Overland Park cop, fired for 2016 Facebook threat, arrested on probation violation
A former Overland Park police officer who previously pleaded guilty to posting a threatening message on a woman’s Facebook page was booked into the Johnson County jail Wednesday.
Rodney Lee Wilson was arrested on a probation violation and released after posting a $50,000 bond, court records show.
Jesse Valdez, a spokesman for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, said Wilson surrendered himself to authorities in the lobby of the Central Booking Facility.
Records show he is a defendant in a criminal case in San Diego County, California, that was filed Aug. 3. Details of the charges were not immediately available Friday.
Wilson’s two most recent addresses were in San Diego County, according to Johnson County court records. He did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Thursday. His attorney, Heath Stuart, also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Wilson was convicted in 2017 of posting a threatening comment on the Facebook page of a woman in Dallas following the killing of five police officers in that city.
The comment, left under a picture of the Dallas woman’s daughter, read: “We’ll see how much her life matters soon. Better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found :) Hold her close tonight it’ll be the last time.”
The woman did not know Wilson.
When it learned of the post, the Overland Park Police Department investigated and fired Wilson.
He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of obstructing legal process, false impersonations and two counts of assault. He was placed on probation with an underlying 90-day jail sentence he would have to serve if he violated the probation.
The woman and her daughter were the victims in the two assault charges. The obstruction charge stemmed from Wilson’s attempt to delete his Facebook account after the threat was posted.
The false impersonation charge involved him using the names of other officers in an effort to check if an arrest warrant had been issued for him.
Wilson’s police officer’s license was revoked April 21, 2017, according to records from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (CPOST).
