Star Politics: KC legislator’s chaotic arrest + ICE prison on hold
Editor’s note: The following is from today’s Star Politics newsletter, published weekly on Wednesdays. You can sign up here.
Hello, Star readers.
Today, we’re diving into a tumultuous week for one Jackson County legislator who was reported missing, then charged with domestic battery and released last Wednesday on bail.
Next, we’ll get into:
• ICE prison blocked: A Kansas judge granted a restraining order temporarily blocking CoreCivic from accepting immigrant detainees at its Leavenworth prison without the approval of local officials.
• School shakeup: Catholic officials won’t say whether the president of Bishop Meige High School was placed on leave. He’s accused in a 2005 lawsuit of sexually abusing a teen but denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime.
This week in politics
First-term Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca was released on $1,500 bail after pleading not guilty on domestic violence charges in Johnson County.
He also faces charges in Jackson County and Kansas City municipal court for allegedly violating a protective order by failing to return his 2-year-old son to his estranged wife after a judge granted her sole custody.
According to a Shawnee police report, officers responded to a physical altercation between Abarca and Alexia Garcia at the home of Abarca’s father on May 29.
Garcia filed a missing persons report for Abarca and their son three days later, and the boy was returned to his mother upon Abarca’s arrest.
Abarca has so far declined to speak in detail about the alleged altercation and the days leading up to his arrest. He attended Jackson County’s weekly meeting remotely while the missing persons investigation was ongoing, and voted on a county budget plan Monday.
More from this past week
• A 2:30 a.m. vote in the Missouri Senate paved the way for a Chiefs and Royals stadiums-funding plan to make its way to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk. Here’s where things stand.
• A cache of court records has been unsealed in a high-stakes Kansas abortion lawsuit after The Star asked a judge for more transparency.
Looking for more?
• For more politics news, follow @bymatthewkelly.bsky.social, @kacen.bsky.social, @jonshorman.bsky.social and @grice1911.bsky.social
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That’s all for now! See you next week.
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