Dispute over control of the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee ends in citizen's arrest.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect information from an interview with Ian Oglesby, who responded after the original post was published on Oct. 4. In addition, it has been updated to reflect that the State Party's website listing of local Party leaders changed after publication.

The signage on the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee's headquarters on Fremont Boulevard in Seaside reads “Center for Change,” a name that is supposed to evoke a forward-thinking vision. But recently, it could be referring to the locks on the back door. 

Just before 3:30pm on Wednesday, Oct. 2, Seaside Police arrested Karen Araujo—who is either the chair, or former chair, of the committee’s board, depending on who you ask—for trespassing.

It was a citizen’s arrest by Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby who, also depending who you ask, is either the current chair of the local party’s board or is set to take the gavel after the November election. 

It’s a culmination of a long-brewing conflict that’s been reported on by the Weekly as recently as last month. And now, just one month before the election, Oglesby says he felt compelled to elevate it to the criminal courts. 

"I told her she was trespassing and had no authority to be here," Oglesby says of his citizen's arrest of Araujo.

Here’s a timeline of how the events that day played out, based on accounts from Araujo, Oglesby and Seaside Police Cmdr. Matt Doza, who was at the scene with other officers during the arrest. 

Democratic Party leadership—based on the results of a vote taken in September to change the organization's bylaws, meaning a new board (including Oglesby as chair) would be installed immediately, rather than after Election Day—had the locks changed around 11:15am on Wednesday morning, Oct. 2. 

Around 1pm on Wednesday, Araujo arrived, parked in the back and discovered the locks on the back door had been changed. She then went around and entered through the front door, which was open, and asked another volunteer for a key that opened the new lock, and was denied. So Araujo called Seaside Police around 1:05pm to report a “peace disturbance,” Doza says. 

In Araujo’s words, she considered it a “civil stand-by” as she made calls to get the locks changed again. The first company she called declined to change the locks, she says, because “it had to do with who asked them to change the locks in the first place.” During this time, Seaside officers left the scene. 

Meanwhile, this is all happening while Araujo is already inside the building. (She says the whole thing never would have happened had she entered through the front door, as she wouldn’t have known the locks were changed.) She called a second locksmith company, which agreed to change the locks. 

Not long after the locksmith showed up to change the locks per Araujo's request, before 3:30pm, Oglesby showed up. Shortly thereafter, so did Seaside Police officers. 

Doza says Oglesby came down to Seaside’s police station at City Hall just before 3:21pm to report alleged trespassing, and provided a letter to police requesting that Araujo be arrested.

Doza says it’s not a judgment call for police to assess whether the arrest should be made, but that the law requires them to do so in the event someone makes a citizen’s arrest. (If the charges prove to be unfounded, he says, the accuser—in this case, Oglesby—is liable for false imprisonment charges.)

Officers, with Oglesby on the scene, arrested Araujo at 3:27pm at the headquarters and took her to the station to book her on misdemeanor trespassing charges. Her first court date is Oct. 29 at 8:15am at the Salinas courthouse. 

Araujo, when reached Friday for comment, remains traumatized by the course of events—speaking about it, she repeatedly was in tears. 

In her view, she had every right to be there, noting that the state Democratic Party’s website had continued to list her as the chair of the county committee. That website listing changed sometime on Friday afternoon, Oct. 4, two days after the arrest—an update that local party leaders says was simply a matter of delay in the state party's system. (As of 5pm on Oct. 4, Oglesby is listed as the chair.)

But the biggest issue for her, Araujo says, is that this turn of events should never have happened, and can only have a negative impact on the party’s candidates just a month before the election. 

“This is hurting good candidates,” she says. “There’s no reason we can’t have this internal conflict and still move forward together.”

She says she’s reached out to Oglesby numerous times to resolve the leadership conflict, but that he wouldn’t return her calls. Oglesby says there is no issue left to mediate; the committee voted clearly to change the chairperson and the board, and those changes took effect immediately upon the vote.

“I just want it to stop,” Araujo says. “I’m getting an attorney—this is serious, I’ve been arrested. I have to go to court, good god! It’s going to cost a lot of money.”  

Moreover, she adds, she’s the first-ever Latina chair of the committee and its first chair from Salinas, where she grew up. 

Doza says Araujo did not resist arrest in any way, and was polite and respectful to officers throughout the process.

After the arrest, Party officials called the original locksmith again, who returned to change the locks again. It was the third time in one day the locks on the building were changed.

As for the Democratic Party's final month before Election Day, busy with activity and fundraising to support Democratic candidates (even for local nonpartisan office, as well as federal offices), both Araujo and Oglesby are representing themselves as chair in various communications to prospective voters.