Michael Wheeler, known as KC Superman, wants residents to know that he doesn’t plan to hang up his cape after spending two days in jail this week on six previous trespassing charges.
Wheeler, 73, was sentenced on September 10 to two days in Vernon County Jail, which is south of Kansas City, on six trespassing charges from 2020, 2022 and 2023.
The evangelical Christian preacher and runner has been known for years for running through Kansas City in a Superman-style costume . In a long red cape with a football in tow, he preaches on the streets and rubs elbows with fans, local leaders and celebrities.
“I was hoping that the judges would see through all that and say, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong,’” Wheeler told The Star on Friday. “‘This man, he’s a minister, he’s a veteran, he’s a community worker, and that’s KC Superman. Everybody knows him.’”
Wheeler said he reported to Kansas City municipal court on Sept. 10 after having been issued continuances at several previous court dates.
“I’ve been going down to court for like two years on these cases,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said he was initially told he could face four consecutive 180-day sentences, amounting to nearly two years in jail. Before he left the courtroom in handcuffs on Sept. 10, a Kansas City municipal judge had reduced that sentence to four days.
Wheeler’s sentence was further reduced to two days on Sept. 12 after a municipal court ruling allowing his sentences for the 2020 and 2022 incidents to be served consecutively with the four sentences related to 2023 charges.
Five of the six trespassing charges were handed down after arrests in the Westport neighborhood of Kansas City, all made between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. in 2022 and 2023. The sixth incident took place outside of a Wal-Mart in 2020, in the early evening.
Wheeler, an evangelical Christian preacher, told The Star that he had been preaching on the streets of Westport during each of the incidents. Preaching in the Westport area for more than 40 years has led to multiple arrests, Wheeler said.
After his four 2023 trespassing arrests and charges, Westport business owners — including Bill Nigro, the owner of Buzzard Beach, a Westport bar — warned Wheeler that he was “banned” from Westport, Wheeler said.
“Last year, I was walking through there because I missed my last bus,” Wheeler said. “As soon as (Nigro) saw me, he said, ‘How come you’re banned for life?’”
The first time Wheeler was arrested for trespassing while preaching in Westport was in 1986, he said. Wheeler and a friend were told they would spend three-and-a-half years in jail, but were back in Westport within two weeks.
“Really, they know they violated my rights, because I’ve got the right to be there,” Wheeler said. “... It’s kind of like going back in history.”
Wheeler said multiple of the trespassing charges he faced this week were brought by the same Kansas City police officer, stationed on Prospect Avenue. Wheeler described his relationship with the officer as adversarial, saying the same man had arrested him at least five times.
“He goes beyond his police duties,” Wheeler said. “I have a good relationship with a lot of the police. We’re good friends, we throw a football around. Most of them I get along with. It’s just this one in particular.”
Wheeler said he previously filed a report with the police department detailing his interactions with the officer. The department responded by informing Wheeler that KCPD had not found evidence of wrongdoing, Wheeler said.
Wheeler also told The Star that Kansas City police officers mocked him while transferring him from a Kansas City police station on Prospect Avenue to Vernon County Jail on Tuesday evening. Wheeler alleges that as he waited for transfer, multiple officers made derogatory comments about Wheeler’s faith.
The Kansas City Police Department was not available to comment on Wheeler’s allegations. The department previously declined to comment on Wheeler’s arrest and jail sentence.
Though his Vernon County Jail cell was noticeably cold, Wheeler said, his two-day sentence passed quickly and easily.
“I’ve been through it many times,” Wheeler said. “It was easy. Everybody in there knew me. They started hugging me, asked for prayer. About 20 other inmates gathered around for prayer. … I was just sharing the gospel the whole time I was there.”
Since returning to Kansas City on Thursday night, Wheeler said he has been met with love and positivity. One friend even held onto Wheeler’s phone and briefcase for him, Wheeler said.
A petition calling for Wheeler’s release , as well as for a ‘fair hearing’ on his behalf, had gathered more than 600 signatures by Friday.
“There’s a lot of people praying for me,” Wheeler said.
As he returns to his KC Superman routine, mixing running with street preaching, Wheeler said he wants Kansas City residents to think of him as “a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.”
“I love being out here for the people, and I’m happy to see the city rally for me,” Wheeler said.
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