Des Moines metro landlord, bar owner Edwin Allen alleges Waukee official stalked him

In yet another legal scrap among many over the past two years, controversial Des Moines metro bar owner and landlord Edwin Allen III has accused a city of Waukee official of stalking and harassing him.

In a lawsuit, Allen, 45, alleges ― and the city denies ― that Waukee code compliance officer Paul Carpenter stalked, harassed and trapped him with his vehicle in an attempt to intimidate and punish him for taking legal action against the city.

In an interview Tuesday, Allen said he’d been in disputes with city officials over an expired rental certificate and whether he needed to pay city utilities fees for a vacant rental in a duplex.

The city, he said, maintained he needed a rental certificate for "every door" at a rental property, while he believed only one was needed for every property. He acknowledged his certificate for the property had expired.

“They sued me for not having a certificate for each side of a duplex,” he said. “The reality was the property was vacant. ... They won by default because I didn’t show up. In fact, I didn’t know about the hearing.”

Allen said that during the court case, the city maintained he lived in Waukee and sent notices to the address of a home he rents to his child's mother there. He said he lives in Des Moines.

During a break in legal proceedings, he said, Carpenter showed up at another rental house he owns in Waukee and took pictures of him coming out of that house in the morning and kissing his 5-year-old child.

He said he fled in his car, but Carpenter followed him into a townhome subdivision, blocked him in a driveway and started running toward his car.

“I put my car in gear and pulled away, and tore through someone’s driveway,” he said.

Judge declines Waukee's motion to dismiss case

Allen said he caused some damage, which was caught on a resident’s doorbell camera. He said he reported the incident to police, who did not pursue the case.

So in June last year, he and his attorney, David Leitner, sued City Administrator Brad Deets, Mayor Courtney Clarke, City Council members Anna Bergman Pierce, Charlie Bottengerg, Chris Crone, Larry Lyon and Ben Sinclair and finance officer Linda Burkhart, as well as Carpenter.

"They offered us $10,000 to settle the case, and we told them to go pound sand,” he said.

Leitner, who also has been hired repeatedly by Allen's friend and fellow bar owner Steve McFadden, faces possible disbarment after being accused of misconduct.

But this week, a district court judge dismissed the city of Waukee's motion for summary judgment, saying Carpenter's actions, if proven, would violate Iowa's criminal assault law. That decision paved the way for the case to move forward.

Reached Tuesday, Deets said the city cannot comment on ongoing legal matters. "But we do deny the allegations against our city employee."

He also noted the city won its previous case against Allen for failing to update his rental certificate. Under Waukee city code, "no person shall rent, lease, let, operate, or otherwise allow the occupancy of any dwelling unit or any portion of any dwelling unit (including sleeping rooms) unless they hold a valid rental inspection certificate issued by the Development Services Department."

Allen complained he'd been charged by the city for utilities in vacant apartments and said the city puts liens on them if the utilities aren’t paid.

“It’s a David versus Goliath thing,” he said. “I’m trying to get the city to change their behavior.”

In his lawsuit, he alleged the city illegally billed him after the tenants moved out for water, gas, sewer, solid waste and storm water service, as well as a “mysterious tag fee,” though none of the utilities were used in 2022. That's different than other Iowa cities, including Des Moines, he contended.

Deets said in Waukee, property owners are responsible for paying minimum monthly charges for water, sewer trash and storm water when a property is vacant. "I can't tell you what other cities do," he said.

Zora owner faced stalking case of his own

Allen is best known for Zora, a custom-built, three-story nightclub, he opened in 2021 at the busy corner of Ingersoll Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines. The club received heavy social media criticism following incidents of violence, including the Nov. 26 shooting death in its parking lot of 29-year-old Alonzo Lee Kearney, for which no one has been charged.

Earlier this month, Allen closed Zora and sued the city of Des Moines for $10 million for allegedly seeking to drive the bar into bankruptcy.

Allen previously failed to win approval of a zoning change to designate Zora exclusively a bar after a state audit found that, as a restaurant, it was in violation of a requirement that it derive at least half its revenues from sales of food.

In April, Allen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct to resolve a stalking charge against him. The charge was filed in January after a woman dating McFadden told police McFadden had been tracking her location and confronted her in places he would have had no way to know she would be. After the woman found a GPS tracking device in her car, police arranged to leave her car parked at an Ankeny hotel. Staff there later told police a man called from a phone number connected to McFadden, looking for the woman.

Allen was accused of following the woman to Paws and Pints on Des Moines' west side while McFadden was out of town.

McFadden, an owner in the Tipsy Crow and Grumpy Goat bars and Dough Mama's Pizzeria, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of unauthorized use of a GPS device.

Allen also was cited by Des Moines police in late March for allegedly serving underage minors at the bar on a night when two young women alleged they were sexually assaulted at the bar. Earlier this month, District Associate Judge Kristen Formanek ordered Allen to pay a $400 fine for allowing minors in Zora, which he has appealed.

Other ongoing legal issues

Allen also is entangled in several other ongoing lawsuits, including a civil suit filed by a former tenant, Cyndi Collins, who alleged he demanded sex for a reduction on her rent and another filed by former employee Montejha “Maxx” Hall, who alleged in an employment discrimination lawsuit that Allen preferred scantily clad, petite white women to work in his club and that he cut her hours because she is Black.

Leitner filed a motion to dismiss Collins' complaint for allegedly failing to exhaust other administrative remedies ― a move that got the attorney in more trouble. Unlike other types of discrimination complaints, housing complaints have no such administrative requirements, something Collins' attorneys said they told Leitner before he filed to dismiss the case.

In a July 19 order, Judge Paul Scott found Leitner was "acting in bad faith" and was "at a bare minimum negligent" in filing the frivolous motion, and ordered Leitner to pay Collins' attorney fees for having to respond. Her attorneys say that amounts to $1,290.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at @leerood or on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Zora owner Edwin Allen alleges Waukee official stalked him in lawsuit