Month: August 2026

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Residents at a Columbia apartment complex at the center of an invasion of privacy lawsuit claim they were never notified about the employee it is centered around.

A “Jane Doe” filed the lawsuit in Boone County on Monday against Country Club Apartments and employee Juan Carlos Vazquez Martinez. The woman accuses the apartment and Vazquez Martinez of invasion of privacy, negligent infliction of emotional stress and an additional count of negligent training against Country Club Apartments.

Vazquez Martinez allegedly entered the woman’s apartment during a maintenance request while the woman was not home, rummaged through her dirty clothes hamper and sniffed her underwear. The woman – identified as a Jane Doe in the lawsuit – allegedly sent video of the incident to the apartment complex and police.

She was told Vazquez Martinez was put on leave, but saw him several times throughout the rest of the summer, according to court documents in previous reporting.

ABC 17 News went door-to-door at Country Club Apartments on Tuesday and spoke with five residents. Each person said management had not notified them about the allegations involving the complex’s maintenance supervisor.

Resident Savion Harris said he had not heard about the allegations before ABC 17 News spoke with him.

“But I had no idea, like, this was going on, so I… it would have been helpful if I got something in the mail or, you know, someone would have came around, told us about it,” Harris said.

Harris said the allegations also made him think about how residents can protect themselves and their belongings.

“Like, I have a camera on my door. I know a lot of people don’t have that, but I think that would help other people kind of get in that mindset of, like, maybe I do need a camera or something to protect myself and my belongings in my apartment,” Harris said.

He also said he wants clearer communication from management about employees’ access to apartments.

“And so I hope that the communication between us, and the, you know, the management here is a whole lot more clearer after this,” Harris said.

Another Country Club Apartments resident, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, provided a statement to ABC 17 News.

“I do not think that any residents, but especially females, should have to be worried about employees trusted by the complex engaging in sexually deviant behaviors such as this. It is disgusting, disappointing and highly disturbing,” the resident said.

ABC 17 News reached out to Country Club Apartments and have not yet received a response.

The Columbia Police Department would not say whether there is an ongoing criminal investigation involving Vazquez Martinez.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) 

A Mexico, Missouri, man says he has no regrets after being arrested while protesting Columbia’s Flock cameras.

Dominic O’Connor, a tattoo artist who lives in Mexico and works at Electric Peacock Tattoos in Columbia, said he spent two days protesting the city’s use of the automated license plate reader cameras before he was arrested Monday.

His protest included wearing a Guy Fawkes face mask and standing at the intersection of East Broadway and Providence Road, where he held signs blocking the view of a Flock camera. The signs featured an upside-down American flag and some colorful language about the cameras. 

“I was going to go down Broadway, but they put the cameras up so high that I couldn’t reach them without standing in the middle of the road or just being super inconvenient,” O’Connor said. “I looked down the road and those cameras were low enough for me to get to. So I was like, Yeah, I can block those ones. And Providence and Broadway gets tons of traffic. I could raise all kinds of awareness there.”

O’Connor said while he has noticed crime getting worse downtown in recent years, his concerns about crime do not outweigh his privacy concerns.

“It gets worse every year, but that doesn’t mean that we need to have our privacy invaded and have law enforcement thinking they can just step on our toes and city councils voting in surveillance equipment on innocent civilians that they don’t have a warrant to watch,” O’Connor told ABC 17 News. 

O’Connor said he first protested for about three hours after seeing a post on the DeFlock America Facebook page about an international day of protest against Flock cameras.

He then returned for a second day of protest on Monday and initially hoped other people would join him, but ultimately decided to protest alone. O’Connor said he heard several drivers honking in support while he was protesting.

However, on Monday, after about two hours of protesting, Columbia police arrived. ABC 17 News arrived shortly afterward, which O’Connor said caused him to panic and ultimately prompted him to leave the scene.

“I was going to go walk back to my car, I was done for the day anyways. But they said I was under arrest. I guess technically they said I was being detained. I didn’t know the terminology and I was like, ‘Crap, I’m being arrested.’ So I just took off running,” O’Connor said. “That’s why I ran. I had anxiety and I kind of have a panic attack. Like, I have three jobs, and I just wanted to make sure that I can get to work the next day without dealing with any of the BS.”

O’Connor says was arrested for jaywalking, standing on a median and resisting arrest. He said an officer also discussed potentially charging him with obstructing government operations.

Dan Viets, an attorney with the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association, has been one of the more-outspoken community members regarding Flock cameras since they were first introduced in Columbia in 2024.

Before the City Council voted to install the cameras, Viets compared their use to George Orwell’s “1984,” arguing it would put the city under constant surveillance. Now, he says many of the concerns raised when the cameras were proposed have become reality.

“Exactly as we feared. These cameras place everybody under constant surveillance. If you’re outside your home, you’re under surveillance. The Supreme Court has held that the police are required to get a search warrant in order to place a GPS transmit or on a motor vehicle. But these cameras make those unnecessary. These are essentially putting a GPS transmitter on everybody’s car all the time,” Viets said. 

Viets also raised concerns about Columbia’s median ordinance, which restricts certain activities on city medians and is among the charges O’Connor faces. He argues the ordinance can be used to restrict protected speech and protest activity.

“This median ordinance is being used to suppress First Amendment activity as well. I think that this arrest is a violation of constitutional rights,” Viets said.

Viets said the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association will represent four people who were arrested on the first day the ordinance took effect.

