TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas couple is asking a judge to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit filed by a Colorado man who held them hostage while fleeing from authorities.
Jesse Dimmick is serving an 11 year sentence for kidnapping, fleeing from law enforcement and stealing a motor vehicle. He burst into Jared and Lindsay Rowley’s Topeka-area home in September 2009 after crashing a stolen van in their yard during a police chase. He was wanted for questioning in a Colorado man’s beating death at an Aurora motel.
The Rowleys escaped after Dimmick fell asleep. Officers then stormed the house.
The Topeka Capital-Journalreported that Dimmick filed a breach of contract suit in Shawnee County District Court in response to a suit the couple filed in September. The Rowleys filed a lawsuit seeking $75,000 from him for intruding in their home and causing emotional stress.
In Dimmick’s suit, Dimmick contends that he and the couple reached a legally binding, oral contract that they would hide him for an unspecified amount of money.
Dimmick said he told the couple he was being chased by someone, most likely the police, who wanted to kill him.
“I, the defendant, asked the Rowleys to hide me because I feared for my life. I offered the Rowleys an unspecified amount of money which they agreed upon, therefore forging a legally binding oral contract,” Dimmick said in his hand-written court documents. He wants $235,000, in part to pay for the hospital bills that resulted from him being shot by police when they arrested him.
Neighbors have said that the couple fed Dimmick snacks and watched movies with him until he fell asleep and they were able to escape their home unharmed.
Dimmick was convicted in May 2010 of four felonies, including two counts of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 10 years and 11 months on those charges. He was later sent to a jail in Brighton, Colo., where he is being held on eight charges, including murder, in connection of with the killing of Michael Curtis in September 2009. A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 16. No plea has been entered in the case.
Robert E. Keeshan, an attorney for the Rowleys, filed a motion denying that there was a contract, but said if there was it would not have been binding anyway.
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