Erik Jensen

When a Powell bar lost power on the night of Jan. 22, police say it was no run-of-the-mill outage. It was instead, they say, a deliberate act by a masked man who was stalking one of the establishment’s employees.

Erik L. Jensen, 35, is alleged to have flipped the K-Bar Saloon’s breaker two separate times in an effort to harass his ex-girlfriend — despite a court order to stay away from her.

Jensen faces one felony count of stalking and two misdemeanor counts of violating a protection order in connection with that incident and a similar one the previous night.

He was arrested early on the morning of Jan. 23 and has been jailed at the Park County Detention Center since then. 

Powell police were initially called to the K-Bar around 9 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22, when someone flipped the breaker box and shut off power to the establishment. Workers at the bar saw no one outside and responding officers found no one in the area. However, it wasn’t long before the bar’s power was cut again. This time, an employee spotted Jensen, her ex-boyfriend, fleeing down the alley, charging documents say.

Police officers located Jensen outside his home a few blocks north, wearing the black mask and Carhartt-style coat that he’d reportedly been seen wearing outside the K-Bar.

Jensen “confessed to flipping the breaker at the bar” because he “wanted to irritate” his ex, Powell Police Officer David Salters recounted in an affidavit used to support the charges.

“Erik Jensen confessed to having intent to harass [the woman] by showing up to her workplace” both that night and the previous day, Salters wrote.

With Jensen already subject to a domestic violence protection order that prohibited him from contacting or being near the woman, the Park County Attorney’s Office charged him with two felony counts of stalking; one related to allegedly cutting the K-Bar’s power on the night of Jan. 22 and the other related to a Jan. 21 incident, in which the woman reportedly spotted Jensen crouching behind a dumpster outside the bar. However, following a preliminary hearing on Jan. 31, Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah dismissed the count related to the Jan. 21 incident.

“There’s just not enough information” to support the charge, Darrah said. In his testimony on Jan. 31, Officer Salters expressed uncertainty about the exact terms of the protection order, how close Jensen got to the bar and couldn’t recall whether Jensen confessed to being there on Jan. 21.

Prosecutors will have the option of refiling the dismissed stalking charge. Additionally, the two misdemeanor counts alleging violations of the protection order — which relate to both the Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 incidents — remain pending.

At the request of Jensen’s court-appointed attorney, Judge Darrah lowered Jensen’s bond from $10,000 cash to $5,000 cash or surety plus a $5,000 signature bond. It means Jensen can be released by posting $5,000 in cash or hiring a bail bondsman for around $500. He had not made bail as of Monday.

Jensen has lived in Powell for roughly three years and is unlikely to have additional contact with the woman “with the obvious threat of jail” and a pending felony charge, Jensen’s attorney, Travis Smith, argued.

For her part, Deputy Park County Attorney Laura Newton asked the judge to keep bond at $10,000, saying she was “very concerned about the victim’s safety.”

 “[Jensen] admitted that he is harassing her, but there’s also this domestic violence protective order, which implies that her safety is at risk,” Newton said.

Darrah said he takes these types of cases very seriously and that he hoped Jensen had learned something. If Jensen does post bond, the judge barred him from having any contact with the woman and to stay at least 150 feet away from her residence and workplace.

“Mr. Jensen, do your best to avoid her if you see her,” Darrah advised, “because it will be a situation where you end up right back in jail.”

Jensen’s next hearing will be an arraignment in Park County District Court, where he will enter a plea to the charges.