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A Wyandotte County commission candidate who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for an incident last year in Topeka is expected to be sentenced to supervised probation.
Tarence Maddox, 40, was initially charged with two counts of battery, including one against a law enforcement officer, in Topeka Municipal Court. The charges stemmed from an incident where he allegedly became “combative” with staff at a hospital.
In an agreement with city attorneys, Maddox pleaded guilty last week to two reduced charges of disorderly conduct, Class C misdemeanors. The agreement was approved by the alleged victim.
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Maddox is a candidate in the Nov. 7 general election for the District 4 seat on the Unified Government’s Board of Commissioners, a seat he held a decade ago. His time as an elected official was tumultuous as he was censured for ethics violations.
He faced a year in jail with the initial charges, which were more serious misdemeanors. He will avoid that with his plea agreement, which recommends he be sentenced to a year of supervised probation and a standard fine of $100 per count.
“This means that as long as the defendant abides by the conditions of probation for one year, which includes remaining law-abiding, the defendant will not serve” jail time, a city spokesperson said.
Maddox was set for sentencing Friday, but his lawyer, Jeffrey Jones, said he was traveling with a non-profit in Missouri until the middle of November and could not make it. The hearing was pushed back to Dec. 1 — weeks after the election.
The charges stem from an Oct. 14, 2022, incident. Shortly after 6 p.m. that day, an officer in Overbrook pulled Maddox over for speeding in Osage County. The officer took Maddox, who allegedly had a suspended driver’s license, into custody.
Maddox began complaining of medical issues, so the officer accompanied an ambulance to The University of Kansas Health System campus in Topeka. Once there, he was “combative and uncooperative with hospital staff,” police said. During an altercation, security officers allegedly used a stun gun on Maddox, and Topeka officers were called to help subdue him.
After Maddox was released by the hospital, he was taken to the Shawnee County jail, where he bonded out.
A police report listed two men as the “victims” in the case: a nurse and an Overbook officer.
Months after the incident, Maddox filed to run for his old seat on Wyandotte County’s governing board.
Reached for comment by phone after the hearing Friday, Maddox said he needed to speak with his attorney. In a Facebook video months after his arrest, he previously described the allegations as “false.”
“We all fall short every now and then, but at the end of the day, them lies that be told, they’re going to be unmasked in the coming weeks and all that kind of stuff,” he said in the January video.
Maddox served as a UG commissioner from 2011 to 2015. He was censured twice for, among other things, threatening to sic county inspectors on a gas station owner and throwing a fit at Legoland, which led to his later conviction for disorderly conduct.
He lost his seat in the 2015 election to Harold Johnson, who has held the seat since then. Johnson is not seeking reelection.
Maddox, president of the NAACP branch in Kansas City, Kansas, is running against Evelyn Hill, a consultant who served from 2014 to 2017 as president of the Kansas City, Kansas Board of Education. They beat out two candidates in the August primary election.
Of the 512 votes cast in that summer race, Hill came out on top with 190, while Maddox got 130. One of them will represent residents who live between the downtown KCK government district and the Northeast, as well as part of the Kensington neighborhood.
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