Rose Renfroe, the oft-maligned Democratic candidate for District 4 County Commissioner's seat, had a bench warrant out for her arrest earlier this year after she failed to appear in a court on a motion for contempt. Even more interesting, the judge directed authorities to her current address at an apartment complex in--wait for it--Arlington. I don't know the exact boundaries of the southwest Dallas County district Renfroe hopes to represent, but it's a safe bet it doesn't cover Tarrant County. That would be awkward.
On Friday, Renfroe finally showed up for a court appearance only to have a Tarrant County judge deny her request for a continuance on a long-running civil case that is more than 10 years old. In 1995, Renfroe was ordered to pay $55,000 after she allegedly refused to return the personal and business property of a former house guest. It's a strange and convoluted story, and we won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say the plaintiffs in the suit, Victoria Martin and her daughter Jean, haven't seen a dime. About a year ago, Jean Martin filed a petition to collect a judgment, and she says that Renfroe again didn't respond to discovery requests. So on Friday the judge called for a new trial on November 3 and ordered Renfroe to bring to court "all documents requested in discovery," according to the signed court order.
"The judge said, 'Is there any reason why I shouldn't have you arrested now?'" Martin recalls. "And [Renfroe] said, 'I should hope that you won't.'"
Renfroe responded today by saying, "It's an 11-year-old dispute, and it's irrelevant." She claimed not to have known there was a warrant for her arrest. Unfair Park was just about to ask Renfroe why, exactly, the judge wrote that the warrant be served at her "current address" in Arlington, but she hung up.
In the earlier bench warrant for her arrest, the judge wrote that Renfroe was living at the River Oaks Apartment Complex in Arlington. The apartment manager at the complex had informed the court that she would provide Renfroe's apartment number to the police and sheriff's departments. It's not clear if that warrant was actually served. She told The Dallas Morning News recently she lives in Duncanville and that she is "a lifelong Dallasite," and public records show that Renfroe lives on Wheatland Road in southern Dallas County--though the address she gave when she got her last driver's license in 2002 is for a business complex that houses, among other things, several vets, a Carter BloodCare center and a Mailbox Express. --Matt Pulle
