Arrested as a man, booked into jail as a woman

January 16, 2017

By JOSH FRIEDMAN and KAREN VELIE

Grover Beach police arrested a suspect Sunday, who they determined was a man from Arroyo Grande, for allegedly impersonating a police officer while conducting a traffic stop. However, San Luis Obispo County Jail staff thought otherwise and booked 52-year-old Ken M. Kennon into jail as a woman.

On Friday evening, with law enforcement lights mounted on his white Toyota Prius, Kennon pulled over a driver on the 800 block of N. Oak Park Boulevard. After Kennon pulled away, the driver decided to follow Kennon’s Toyota Prius, which had Texas license plates in addition to the emergency lighting system.

In a nearby parking lot, the driver confronted Kennon, wrote down her license plate number and reported the incident to the police department. At the time, officers were unable to locate Kennon.

On Sunday morning, officers tracked Kennon to a residence in Arroyo Grande, arrested the suspect and marked male as Kennon’s sex on the arrest report.

“The drivers license said male,” Grover Beach Sgt. Celis Rabena said. “We did not check and we did not ask. Sometimes, that is a personal question.”

Officers then booked Kennon into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of felony providing a false birth or baptism certificate to deceive and a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a police officer, still believing Kennon was a male.

However, jail staff discovered Kennon is a female and placed her into a private cell. A jail staffer initially informed a CCN reporter that Kennon was male, then said female before saying he needed to check with a supervisor.

Kennon remains in custody with her bail set at $20,000.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have encountered a similar situation to call Detective Carey of the Grover Beach Police Department at 805-473-4502.