Animal rights activist Jason Miller arrested

By Carolyn Szczepanski
Fri., Jan. 22 2010 @ 10:51AM
The Pitch (Kansas City)

Whether dousing himself in cow blood or trying to block traffic, Jason Miller 's campaign to save the deer in Shawnee Mission Park has often been met with law enforcement.

Most notably, in late October, Miller visited the home of Michael Meadors , director of the Johnson County Park and Recreation District, to deliver a protest letter regarding the impending deer harvest. Meadors didn't take well to the personal visit and, after filing a report with Olathe Police Department, got a restraining order against Miller .

Fast forward to December 8. That week, Canadian animal rights activist, Anthony Marr , flew to Kansas to lead a funeral motorcade through Shawnee Mission Park. Miller took Marr to the JoCo Parks and Rec administration building, where Meadors has an office, in the hope that county officials would meet with Marr about non-lethal means of dealing with the deer overpopulation. "Meadors wasn't even there," Miller says. "There were no incidents. We had a cordial conversation with the parks police officer in the lobby."

Fast forward again to January 20. On Wednesday afternoon, when Miller returned home from work, two officers from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office were waiting to arrest him. The charge: "On or about the 8th of December, 2009, in the County of Johnson, State of Kansas, Jason S. Miller did then and there unlawfully, willfully, knowingly and intentionally violate a protection from abuse order."

His stint behind bars was quick. Arrested at 4:15 p.m., Miller posted a $5,000 bond and was home before midnight. He'll be back in court for a hearing next Friday on the misdemeanor charge. He insists his arrest was political. "I think it was a retaliatory move on their part, meant to intimidate me," he says. 

No word back from Randy Knight , spokesman for the parks district.