Charges have been dropped against an Arkansas City dentist, after prosecutors say he was defending his property.
According to a press release issued by Municipal Prosecutor for the City of Wellington Kerwin Spencer, Dr. John Seitz was arrested for domestic violence battery at the football game in Wellington on Oct. 11, but the dentist had, in fact, committed no crime at all.
"Dr. Seitz was the victim of the crime of theft committed against him by his ex-wife who stole his tape recorder from him and attempted to run away with it. Dr. Seitz pursued her and used only the reasonable force necessary to protect his property," the press release states.
According to state statute, a person who is lawfully in possession of personal property is justified in the use of reasonable force against another for the purpose of preventing or terminating an unlawful interference with such property.
Dr. Seitz was "not excessive and he exerted no further force once his lawful goal of recovering his personal property was accomplished."
Because the officer believed at the time the incident was domestic violence, Seitz was taken into custody because of the state-mandated Domestic Violence Policy.
"It is unfortunate that this situation involved spouses or former spouses, which thereby required an arrest under the state-mandated Domestic Violence Policy even though no one’s safety was endangered…," Spencer said in the release "Dr. Seitz was arrested only because of the state law requiring mandatory arrest policy in domestic violence cases and the evidence indicated Dr. Seitz chased and forcefully grabbed his ex-wife to recover the recorder."
The state-mandated Domestic Violence Policy requires each police department to have a written policy directing that in domestic violence cases officers "shall make an arrest when they have probable cause to believe" a domestic violence crime has occurred.
Spencer says the incident is "unfortunate."
"It is unfortunate that our legislature has chose to micromanage police arrest policies so as to mandate an arrest in cases such as this. We have had other cases where an arrest was mandated where a husband had thrown a dish breaking it and the wife did not want the husband arrested because things calmed down before the police arrived. At least in that case there was no legal defense to the crime. In Dr. Seitz’s case he had a legal defense, so it is unfortunate that the arrest was made," said Spencer.
