House candidates’ struggles with legal, financial issues

A number of House candidates in south-central Kansas have struggled with financial or other issues in the past.

The Eagle routinely conducts background checks on candidates running for political office.

Many of those with past money or legal woes say those challenges have helped them understand issues some of their constituents face.

Following are candidates who have had legal or financial issues that The Eagle has not yet reported. Candidates whose legal or financial issues have been reported already are not included. The Eagle also generally has excluded issues that are 20 or more years old, except for criminal convictions.

The list is organized numerically by race.

House District 82

State House hopeful Danette Harris says a DUI conviction and money issues in her past stem from a time when she struggled financially as a single parent and from her unwillingness to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder because of the stigma attached to mental health issues.

Records show Harris was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in 2008 in Wichita Municipal Court. A check of district court records also showed two garnishment orders for unpaid debt against Harris and a 2008 civil case seeking immediate repayment of $38,041 on a mobile home loan.

Harris, a Democrat who is challenging Republican incumbent Peter DeGraaf on Nov. 4 for the District 82 House seat, said the DUI occurred on Nov. 2, 2007, after she returned from her second deployment in Iraq with the Army National Guard.

She said she suffered nightmares, flashbacks and depression and “self-medicated with alcohol” rather than seek counseling.

“Reintegration back into civilian life was difficult. I chose not to seek help at that time because I was a leader in the military and was afraid I would appear weak,” Harris said.

She said she pleaded no contest to the DUI charge, served three days in jail and paid $1,595.50 in fines and fees. Harris also said she attended outpatient alcohol treatment.

The DUI “should not define the person that I am today,” said Harris, a physical therapist and a National Guard officer.

“I am strongly opposed to drinking and driving. I just had some issues going on that I was not able to handle at the time.”

Asked about more than $9,000 in garnishment requests connected to a medical bill from Wichita Clinic and unpaid debt at a Derby convenience store, Harris said she had struggled financially over the years raising three children, working and seeking bachelor’s and doctoral degrees.

When she missed two monthly payments on her mobile home loan in 2008, the lien holder demanded repayment in full, she said.

Green Tree Servicing dropped the case when she paid the past-due amount, Harris said, and the clinic and convenience store also have been repaid.

“I was a single mom trying to complete my education to better my financial situation. A single-income, low-wage job is not sufficient to raise a family. This was definitely not a case of an inability to manage my finances; I had to prioritize, and there was often not enough to cover all of the expenses.

“Because of this, I have a profound awareness of the issues that low-income families face, and I am dedicated to ensuring access to education and health care for all Kansans.”

A check of Sedgwick County District Court records shows that DeGraaf also has an unpaid medical bill.

DeGraaf said he encouraged Via Christi Rehabilitation Hospital to file a lien for $1,938 in outstanding physical therapy bills after his auto insurance provider did not pay expenses he incurred while being treated for injuries sustained in a 2012 traffic accident.

DeGraaf has since filed a lawsuit against his auto insurance provider, USAA Casualty Insurance Co., seeking $300,000 to pay the Via Christi bill and other damages, according to district court records.

He said he expects the Via Christi bill to be paid within the next 30 days.

“Bottom line is that I don’t owe them (the hospital) money, my insurance company does,” DeGraaf said by phone.

“It will get paid, and I suspect it will get paid here very shortly.”

House District 84

A collection agency’s claim that credit card debt went unpaid plagued Ray “Grizzly” Racobs in 2007 and 2009, when petitions demanding repayment of nearly $7,000 were filed in Sedgwick County District Court.

Racobs, 68 and retired, contended in court filings that he was not responsible for repaying $4,716.04 on accounts held by Chase Bank plus costs accrued by Mountain States Adjustment, because Chase wrote off the outstanding amount as a bad debt expense. He also wrote in court filings that he stopped paying on the account in March 2006 and that his “ability to repay is limited.”

Court records show the collection agency’s petitions were dismissed in 2007 and 2009 – the latter coming nine days before Racobs was scheduled for a bench trial in the case.

Asked about the debt, Racobs said Chase more than quadrupled the interest rate on the credit card account after it learned three other companies Racobs owed money to did not receive payment one month. He said the checks were lost in the mail.

He said he stopped paying on the Chase account when Chase refused to drop his interest rate.

“Am I right in doing what I did? Probably not. But it ticked me off,” Racobs said. “I kept trying to talk to Chase about it, and they weren’t receptive.”

Racobs said it’s been at least a year since he has been contacted about the debt.

To date it remains unpaid, he said.

“In theory, yes, I owe them all that money. But in actuality, they shafted me. So I shafted them. I had no alternative, in my opinion.”

