Former El Cajon City Councilmember Bessmon “Ben” Kalasho and his wife each failed to appear at a San Diego Superior Court hearing Monday to begin serving eight-day jail sentences they received for previous contempt-of-court findings.
They are both the subjects of fresh arrest warrants and could face additional legal consequences.
Judge Wendy Behan issued a pair of $25,000 bench warrants for Bessmon and Jessica Kalasho, who were ordered to serve jail sentences in 2023 after failing to comply with previous court orders.
The warrants were first issued two years ago after the Kalashos moved to North Carolina but were never enforced. They were stayed earlier this year so the couple could appear in court to defend themselves in a separate code-enforcement lawsuit filed by the city of El Cajon.
The husband-and-wife defendants attended that three-day trial in April; Ben Kalasho represented them in the proceeding.
El Cajon accused the couple of violating city code-enforcement rules in making unpermitted improvements to a home they own on Cliffdale Road. They received a special suspension of the warrants to let them attend the trial without facing arrest.
During the trial, Kalasho argued that he was being persecuted by city officials due to his service on the City Council, where he was often in conflict with the other elected leaders. He also repeatedly invoked his rights against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions from city lawyers.
The judge in that case found last month that Kalasho had illegally renovated the home, but he rejected the city’s request to name a receiver to make sure upgrades to the house complied with building codes or impose $2.5 million-plus in fines imposed by the city.
Behan had agreed to suspend the bench warrants before the April trial. But she ordered the couple to report to court on Monday to begin serving their respective jail . It was not immediately clear if the San Diego City Attorney’s Office would enforce the warrants.
Kalasho, who was elected to the El Cajon City Council in 2016 and served just over two years before reg, was sued for defamation and other claims in 2017 and accused, along with his wife, of using fake social media profiles to harass critics.
The plaintiffs included business owners, a lawyer and a contestant in a beauty pageant Kalasho sponsored who said he offered to name her the winner if she agreed to have sex with him. The Kalashos were also accused of posting images on social media of nude women whose faces had been altered to appear as those of adversaries.
Kalasho denied the allegations but nonetheless lost the lawsuits. He was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, but plaintiffs have yet to collect — in part because the Cliffdale Road property was placed into a trust with a person who appears not to exist.
County property records show the house is co-owned by a trust managed by Maximilian Von Ayers, whose name El Cajon officials said Kalasho created in order to avoid paying the fines or other legal debts.
In his ruling in the code-enforcement case last month, Judge Joel Wohlfeil ruled that Van Ayers and Kalasho are the same person.
The Kalashos apparently moved to rural North Carolina to run a catering and dining experience from a private castle. Ben Kalasho also testified in April that he and his wife were part-time residents of Dubai.
Because the alleged crimes underlying the warrants — failures to appear in court — occurred in San Diego, City Attorney Heather Ferbert is responsible for returning the couple to San Diego to serve their jail sentences.
A spokesperson for Ferbert did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the office would enforce the warrants.
