Former Sergeant Bluff City Clerk loses appeal on theft charge

A woman who used to be the clerk of a northwest Iowa city has failed to get the Iowa Appeals Court overturn her theft conviction. Phyllis Wax was the city clerk in Sergeant Bluff, and was convicted of first-degree theft, two counts of income tax evasion and second-degree fraud for stealing over 10-thousand dollars. Wax was found guilty of stashing cash payments made to the city in her own bank account. The attorney Wax hired argued the evidence was “insufficient” to support any of the convictions. The Court of Appeals has ruled that there was “carefully documented” and “sustantial” evidence to support For example, records in the city clerk’s office show about 900-dollars of cash deposits were made one day — a few days later, Wax deposited 900 dollars in her own bank account. Wax also wanted the court to rule the way the convictions were tagged together was wrong, but they refused that, too.