Lofton protester to commissioner: ‘We know exactly where to find you and your children’
READ MORE
Death of Wichita teen at Sedgwick County facility
Cedric Lofton’s foster father called authorities in September 2021 seeking help because the 17-year-old was hallucinating and needed to go to a mental health facility. Instead, police took him to the Sedgwick County Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center, where he had to be resuscitated after he was held facedown for more than 30 minutes during an altercation. He died two days later.
Expand All
A visibly angry Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez told advocates protesting the death of Cedric “CJ” Lofton to back off and leave her children out of it, after an online argument from last week spilled over into a government meeting Wednesday.
“Anytime anybody uses my kids’ names or comes up here (in a commission meeting) and talks about where my kids go to school, with the impact of trying to make me uncomfortable by putting my son in that position, an 8-year-old child, is completely crossing lines that you don’t even have a right to get near,” Lopez said.
Her comments were directed at Maurice Evans, known in the community as “Pastor Moe” and a spokesperson for the Lofton family. The face-to-face confrontation at Wednesday’s commission meeting came six days after another activist went online and named her son while criticizing Lopez’s response to Lofton’s death.
In a Facebook post last week, Andrew Hubbard invoked the name of Lopez’s son while criticizing her opposition to an outside investigation proposed by Commissioner Lacey Cruse. Lopez supports a county-city task force being formed to consider policy changes at the Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center in the wake of the death of Lofton, a 17-year-old foster child who was fatally restrained there after his foster father tried to have him taken for a mental health evaluation.
The Facebook post read: “Hey Sarah Lopez! What if #CedricLofton was your son? Wouldn’t you demand an outside audit for (Lopez’s son’s name)? Wouldn’t you demand that the killers be held accountable? Do you honestly think this ‘task force’ would be sufficient for you? #NoJusticeNoPeace #JusticeForCedric.”
The post drew more than 100 comments, including statements from Lopez saying it was out of bounds to name her son in connection with the controversy. She said she felt the post posed a threat to her son and she might bring it to the attention of law enforcement.
The original post appears to have been taken down.
On Wednesday, Evans doubled down on Hubbard’s criticism and tactics while speaking to the commission during a lengthy public comment period focused on the Lofton case.
“Commissioner Lopez, you actually threatened a citizen with police violence,” Evans said. “Why? Because you didn’t like what was being said?
“You claimed that it was a threat to your children . . . How much of a threat could it have been to your children? You see, we know exactly where to find you and your children.”
He pointed out that Lopez’s bio on the county website says where her three children were baptized, what school district they attend, and sports they participate in. Quoting the county site, Evans named the places and the sports.
“Commissioner Lopez, we need you to apologize to Andrew, publicly, because you were wrong,” Evans said.
Not a chance, Lopez replied.
“I’m going to make this perfectly clear, that I will not today nor will I ever apologize to anyone who uses my son’s name in the same sentence talking about children being killed,” she said. “As a parent, that is my No. 1 role. I’m a commissioner second.
“I am the only person up here who has experienced racism myself,” she said. “I am here doing what I can with the authority I have and the scope that I can to make positive changes going forward. You don’t have to agree with the way I’m doing it, but I am here trying to make changes for CJ, because that should never have happened and we should never allow it to happen again. We don’t have to agree on how to go about doing that, but you do not get to bring my children into this.”
Commissioner Jim Howell, a conservative Republican who often clashes with Lopez on public issues, leapt to her defense.
“I have not followed the conflict between Commissioner Lopez and whoever else is making comments about her family,” he said. “I don’t know the details there. But I would just say that I agree with her, she doesn’t deserve to have any threats to her family . . . I’d like to defend her. She’s an elected official. She does the best that she can.”
Cruse, the only Democrat and woman on the board besides Lopez, called on the Lofton advocates to ease up as well.
“This is not about individual commissioners; this is not about Lacey Cruse, this is not about Sarah Lopez,” Cruse said. “What’s been happening and what happens around the country with women every day is people will try to pit us against each other and that is what’s happening right now. Stop trying to do that, community members. Stop singling people out, because it’s not helping this body work together.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 3:04 PM.
