Posted on 12/12/2010 5:15:51 AM PST by marktwain
COUNCIL GROVE – She nailed her 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom window shut.
That didn’t work.
She struggled with the girl and her 21-year-old boyfriend to keep her from leaving with him.
That didn’t work either.
So she grabbed her varmint rifle, chambered a round and took aim at the right rear tire as he sped out of their driveway.
Now, high school physics and chemistry teacher and mom Karen Vondemkamp faces two felony counts for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count for aggravated battery in January trial even though, she said she fired into the ground.
“As I aimed at his tire … I just decided not to go ahead and fire at the tire. I thought ‘what if I missed’ … I thought this probably isn’t the right thing to do, so I lowered the gun, and my finger still pulled on the trigger more out of frustration than anything.”
She could spend a year in prison and pay a $100,000 fine and lose her teaching license.
She was trying to stop her daughter, Hannah, from leaving with boyfriend, Justin Allenbaugh April 20. Their home is in rural Morris County just outside Council Grove city limits.
For months Vondemkamp said she told Hannah she could date Allenbaugh only if they were supervised.
She said she told the girl he could hang out that evening at home, and even offered to order pizza.
Apparently upset with those restrictions, Allenbaugh dropped Hannah off.
Vondemkamp confronted her. She said she grabbed Hannah’s arm to turn her around to talk to her, and Hannah flipped her onto the bed. They struggled.
When Vondemkamp left the room, Hannah texted Allenbaugh to call 911. But, he returned to the home, according to court records.
Minutes later Vondemkamp returned to confiscate Hannah’s communication devices.
According to police reports Allenbaugh arrived minutes later. Mother and daughter battled at the front door. Allenbaugh used his foot and “put my weight into the door a little bit.” Vondemkamp was trying to keep the door locked and asked Allenbaugh to go away.
With a 50 lb. weight advantage, Allenbaugh restrained Vondemkamp. Hannah ran to his car.
After Vondemkamp smacked a window on Allenbaugh’s car and asked her daughter not to leave, Allenbaugh restrained Vondemkamp again, which allowed Hannah to walk away.
When he let Vondemkamp go, she ran to get her .223 caliber single-shot rifle. With Hannah perhaps a hundred yards away and the car much closer, Vondemkamp – an experienced hunter — briefly contemplated shooting out a tire.
Council Grove police and the Morris County sheriff never found the bullet.
Allenbaugh admitted in his own testimony to forcefully entering her home and restraining Vondemkamp three times, yet he was never charged.
Vondemkamp’s view is “they kind of ignored everything I said and believed everything they [Hannah and Allenbaugh] said.” She said she wonders what happened to her rights as a parent.
One police report showed Vondemkamp as a victim and Hannah as suspect but apparently was ignored when charges were filed.
The Attorney General’s office accepted the case for prosecution but did not respond to requests for comment.
For more details from police reports and interviews with Vondemkamp and Allenbaugh, read the two-part story:
* Mom’s perspective of felony charges for gun discharge * Mom faces felony charges: perspective of daughter, boyfriend, and law enforcement
Documents cited above
* Kansas Standard Offense Report showing Karen Vondemkamp victim and Hannah Vondemkamp suspect, April 20, 2010. * Partial Transcript of Preliminary Hearing, State of Kansas v. Karen Vondemkamp, June 14, 2010. * Amended Complaint, State of Kansas v. Karen Vondemkamp, June 16, 2010.
Been there. Not with the gun but been there. Sad for the mom. Where’s the dad?
To start with, when I was a 16 year old girl I wouldn’t have been allowed to date a 21 year old MAN. When I was a teenager of dating age I was only allowed to date boys my age that were still in high school. Of course, I was a teenager in the late 60’s and early 70’s and my parents (both of them) knew my every move but I did grow up in a very conservative relious home.
He is 21, I’m sure statutory rape charges are pending, I will just hold my breath.
Can’t type this early. Should have been “religious”. Anyway, the mother was within her rights to restrict the daughter’s time with the boyfriend but IMO the boyfriend is too old for the daughter.
I suspect most people who read this will find it mildly amusing and wonder why the mother didn’t just get with the program—maybe hand the kids a box of condoms and wish them a good time as they sped off. That’s the only reason I can imagine for indicting her and letting the boyfriend off the hook. (Or maybe it was the evil shotgun she used.)
When our two girls were 16 - a loooong time ago now - if some 21 yo guy tried to *date* them, he’d never see 22.
Trial by Jury. You never know what will happen there; the city may drop charges.
True enough. They 'may'. Then again, maybe not.
I know if I was on the Jury, Mom is Not Guilty, period.
In any case when it came to my/our two daughter's welfare when they were underage, I was the Jury -- and the Judge, and the Prosecutor. After they turned 18 and then 21 things naturally changed. But you still give them 'sage advice' (even when they don't want it).
You are assuming that they have had sex, and that there is some kind of 'proof' it occurred.
Since the article doesn't make any mention of her being pregnant, what proof do you have?
I would like to be on her jury. In my humble opinion,the prosecutor is the onr who needs to be on trial. For stupidity.
The county prosecutor needs to be thrown out of office and then run out of town. I’d bet a box of doughnuts that he’s a big, fat anti-gun liberal.
A warning shot into a pervert’s truck tire is perfectly reasonable to me.
she ran to get her .223 caliber single-shot rifle.
madprof98: Or maybe it was the evil shotgun she used
RIF
That was the time to have chambered a round and pointed the weapon with intent to discharge.
I would not advise that. Unless you don’t want to breathe anymore.
Precisely.
Had he been a ‘stranger’ she would have been applauded as preventing a home invasion with possible rape & murder.
Monitoring ‘boy friends’ used to be the responsibility of fathers. Today, for whatever the reason, mothers are required to be providers and protectors.
I thought that one requirement of membership in FR was that one must know the difference between a rifle and a shotgun. Guess I was wrong.
My uncle would show the guys that dated his daughter his gun collection on their first date. They were few second dates.
The dad will be in deep trouble if he tries to help. The “law” isn’t his friend. One scratch on the girl could send him to jail. It is a brave new world we live in.
Any opportunity to “take down” a law-abiding gun owner who happens to fire a weapon for a damned good reason and the leo’s are right on top of them to lock them up. Kids have all the rights now. Why isn’t the 21-year-old being prosecuted for breaking and entering and assaulting the mom—what is using your 50-pound weight advantage to force open a door and overpower an adult woman if it isn’t assault?
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