Klamath Falls mayor files eviction notice after tenant accused of kidnapping, imprisoning woman at rental home

Two days after Negasi Zuberi’s arrest in Nevada on an interstate kidnapping charge, the landlords of his Klamath Falls, Oregon, home – who happen to be the city’s mayor and her husband – filed an eviction notice against the 29-year-old.

The notice, posted and mailed on July 18, said Zuberi “and all others” had to leave the rental home by last Monday for recklessly endangering someone on the property and “creating a serious risk of substantial personal injury.”

It gave Zuberi three days to vacate the rental home in the 1300 block of North El Dorado Avenue, a two-story, four-bedroom house near Eulalona Park.

By then, Zuberi had been arrested outside a Walmart store in Reno, Nevada, after a 45-minute standoff with police and taken into federal custody. A woman a day before had escaped from a makeshift cell in the home that Zuberi rented from the mayor, according to federal authorities and court records.

Mayor Carol Westfall and her husband Kevin Westfall did not return repeated phone, email or text messages.

In a statement to the Klamath Falls News, Mayor Westfall said she and her husband had rented the property to Zuberi and his two children six months ago and that he didn’t mention a wife or any other roommates.

In their statement, the mayor and her husband said they were “shocked and dismayed” to learn of the allegations against Zuberi.

“We applaud the actions of the woman who helped capture this person and prevent him from committing further atrocities.”

Zuberi is accused of soliciting a woman for prostitution in Seattle shortly after midnight on July 15, then posing as an undercover police officer, placing her in handcuffs and leg irons and driving her 450 miles to the Klamath Falls home.

He sexually assaulted the woman during the drive and locked her in a cinderblock cell in the garage of the rental home, federal investigators allege.

The woman was able to break out of the cell later that day and flagged down a motorist for help, according to a federal affidavit.

Police interviewed the woman at a local hospital and traced Zuberi’s cellphone to Nevada, where he was located the next day. Nevada patrol officers spotted Zuberi holding one of his children in the front seat of a car, while the children’s mother was outside the car speaking to him in a Walmart parking lot. He initially refused to come out of the car but eventually stepped out and was arrested, according to the affidavit.

On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in Medford returned a two-count indictment against Zuberi, charging him with interstate kidnapping and transporting a woman with intent to engage in sexual activity.

Michelle McClure, who lives next to the home Zuberi rented in Klamath Falls, said she wasn’t home when authorities say the Seattle woman escaped from Zuberi’s home, but she saw Klamath Falls police in the neighborhood when she arrived back to her house that night.

“They asked me if I heard anything and asked me to confirm Zuberi’s identity,” she said. McClure said she asked people if the woman who lived with Zuberi was safe and police said she was.

Zuberi, the mother of his two sons and the boys, both under age 10, moved into the house around February, McClure said. McClure said she didn’t think the Zuberi and the woman were married.

“He kept to himself,” McClure said of Zuberi. “But I was uncomfortable with the way he spoke to her and about her in such a degrading way.”

At some point, two other men came to rent rooms in the house, McClure said.

On the night of July 15, McClure said she paid for Zuberi’s two sons and their mother to stay in a local hotel because police were seeking a warrant to search the house. She said Zuberi, who drove a silver Honda SUV, wasn’t around at that point.

McClure ended up taking care of Zuberi’s terrier mix dog that night, but ultimately animal control took the dog because McClure said she didn’t know if the children and mother were returning.

“Obviously, it’s earth-shattering news for them,” McClure said. “She’s trying to figure out where she’s going to go to.”

The woman and children have returned to Oregon since Zuberi’s arrest in Nevada, McClure said.

Zuberi had previously lived in Vancouver, Washington, where he had faced an eviction notice from the landlord, who complained that Zuberi had unauthorized people living in the home, unauthorized pit bulls on the property and changed the home’s locks without permission, among other things, according to court records.

Zuberi is expected to be returned to Oregon to face prosecution in federal court in Medford.