Phillip Michael Eravi during a hearing on May 9, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Story updated at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.

A Lawrence public commenter known for his verbal assaults on public officials and law enforcement has been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer in connection with an incident last fall when police cleared out a homeless camp on the south bank of the Kansas River.

The man, Phillip Michael Eravi, 55, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one misdemeanor count of battery on a law enforcement officer, according to charging documents. The incident is alleged to have happened around 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2024, and involved a Lawrence police officer in the 700 block of Seventh Street, where the Amtrak homeless camp was.

That morning, Lawrence police were assisting city staff in clearing out a camp. The move was described as a “last resort” by Police Chief Rich Lockhart after campers had resisted nearly two months of notice and stayed past the deadline to leave. Eravi was seen at the site berating officers, including yelling obscene and sexually explicit comments about Lockhart and others as police worked the scene.

Eravi, who has used the N-word in addressing Lawrence’s Black then-mayor, as well as other profanity and abusive language, was not arrested in connection with the camp incident but was issued a summons to appear, according to court records. Multiple officers are listed as witnesses to the battery as well as a city employee.

Eravi is scheduled to appear in court on the charge on Wednesday.

Eravi has a pending felony case in which he is charged with interference in connection with an incident in May of 2023, when he is alleged to have forced multiple officers from their protected positions during an armed standoff on May 19 in the 1900 block of Heatherwood Drive, as the Journal-World reported.

That case has been mired in delays and is scheduled for a motion hearing on Feb. 14. He is currently free on a $750 bond in that case.

A federal judge last summer dismissed a lawsuit by Eravi against the City of Lawrence and others. Eravi had claimed that his First Amendment rights were trampled when he was trespassed in 2023 from the city-supported homeless camp in North Lawrence. The city successfully argued for dismissal, saying it was well within its rights to restrict access to the homeless camp, which it called a “nonpublic forum,” and that probable cause existed to trespass Eravi, who had been given multiple warnings to not enter the camp.

In addition, in summer 2023, City Manager Craig Owens notified Eravi that he was banned for 60 days from attending City Commission meetings in person after exhibiting “threatening and harassing behavior,” including telling two commissioners that he knew where they lived. Owens said in the letter that the ban came after Eravi had been asked to leave or was removed from meetings “no less than five times.”