Dr. Spiehs receives threat and citation while campaigning
Article - 8 minute read
On Friday, June 10, Dr. Justin Spiehs, who is running as a Republican for Douglas County Commissioner District 1, was out campaigning on the corner of Kasold Dr and W 6th St. in Lawrence.
The Republican candidate campaigns by standing outside on busy street corners holding signs urging people to vote for him. When people approach him to speak, he enjoys engaging them in conversation, answering questions, and telling his story.
However, running in a county that is overwhelmingly Democrat, Dr. Spiehs has had a difficult time with his campaign, having people mock him online and in person, and even having a man with a gun threaten to shoot him.
On the evening of June 10, Dr. Spiehs received another threat of violence while holding a campaign sign he originally debuted at a pro-choice march in Lawrence earlier in the month. It was the first time he had presented the sign, which said, “Why would you support baby murder? Vote yes. Vote Dr. Spiehs,” while standing on the street corner.
According to Dr. Spiehs, he had been standing for a couple of hours when a woman on the “Vote no side” showed up to stand near Dr. Spiehs with a sign that said, “Vote no. STFU if you don’t have a uterus.”
Dr. Spiehs said that while he talked to her, a man in a car at a red light pulled up and began yelling at him things like “I’ll fuck you up,” and “I want to take you out to breakfast,” while standing out from his car’s sunroof. The man in the car then turned into the nearby U.S. Bank parking lot, and Dr. Spiehs took out his phone to record the anticipated conflict; however, he says that video remains with his attorney. He claimed that while he recorded, he continued talking to the woman standing with her sign. The man who was in the car eventually walked up to him and the two men talked before the man joined the woman in her protest while Dr. Spiehs sat down with his sign.
Next, Dr. Spiehs said another lady by the name of Bobbi Reid showed up with one of her kids. Reid has had a history of writing online posts about Dr. Spiehs, one being a picture of him holding a sign that said, “Masks on children is child abuse,” and a second sign that said, “Ask teachers why.” She wrote with the picture, “This loser needs to get a job...he’s even made elementary kids cry on their way into sunset hill just because they are wearing masks.”
Dr. Spiehs says that her posts are lies.
The four stood around in protest of Dr. Spiehs and his message until Officer Koenig of the Lawrence Police Department showed up due to an anonymous caller.
According to Dr. Spiehs, Officer Koenig asked the group of four if they felt threatened at all to which they all replied, “No,” before the Officer continued to ask another question. Dr. Spiehs said he then asked the officer if he was going to ask him the same question.
“I’m very apprehensive of how police come onto the scene with my past cases and interactions with them,” Dr. Spiehs said. “How they collect their data which is already, what I assume, is a biased opinion of me that just feeds into it.”
Dr. Spiehs informed the officer that he did not feel threatened as well. Officer Koenig proceeded to ask Dr. Spiehs another question when he claimed Bobbi Reid interjected, to which he turned to her to tell her it was his turn to talk. He said he asked the officer, “Are you going to get this under control? I’m trying to tell you my side now and you have somebody making it hard for me.”
Officer Koenig told Reid to allow Dr. Spiehs to have his turn to talk. Dr. Spiehs tried to continue to talk, but Reid interjected again to which Dr. Spiehs responded, “Shut the fuck up, you fucking whale.”
Reid then told Dr. Spiehs that she would fuck him up.
A video was shared by Dr. Spiehs where he explains in front of Officer Koenig this event and the following actions which included Dr. Spiehs asking Officer Koenig to arrest her for her threat of violence. Officer Koenig agreed that it was indeed a crime of disorderly conduct and possible criminal threat. However, he did not arrest Reid, opting to instead issue her a citation as a first-time misdemeanor.
Dr. Spiehs informed Officer Koenig that he had been arrested at the County Courthouse in April for disorderly conduct by Sheriff Jay Armbrister and two of his deputies despite not threatening anyone. Officer Koenig informed Dr. Spiehs that the Sheriff has a different jurisdiction, to which Dr. Spiehs argued that the law was still the same. Dr. Spiehs asked Officer Koenig in the video why he wasn’t going to arrest Reid, to which Officer Koenig replied, “Because I don’t believe that this is going to continue.”