He added that because he now relies primarily on Social Security payments and a retirement account for income, “it’s not like I can all of a sudden go and pay a big thing.”

Racobs is running as a Republican against Libertarian candidate Gordon Bakken and incumbent Gail Finney, a Democrat, in District 84, which covers parts of central and east Wichita.

House District 85

Weigand-Omega Management filed a petition on Nov. 8 in Sedgwick County District Court seeking $551 in unpaid rent and late charges plus $91 in related expenses from legislative hopeful Patrick Thorpe after he vacated an apartment at Riverwalk Apartments in August 2012.

Thorpe, a 30-year-old licensed State Farm agent and college student, said the lien came more than a year after he broke a 12-month lease to pursue insurance-related work in other Kansas towns. He says he paid rent through September and that the complex re-rented the apartment in late October or November 2012, leaving him responsible for October’s rent.

Thorpe said that after receiving notice of the petition from Weigand-Omega’s attorney, he called to confirm the debt, then paid it “maybe five days later.” He said he was unaware any rent remained unpaid before being contacted by the attorney.

Court records show the case was dismissed 40 days after it was filed. The record does not give a reason for the dismissal, but Thorpe contends it was because he paid the amount due.

“I don’t think these (issues) have anything to do with my campaign or stances on issues. These are personal stories. We’re human. These are life processes,” Thorpe said.

About the rent owed to Riverwalk Apartments, he added: “I did what was right and paid for it.”

Thorpe, a Democrat, is challenging Republican incumbent Steven Brunk. House District 85 covers parts of northeast Sedgwick and western Butler counties, including Bel Aire, Benton and part of Wichita.

House District 86

Libertarian candidate James Pruden violated his probation and twice had warrants issued for his arrest after he was convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Wichita Municipal Court in 2010, Sedgwick County District Court records show. The warrants, issued Aug. 27 and Dec. 19, 2013, say Pruden violated his probation by using drugs or alcohol without a prescription – specifically that he twice tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol.

The substance occurs naturally in marijuana and is produced for medical use.

Records indicate Pruden admitted to the allegations listed in the warrants on Feb. 7 and had his probation revoked and reinstated under the same terms. His probation ended March 29.

In a handwritten motion for bond reduction dated Feb. 13, Pruden called the warrants “inaccurate” and said he had a medical prescription for Marinol, a capsule form of THC.

Asked to comment on his warrants, Pruden, 56 and retired, told The Eagle the case had been satisfied and is irrelevant to his run for office.

“All of the warrants were subsequent to my being issued a prescription for Marinol,” he said, adding that he has suffered from liver disease since 1971 and “embraces herbal medicine.”

Pruden acknowledged that he admitted to the allegations in the warrants but said he did so “because I didn’t have the time or energy to fight them.”

“Whether the state of Kansas finds HIPPA regulations cumbersome or not doesn’t give them a right to violate” the law by including medical information in court records, he said, citing the federal health privacy act.

Asked about the outstanding fines and fees, Pruden said: “Since they haven’t issued a warrant, that means I have been making payments, haven’t I?”

Records show he appealed the case to Sedgwick County District Court seeking a reversal of his conviction, but the appeal was dismissed by a judge on Sept. 18, 2012.

As of Friday, Pruden still owed $630 in fines and fees assessed in connection with the case, a district court clerk said.

Pruden faces incumbent Democrat Jim Ward. No Republican is in the race in House District 86, which covers portions of southeast Wichita.

House District 100

John Wallace Willoughby said losing a third of his retirement savings to a fraudulent investment left him and his wife no choice but to file for bankruptcy in 2005.

Willoughy, 82, said he and Joanne Willoughby had invested money in an annuity in preparation for retirement, then discovered the fund manager was running a Ponzi scheme.

“Basically, one-third of our income was gone,” Willoughby said.

He and his wife listed $308,120.49 in liabilities – largely credit card debt, he said – in their bankruptcy filing and $358,848.35 in assets. The bankruptcy was discharged in May 2006.

Since then, Willoughy said, he has held jobs he otherwise wouldn’t have worked, including being an insurance agent and a customer service representative, to help fill the financial void. He is a retired college administrator.

Willoughby said the bankruptcy has not affected his run for office or his stance on issues, other than leaving him with little to no money to finance his campaign.

“Certainly going through bankruptcy dropped us down from being upper middle class to between middle class and poverty,” Willoughby said. “It was a regrettable occasion, and it spoiled our credit ever since.”

Willoughby is running as a Democrat against incumbent Dan Hawkins, a Republican. House District 100 covers part of west Wichita.

This story was originally published October 27, 2014 at 6:09 PM with the headline "House candidates’ struggles with legal, financial issues."