Lorain man arrested for violating city official's protection order (VIDEO)

Former Lorain City Council candidate Aaron Knapp has been arrested and charged with violating a protection order and telecommunications harassment of a city official. Knapp, 52, was arrested at his home on Talbot Lane by Lorain police officers Tuesday morning and charged with six misdemeanors for allegedly violating a protection order for Lorain Safety/Service Director Rey Carrion. Lorain police said that Knapp violated a civil stalking protection order against him that was granted to Carrion on March 12 by Lorain County Common Pleas Magistrate Laura Dezort when he sent an email to a number of city officials including Carrion. According to police reports obtained by The Chronicle-Telegram, Police Chief Michael Failing forwarded a detective an email that was sent to him and 30 other people, including Carrion, by Knapp on March 17. The report also said that a later email sent to other city officials, but not Carrion, constituted Knapp contacting Carrion's workplace. Officers found that Knapp had been served with the protection order on March 16 and that it had specifically forbidden him from contacting the protected party via "e-mail; voicemail; delivery service; social media; blogging; writings; electronic communications." The investigation was forwarded to a Lorain Municipal Court prosecutor, and a judge issued a warrant for Knapp's arrest. Knapp has been charged with three counts of telecommunications harassment, violation of a protection order, disturbing a lawful meeting and possession of criminal tools, all misdemeanors. He was being held in the Lorain County Jail and is set to be arraigned at 11:30 a.m. today in Lorain Municipal Court. Arrest and booking Lorain police served a warrant to Knapp at his south side home shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday. The Chronicle-Telegram obtained body and dash camera footage via public record request. The video initially shows another man answering Knapp's door when officers attempt the warrant service. The officer asks the man if he can see if Knapp will speak to him. The man disappears inside the home and returns shortly thereafter and tells the officer "Nope, have a good day." When the officer clarifies he has a warrant for Knapp's arrest, the man tells officers if they had a warrant they would not have knocked on the door. The officer states he was trying to be courteous and indicates he has the warrant with him. Knapp keeps officers waiting for several minutes before coming to the door and asking the police "What's up piggies?" as he walks out his front door. Initially, Knapp believes that the police are at his home in regards to a warrant for his cellphone, but once the officer makes it clear he has an arrest warrant, Knapp asks to see it. After reading the charging documents that he is handed, Knapp disputes the charges and alleges city officials lied to get the warrant for his arrest. Eventually, he says "OK, let's go," hands the documents back to the officer and walks off his porch and into his driveway, where he places his hands behind his head. Officers agree to handcuff Knapp's hands in front of his body after he tells them he has shoulder and nerve injuries, and as the handcuffs are being placed on him Knapp bends down and speaks directly into the officer's body-worn camera. Knapp begins to shout expletives at the officers, refer to them as "pigs" and accuse them of violating his civil rights. Officers stand with Knapp for more than 15 minutes as they wait for a transport vehicle to arrive to take him to the Lorain County Jail. During this time, Knapp repeatedly breaks into song and makes sexually explicit and homophobic remarks to the officers. As an officer pats down Knapp's pockets with the back of his hand, Knapp lifts his handcuffed arms above his head and asks "Hey, you wanna grab my d— while you're at it?" "No, sir," the officer replies. "Why not? You guys want to f—ing violate every other piece of my civil rights," Knapp says. Knapp also makes several explicit remarks about Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery, before whom he is scheduled to appear March 27 for a hearing on Carrion's civil protection order. "I am happy that you're arresting me, because now I'm going to sue you and I'm going to sue you," Knapp says, pointing at the officers with both his handcuffed hands. "So, just so you guys know, you are both getting sued, so it's cool. Because you're violating my civil rights. You're following an unlawful order." He repeatedly comments on officers wanting to have sex with him or each other, and tells them to call Lt. Kyle Gelenius, one of the investigators on a case against Knapp, to perform a sex act. He then calls Failing that "Black b—-" who banned him from City Hall. Failing is the department's first Black police chief. Knapp also accuses officers of "doing Carrion's bidding." Officers were acting on a warrant signed by a judge, not on directions of the safety/service director. Video from his booking, obtained by The Chronicle-Telegram via a public record request, follows Knapp from the vestibule outside the facility and through the booking process. None of the videos from the Lorain County Jail have sound. Once taken into the fingerprint area, Knapp appears to speak at length to one of the deputies while his fingerprints are taken. He can be seen gesturing and pointing at deputies when they attempt to take his mug shot, and moving out of the frame of the camera where the photo would be taken. At no point in the video do deputies successfully take a photo of Knapp and, as of press time, one did not appear on the Lorain County Jail's booking website. According to Sheriff Jack Hall, Knapp refused to have his photo taken during the booking process, which could keep him in jail longer. When something like that happens with a defendant, "we usually advise the court he's unwilling to fulfill the booking process," Hall said. He said courts typically will order the defendant held until they comply and allow their photo to be taken. Protection order Tensions between Knapp, a self-described citizen journalist and former Republican candidate for Lorain City Council's 6th Ward, and city officials have been escalating for months, coming to a head in an altercation between Knapp and Carrion last month. On Feb. 16, Knapp interrupted an interview between Carrion and a Chronicle-Telegram reporter following a City Council meeting. Carrion attempted to close a door preventing Knapp from entering the hallway where the interview was occurring, but Knapp blocked its closure with his foot. This initiated a loud, heated exchange that had to be broken up by Councilman Tony Dimacchia, D-at Large. Knapp then followed Carrion, Dimacchia, Mayor Jack Bradley and Failing out of City Hall, yelling obscenities and insults after them as they left and demanded that Failing take a report of assault he wanted to file against Carrion. The entire exchange was recorded by Knapp and posted to his Facebook page. Deputy Safety/Service Director Tim Williams issued a letter barring Knapp from city property on Feb. 17, citing an escalating pattern of behavior back to a disruption of an Oct. 20 meeting when Knapp and another man, Garon Petty, allegedly interrupted a meeting and then refused to leave Council chambers despite orders to do so by Council President Joel Arredondo and others. On Tuesday, Petty turned himself in to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office on a warrant stemming from the Oct. 20 meeting. He was charged with disturbing a lawful meeting, a misdemeanor. Petty posted bond on Tuesday, and his arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Thursday in Lorain Municipal Court. Knapp filed a restraining order to block his ban from Lorain city property and was granted one by Common Pleas Magistrate Barbara Butler on March 12. Although she blocked his ban, Butler chided Knapp over his actions in the Feb. 16 video and questioned whether they could have been considered criminal. She said that if city officials were to request a civil stalking protection order, she believed it should be granted. Carrion pursued that protection order against Knapp, which he was granted on March 12. After Lorain police said that Knapp violated the protection order by including Carrion in his email to city officials, the department opened an investigation. On Thursday, the department obtained a warrant for Knapp's phone and the Lorain Police Patrol Impact Team stopped Knapp to carry out the seizure after he allegedly violated traffic laws while driving near his home. Knapp asked to speak with a supervisor, and one arrived to complete a search warrant inventory and give it to Knapp. The supervisor offered Knapp a copy of the inventory to sign, which Knapp signed "You stole my phone," rather than his signature, the report said. As of Tuesday evening, Knapp remained at the Lorain County Jail. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer. Knapp has several outstanding lawsuits in Lorain County Common Pleas against city officials.