Loose and Fast

"I do Victorian high tea benefits. I am an expert in Victorian entertaining. My husband didn't want me to bring in the trash I've picked up off the street. I can guarantee you the Looses weren't entertaining people having them stand around drinking beer out of plastic cups and sucking down weenies," Stackhaus said. (She declined to comment on the matter for this story.)

In a letter filed with the board, Loose Mansion neighbor Karta Purkh Khalsa, who operates the Sikh Dharma Center on Walnut Street, urged the board to uphold the codes administrator's decision. "The residents of Walnut Street have had their driveways blocked by vehicles, have been disturbed by noise during nighttime hours and have had to pick up trash dropped by guests," Khalsa wrote.

The board voted 3 to 2 to uphold the codes administrator's decision that Saathoff was in violation of the city zoning ordinance. Through his attorney, Saathoff appealed the decision by filing a lawsuit in Jackson County Court in November against the Board of Zoning Adjustment and the city.

While the appeal makes its way through the court, Saathoff can hold off the decision of the codes department -- but he can't stop Stackhaus. According to Saathoff and his wife, Barb Saathoff, Stackhaus lurks outside the mansion during parties and receptions, taking photos. Saathoff says Stackhaus has called neighboring Interstate Bakeries to try to convince them not to let mansion guests park in Interstate's lots after hours.

The night of December 9, Saathoff says he was hosting a corporate Christmas party at the mansion when he walked outside and saw Aggie Stackhaus' husband, Jim Stackhaus, arguing belligerently with Ryan Alden, the off-duty police officer Saathoff had hired for security. (Saathoff says he hires security for all events at the mansion.) "He was drunk," Saathoff says of Jim Stackhaus. "The officer told him to settle down, and he wouldn't do it. So he had to call his sergeant and finally wrote out a ticket." Alden confirms for the Pitch that he ticketed Jim Stackhaus for drinking in public.

After that, Saathoff walked back inside and into the catering kitchen at about 10 p.m. and saw Heather Dodge, the city codes inspector, standing there. Wilson Winn, a codes department division manager, tells the Pitch that Dodge had been sent because the department didn't realize that Saathoff had appealed the board's ruling.

"Somebody had sent us a copy of the invitation that they had sent out for a party they were having that night, so we sent an investigator out," Winn says. "They're still in violation, but while they are in appeal it is our policy not to pursue prosecution."

Epstein says he believes Saathoff has a good chance of winning his appeal, which will be decided by a Jackson County judge who will look at the history of the case and the written evidence but will not hear testimony.

"I think we will prevail," Epstein told the Pitch. "This business is hardly akin to a trampoline center or a pony track."