Kingsley set for adjourned initial appearance

A Bayfield man accused of assaulting and trying to prevent someone attempting to serve him eviction papers had his initial appearance rescheduled again Aug. 27.

Kim Kinglsey, 72, who faces charges of battery and false imprisonment, has had trouble finding a lawyer to represent him. As a result, Bayfield County Circuit Court has postponed his initial appearance several times since July 23.

Attorney Kenneth Ryder will represent him moving forward. Kingsley has an initial appearance scheduled for Sept. 10.

His address was previously listed in Washburn, but has since been updated to one in Bayfield.

According to court documents, the victim said he was hired by a local law firm to serve legal eviction papers to Kingsley and the situation “became violent.”

After the victim served Kingsley the papers, Kingsley became very angry.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim tried several times to get in his car and leave, but Kingsley prevented him from doing so by blocking the driveway with his own vehicle.

Kingsley then began reaching in the victim’s vehicle from the driver’s side door to turn off the engine and take away the keys to prevent him from leaving. To prevent this, the victim entered the vehicle from the passenger side door.

As the two struggled to gain control of the victim’s vehicle, Kingsley struck the victim in the head with a bicycle helmet.

Eventually Kingsley got out of his vehicle and left the property. Before leaving, though, Kingsley shut and secured the gate to the driveway with a piece of barbed wire to prevent the victim from leaving. After Kingsley left, the victim was able to escape the gate and left to meet with law enforcement.

A short time later, law enforcement met with Kingsley at the property while Kingsley and a witness were tending to the horses. Kingsley immediately handed the law enforcement representative what he claimed were keys to the victim’s vehicle.

Kingsley said that he took them to prevent the victim from leaving until law enforcement arrived. He went on to say that he stopped the victim from leaving because he believed the victim was trespassing and admitted to struggling with the victim over the keys, striking the victim with the helmet and using barbed wire to secure the gate and prevent the victim from leaving.