger works as a lobbyist for CoreCivic, the private prison company that the Brownback administration wants to oversee the $362 million project to build new housing facilities at the prison. Kensinger previously managed Brownback’s 2010 campaign for governor and served as his chief of staff for the first two years of his administration.

Hensley and Brownback are members of the State Finance Council, the panel that is expected to vote on the project Wednesday.

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Top Democrat says Brownback associate threatened him with finger gun; police involved."