Café owners report death threats
Staff writer
Police are investigating reports that owners of Cazadores Mexican restaurant received death threats from contractors who worked on their restaurant at 214 E. Main St. in Marion.
Marion police chief Clinton Jeffrey said the matter was under investigation but no official had yet been written.
According to monitored police transmissions, Cazadores owners Leora and Jonathan Ramirez reported at 11:55 p.m. last Wednesday that they had been receiving threatening text messages.
“They had people that were working on their business that wanted more money,” a dispatcher said. “They advised that they already paid them. The workers are now telling them that they are going to come kill them if they don’t give them more money.”
Dispatchers said the Ramirezes reported the matter to police in Wichita, where the contractors are located, and that Wichita police advised them to tell Marion police.
Jeffrey said the owners had been involved in a dispute Nov. 22 with C&M Roofing and Remodeling of Wichita that appeared to be over quality of work, payment for work, and getting contractors’ tools back from the work site.
“Those are civil issues,” Jeffrey said. “That is why there was no criminal case brought up.”
Jeffrey said Thursday that he expected a report regarding the alleged threat by Friday, but on Tuesday he indicated that such a report had not yet been created.
According to monitored transmissions, officer Aaron Slater was conducting the investigation last week.
Earlier this month, the restaurant owners said they had given up being the site for weekly meetings of Marion Kiwanis club because of disputes with a remodeling contractor.
The couple has been working on rehabilitating the restaurant building for more than a year, doing much of the early work themselves.
After receiving a loan, they hired a Wichita contractor who they said “took off with our money.”
No similar complaints could be found regarding the contractor, which has a positive A+ rating from the Wichita Better Business Bureau.
Because the Ramirezes returned to doing the work themselves, they did not want to open on Mondays exclusively for Kiwanis in addition to being open Wednesdays through Sundays for the general public because this would leave little time for them to work on the building and have time off.
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