A Kansas woman who took her children to sing this winter during an armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge was arrested last week in connection with an assault on a law enforcement officer, jail officials said.
Odalis Sharp, of Auburn, was booked into the Shawnee County Jail at 7:48 p.m. Friday in connection with battery of an officer, a misdemeanor, and interfering with a law enforcement officer, a felony, jail officials said.
She was arrested at her home and released Saturday on $3,000 bond.
No charges apparently had been filed as of Tuesday morning. A spokesman for the Shawnee County prosecutor could not be reached for comment.
Records show Sharp attended a hearing in Shawnee County District Court last Tuesday on an eviction case filed last year by the owner of the property she rents. The court had ordered Sharp to vacate the premises last September.
Sharp appealed the ruling, and the court ordered her to post a $1,500 cash bond each month until the appeal was decided. Court records indicate the payments were made from October through April.
At last week’s hearing, a trial date in the case was set for May 15.
Sharp did not return calls seeking comment.
Sharp, 46, made headlines in January when she took seven of her 10 children to Oregon to perform for the armed militants who had taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Her oldest daughter, Victoria, 18, who had recently moved to Montana, joined the “Sharp Family Singers” on Jan. 25.
The next day, Victoria was riding with Nevada rancher LaVoy Finicum and three other militants, including standoff leader Ammon Bundy, when Finicum ran a roadblock and was shot and killed by Oregon State Police.
Victoria has since become a rising star in the “Patriot” movement, accusing the government of overstepping its bounds and attending court hearings in Oregon to support those arrested in the standoff.
Odalis Sharp and seven of the children performed in the State Capitol in Topeka in March, where Sharp was supporting Raymond and Amelia Schwab, whose children had been placed under supervision of the Kansas Department of Children and Families. In between songs, Sharp told onlookers that authorities had tried to murder her daughter during the Oregon standoff.
Sharp also has a history in court with child welfare officials in Kansas.
In 2011, the Kansas Department of Children and Families removed her oldest child — then 15 — from the home and placed him in foster care after substantiating reports that Sharp had abused and neglected him. Sharp filed a petition for judicial review in 2012, asking the district court to overturn the finding. When the court did not, she filed an appeal. The appellate court, in an opinion filed in October, sided with the lower courts.
Sharp said in testimony at a 2014 legislative committee hearing that the child welfare agency had stolen her son because of false abuse allegations.
Judy L. Thomas: 816-234-4334, @judylthomas
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