O’Connor was released after posting a $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 21.

Despite the arrest, O’Connor said he believes protesting the cameras was worth it.

“I feel like I need to take it upon myself to do it, just spread awareness and get people to follow in the footsteps of what’s right and what our founding fathers would have wanted,” O’Connor said. “I just want a future that I can feel confident that my daughter would be happy in. And a world of United States of surveillance is not it.”

Since his arrest, O’Connor said he has received about $200 in donations to help cover his bond. He added that any money he receives exceeding $1,000 will be donated to charity. O’Connor said he hopes to use the first $1,000 to cover his bond and court costs.

He also said the attention surrounding his arrest has brought several new clients to Electric Peacock Tattoos, which has inspired the shop to launch an anti-Flock and anti-government tattoo sale beginning next week.

Viets believes the restrictions on protests raise broader concerns about the balance between public safety and First Amendment rights.

“It is a very sad situation when the government places everybody under constant surveillance and when the government, in the name of safety, chooses to tell people that they cannot publicly protest,” he said

Viets added he believes public safety should not come at the expense of constitutional protections.

“If there were no Fourth Amendment, the police could solve a lot more crimes. If they never needed to get a search warrant, if they could invade all of our homes whenever they felt like it. Indeed, they would solve more crimes. It is not worth the tradeoff. It is not worth the sacrifice. People have a reasonable expectation that when they travel on the streets lawfully for lawful purposes, that they’re not going to be placed under surveillance.”

Nationally, concerns over Flock cameras have continued to grow, with more than 130 cities across the country canceling their contracts or deactivating the cameras. That includes the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, which announced it would deactivate its Flock cameras this month.

Viets said Columbia should consider doing the same.

“Many communities in our state and across this nation are terminating their contracts with the company. And that’s what Columbia ought to do as well,” Viets said. “It is a wasted half a million dollars a year. We could use that money to hire police officers. We could use that money to do a lot of things that would increase public safety without sacrificing constitutional rights.”

The Columbia Police Department told ABC 17 News in July that it had no plans to cancel its contract with Flock, citing the system’s effectiveness in helping investigators solve crimes. Assistant Chief Lance Bollinger pointed to Boone County’s arrest of Andrew Acton on a homicide charge as one example.

“That case would have been difficult to solve without the Flock System as it provided crucial evidence to investigators,” Bollinger wrote.

Bollinger also said the technology has received more oversight than any other system he has encountered during his 20 years in law enforcement.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Staffing at the Jefferson City Fire Department has been stagnant for about two decades, according to Chief Matt Schofield.

And despite an increase in call volume during that period, additional fire personnel and some equipment remain unfunded in fiscal year 2027.

At the City Council’s Budget Committee meeting Monday night, JCFD presented the need for additional staffing funding. Schofield said when looking at the department’s budget for next year, personnel is “probably most important.”

“We have struggled, honestly, to be very upfront with the council,” Schofield said.

The last time there was a “meaningful” staffing increase was in 2007, according to Schofield. And it was an increase of the total number on staff, not a raise of minimum staffing.

In the nearly two decades since that increase, Schofield said call volume has increased by about 36%.

To keep up, the department asked for funding for six positions:

Expected costs range from $21,865 for the part-time administrative assistant position to $141,684 for deputy fire chief.

Among several unfunded requests by the fire department is a safety feature on residents’ phones.

Schofield said HASS Alerts, a tool that warns drivers of crashes or active fire scenes, will have to be dropped. The alert system is typically funded by a MoDOT grant, he said, but it will not be in 2027.

The city’s budget committee also can’t provide the money, so JCFD plans to try to get the grant funding back.

“It alerts drivers ahead of time and potentially prevents secondary crashes. We feel like that’s valuable,” Schofield said.

The City Council is hearing budget presentations from all city departments and is expected to vote on the entire budget before the new fiscal year begins on Nov. 1.

The city last week outlined a balanced $88.4 million spending plan that includes a $45.4 million General Fund and a 2.5% pay increase for city employees. That’s a roughly $2 million increase from last year’s budget.

Personnel costs make up the largest portion of the proposed General Fund budget in its most recent proposal, according to previous reporting, accounting for $33.2 million, or about 73% of the $45.4 million total for next fiscal year.

Police and fire account for the largest portions of General Fund departmental spending. The police department is budgeted for $14.1 million, or about 31%, while the fire department is budgeted for $10.8 million, or 23%.

Last year, police spending made up $13.9 million and fire services were budgeted at $10.7 million, previous reporting shows.

The city last week had touted a sales tax question for public safety that will appear on the November ballot, with its passage expecting to make up for $400,000.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Legendary country music singer and humanitarian Dolly Parton died after a bout with cancer, Parton’s team announced on Tuesday.

Nearly 170,000 children in Missouri benefitted from Parton’s Imagination Library, though the program had to stop taking in new enrollees in July after state budget cuts affected the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Parton’s legacy also includes her seven-decade long music career—selling more than 100 million records worldwide and earning an Oscar nomination.

Meredith Shaw — a local country artist who has performed multiple tribute sets to Parton at The Blue Note in Columbia – told ABC 17 News that Parton’s life story showed her that her dreams were possible

“I’m from a very small rural Missouri town, you know, town of like it was 300 people when I was growing up smaller now. And you learned that Dolly Parton, the most-sparkly person in the world known worldwide, like she is also from a very small town with a large family,” Shaw said.

Shaw said a local tribute to Parton is in the works.