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Writer's pictureCharlene Sims, Journal staff

Judge makes Tanglewood injunction permanent, residents still face criminal charges

Tanglewood Lakes property owners use their cards to both enter and leave the lake development through electronically controlled gates. A district court judge has issued a permanent injunction against the property owners association, banning it from refusing to allow homeowners access to their property via those gates. (Journal file photo)


By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com


MOUND CITY – For more than six years the Tanglewood Lake Owners Association (TLOA) targeted a group of the lake development residents to prevent them from getting access to the electric gates at the entrances to the development. That prevented them from driving to and from their homes.


That forced them to be creative to find ways to get to their homes or how to leave to get to work, buy groceries and medications, go to doctor appointments or any of the normal things that most people can do without even thinking about it. 


After nearly two years of legal maneuvering beginning in late 2021 when a lawsuit against the association was filed, a temporary injunction was filed in August 2023 that prevented the association from denying those homeowners access to their homes.



On Friday, Dec. 20, District Court Judge Andrea Purvis made that injunction permanent, preventing the association from restricting access for property owners at the lake community. However, for some of those property owners their problems are not over yet after several were arrested dismantling those electronic gates.


In her ruling, Purvis based this decision on the tenant bill of rights and case law. She ruled that the association had other legal means to enforce regulations at that community rather than denying homeowners access to their property.


“The proposed permanent injunction does not injure the Tanglewood Lake Owners’ Association,” Purvis wrote in her ruling. “The Tanglewood Lake Owners’ Association has other tools to enforce its covenants and policies including the legal action that is set forth in K.S.A. 58-4608 (a) (4) that is far, far less restrictive than deactivating the gate access of the owners. 


“Finally, a permanent injunction in this case would not be adverse to the public interest. There is a public interest in having free unrestricted use of real property. Though the Courts have found that some restriction on the use of that property is allowed through restrictive covenants and the rules and policies that go along with them, totally prohibiting an owner from accessing their property seems totally contrary to the idea of free and unrestricted use of property by the owner of the property. 


“In fact, the Court issuing a permanent injunction to prohibit the Tanglewood Lake Owners’ Association from restricting access of the owners of property within the Tanglewood Lake Addition would protect the rights of all the owners to have access to their property.”


For that reason, she wrote, the court issues a permanent injunction that prohibits the owners association from deactivating gate card access of the property owners as a tool for the enforcement of the development’s rules and regulations.


“The Court also finds that an action at law will not provide an adequate remedy,” the judge added. “The deactivation of gate access immediately prohibits the owner from access to their property and residences. The only way in or out of the Tanglewood Lake addition is through the electronic gate with the gate access card.


“This essentially makes a resident owner homeless at the time of the deactivation. It also makes it impossible for the owner to care for the property by doing such things as truck in water or have their sewage tanks pumped which relates to the health and safety of not just the owner but the community as a whole.


“Having to file a case with the Court to provide a remedy is not expedient – this case is the perfect example. This case was filed in December 2021. The temporary injunction, which ordered the Tanglewood Lake Owners’ Association to return gate access to the owners, not being issued until August of 2023.” 


She also noted that property owners at Tanglewood suffered hardships for several years when their gate cards that gave them access to their homes were deactivated. Some landowner’s cards let them leave but would not let them back in. Others had their cards deactivated because they tried to assist other residents in entering or leaving the community. 


Some had their access cards deactivated because they invited a state representative in to view the situation.


The TLOA also deactivated cards because annual lake owner association fees had not been paid, some were for living in recreational vehicles, others because there was trash in their yards, and in one case, because the owner asked for permission to have alpacas on their one-plus-acre tract.


Some residents resorted to dismantling the gate and putting it back so they could leave for work and then do the same when they came home. The TLOA filed felony charges against them for their actions. 


Sometimes, former Linn County Sheriff Kevin Friend would go out and use his card to allow people to enter and leave so they could go to work, doctors’ appointments, purchase food and medications and have water delivered or have holding tanks cleaned out.


It didn’t help that denial of gate access occurred during the early years of the COVID pandemic when people were already stressed about trying to access supplies and stay safe. 


The permanent injunction against the gate access problem does not end the consequences of the actions of the TLOA board.


On May 18, 2023, residents who were being denied access and who were frustrated at the lack of progress of their legal claims against the TLOA, took down the electronic gates, causing some damage in the process. 


The TLOA asked that felony criminal charges be filed against the participants. Even some of the observers, including one wearing an oxygen mask, were charged.


Even with the temporary injunction in place, the people who were arrested have been going to court date after court date to determine their fate. Those who have been charged, many whom do not have a criminal record, say they have spent thousands of dollars in bail, legal fees and loss of time at work.


As of last Friday, Jan. 10, new court dates have been set for the 18 people who were charged with removing the gates at Tanglewood. Those hearings are scheduled to begin in February. 


“The fact that we are even here is not only mind blowing, but heartbreaking and earth-shattering,” said Eva Riojas-Mackey, who is one of the residents facing felony charges for the gate incident.


“If you had told me eight years ago that my family and community were going to be held captive and then prosecuted for securing our freedom, I would have laughed and told you that you were crazy,” she said. “After all, we live in America, the land of the free, with liberty and justice for all.


“However, sadly, that is just what the future had in store for us. We were held captive for over seven years, without any liberty or justice, and we were anything but free.


“We reached out to every entity put in place to protect us and free us looking for help, and none came. All of a sudden, no one in our government had the jurisdiction or authority to help us. At that point, it was left to us to decide, and that’s just what we did.


“So now, to be prosecuted by one of the very people we reached out to for help in the beginning and were denied, is not only disheartening to us but the entire justice system as a whole.”






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