Kansas AG Kris Kobach Files Organized Crime Retail Theft Charge

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State prosecutors have filed the first criminal complaint since Attorney General Kris Kobach pushed for new laws targeting organized retail theft.

The Kansas Attorney General’s Office announced last week that Demetrius Lamont Odom was charged in Lyon County District Court in connection with alleged retail crimes targeting Kansas liquor stores.

“Fortunately, the Legislature has given the Attorney General’s Office the authority to address this pervasive form of crime,” Kobach said in a news release. “This lawsuit is an important step.”

The charges come after lawmakers in 2023 made Kansas the first state in the nation to expand the attorney general’s prosecutorial power to include retail thefts spanning multiple counties, via Senate Bill 174. They followed up with a 2024 law, House Bill 2144, targeting more such crimes.

Organized retail crime has been a hot-button issue nationally and in Kansas in recent years. As flashmob burglary videos made national news, companies like Target closed stores, blaming organized retail crime. But critics say retailers wrongly blame organized theft rings for too much of their losses.

An April 2023 National Retail Federation report claimed that organized retail crime accounted for nearly half of all inventory losses in 2021, but the NRF walked back that assertion in November while asserting that these Theft remains “a serious problem affecting retailers of all sizes.” Emails previously obtained by The Capital-Journal show that the original NRF report was among the documents reviewed by Kobach before testifying on the subject to Congress in June 2023.

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In testimony before state lawmakers in March, Kobach said organized retail crime “is large-scale theft of retail merchandise that represents a concerted effort to victimize a business — often in the intention to resell the items for financial gain.” While this could involve shoplifting merchandise, it could also be done using stolen credit cards, Kobach said.

Court documents say investigators believe a stolen financial card was used in the Lyon County case.

The criminal complaint was filed May 31, but was initially sealed over prosecutors’ fears that Odom, of Georgia, would try to evade police if he knew of the arrest warrant. His first court appearance was Monday and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 21.

Odom, 30, is from Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta – which the NRF identified as a place with a relatively high proportion of listings on the online peer-to-peer sales platforms Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. to be property stolen from organizations. retail crime.

He is charged with four counts of identity theft, two counts of criminal use of a financial card and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal use of a financial card. Court records Tuesday did not list a defense attorney for Odom, who has been held in Lyon County Jail since Friday.

The charging document did not include the new crime of organized retail crime or reference to the amended definition of racketeering activity, which were part of the 2024 law.

Prosecutors allege that on July 26, 2023, Odom used someone else’s identity and a financial card to commit fraud and obtain money or property worth between $1,000 and $25,000. He allegedly used a Mastercard to pay at Emporia Liquor & Wine, Liquor Locker, The Liquor Store and Carlos Liquor. Odom also allegedly conspired with two other people.

More: Stores say they’ve seen an increase in organized thefts, now Kansas has a specific crime for it

When lobbying for the law, Kobach had said the reason he gave the attorney general prosecutorial authority was so he had more resources to investigate multi-county crimes. He told lawmakers that “even relatively simple investigations of this nature create a significant workload.”

This appears to be the case in this lawsuit, where the witness list names 115 people, including:

  • 11 special agents or other employees of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
  • 15 officers or other employees of the Emporia, Chetopa, Parsons, Andover, Park City, Rose Hill, Independence, Anthony and Coffeyville police departments.
  • 37 record keepers, each representing a different company.
  • 34 owners, employees or other representatives of 17 different liquor stores.
  • 18 other witnesses, including two alleged co-conspirators.

The attorney general’s office said one of those alleged co-conspirators, Dwayne Rhoden, is a co-defendant in the case but has not yet been extradited to Kansas from Kentucky, where he was arrested on charges unrelated charges.

More: Kansas lawmakers want to give Kris Kobach’s office more power, despite staff shortages

Jason Alatidd is a state reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be contacted by email at [email protected]. Follow him on @Jason_Alatidd.