In another confrontation with Atria of Darien management, former U.S. Senate candidate Lisa Whitnum-Baker (better known as "Lee Whitnum") was arrested again, this time on a harassment charge.
On Thursday, Darien police arrested Whitnum-Baker, a Greenwich resident who challenged U.S. Rep. Jim Himes for his Fourth District seat in 2008 and who ran for U.S. Senate in 2010, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal won his seat. (The New Haven Register has an online description of her political career.)
Whitnum-Baker, 52, was previously arrested April 18 on trespassing charges stemming from an incident at Atria of Darien. In that arrest she was charged with first-degree criminal trespassing. Before that arrest, she had been told by Atria management that if she showed up on the property again, she would be subject to arrest, police said. (Police did not say what the dispute with Atria was about.)
Police gave this account of the most recent incident and arrest:
The director of Atria of Darien, an assisted-living complex for seniors at 50 Ledge Rd., told police Whitnum-Baker had left harassing messages on the director's office and home telephones.
In the messages, Whitnum-Baker indicated that she and possibly other family members were perturbed by actions the director took (unspecified by police) against Whitnum-Baker.
The messages also said Whitnum-Baker and other family members would confront the director at the director's home in the near future. The director, fearing a possible confrontation, told police about the messages.
Police applied for and were granted an arrest warrant charging Whitnum-Baker with second-degree harassment. She turned herself in to police after she was advised of the warrant and posted a $5,000 bond pending a June 25 appearance in state Superior Court in Stamford.
Whitnum-Baker was a Greenwich resident at the time she was running for federal office. When police released news of the arrest, they said she was a Stamford resident living at 101 Summer St.. In a news release about her most recent arrest, police said she lives on Henry Street in Greenwich.
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