Due to his disorderly conduct arrest in April, Dr. Spiehs had to spend an evening in jail and pay a $300 bail fee. Furthermore, Dr. Spiehs is spending thousands of dollars in attorney fees and has had two hearings over the incident with a third hearing coming up. However, due to how Officer Koenig chose to treat Reid for the exact same crime as well as her threat of violence, he became frustrated wondering why she couldn’t suffer the same consequences he suffered.
Officer Risner, who admitted to allowing an alleged gunman who had threatened Dr. Spiehs in May to leave the scene without conducting proper procedure, showed up next. Dr. Spiehs said he already knew nothing was going to happen, but when he saw Officer Risner, he definitely knew. The incident took place in Officer Risner’s jurisdiction.
According to Dr. Spiehs, Officer Koenig tried to calm him down and validate the fact that he is the victim of a crime. Officer Koenig then went and talked to Officer Risner before coming back to Dr. Spiehs to inform him that they were going to give Reid a citation for disorderly conduct. They write Reid a citation who then leaves. Officer Koenig goes back to Dr. Spiehs with his citation book, and an apparent attitude change, gives Dr. Spiehs a citation for disorderly conduct for instigating and saying he wanted the lone man that stood with the women to punch him in the face. Dr. Spiehs claimed he did not say that and asked if the man would also receive a citation, to which the officer replied, “No.” Dr. Spiehs asked why not to which he claimed the officer said that they “felt threatened,” despite Dr. Spiehs believing the man was the real instigator as he chose to get out of his car and walk up to him.
“You know that if I would have said, ‘I’ll fuck you up’ to her, I would have been arrested on the spot,” Dr. Spiehs said. “If I threaten anybody, I guarantee I’ll be arrested. I’ve never threatened anybody and there’s a reason for that. I know they would arrest me, and I know that I would be shut down and I know that it would look bad if I’m out here threatening people and I don’t want to threaten anybody. I’ve understood that from day one. I’m trying to win people over. I’m not out here threatening people like people say all the time. That’s why I say I’ve never had any issues with it all along. But if I were to specifically threaten a woman out here in front of a cop, you’re damn right I would have been arrested on the spot.”
Dr. Spiehs claimed he asked Officer Koenig if he was understanding the situation correctly, asking that the guy who instigated it is not getting a citation for disorderly conduct, but he is despite not instigating the disorderly conduct. He claimed Officer Koenig did not wish to answer, but rather asked Dr. Spiehs for his signature. Dr. Spiehs then claimed he said, “I’ll sign it, but I need you to answer my question. The guy who instigated it isn’t getting a ticket, but the guy who didn’t instigate it is getting the ticket. Is that right?” To which Dr. Spiehs claimed Officer Koenig confirmed this to be true.
Dr. Spiehs pointed out that the man’s word was enough to get him in trouble, but his word was not enough to get any of them in trouble. “Let’s say that had the cop not been here to hear that lady threaten me, and I was just telling him, ‘Hey, she also threatened me. I know you weren’t here, but she threatened me,’ I have a strong hunch that they wouldn’t have believed me on that and that I would have been the only one with a citation.”
“The community sees all this stuff. They see people out here being able to harass me and there’s no arrests. There’s no visible consequence. So, this community thinks they can just kind of do whatever they want to me. They have the dream life because the police aren’t going to do anything. But then when you go back to the courthouse where I got arrested by the Sheriff and two of his deputies for not even doing what she did to me out here, which was a direct threat, and we both got charged for the same thing, it makes it look like I am doing the worst things possible. I deserve what I’m getting. I need to be arrested…. They do it on purpose. It’s all on purpose.”
Again, Dr. Justin Spiehs is running as a Republican for Douglas County District 1. If you see him on the street campaigning, you can go up and talk to him and ask any questions you may have.