An Oelwein man faces federal charges of failing to register as a sex offender in the first case of its kind for the northern district of Iowa. Thirty-three-year-old David Howell had been convicted of third-degree sexual conduct in Michigan in 1987 and had also been convicted twice of failing to register as a sex offender in that state.
Howell moved to Oelwein last year, but did not register in Iowa as a sex offender. Howell was arrested in Shepherd, Texas last month and brought back to Iowa. Howell appeared in federal court in Cedar Rapids Tuesday and is being held without bond until a detention hearing today.
Howell’s prosecution is the first in the northern district of Iowa under the sex offender registry provisions in the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, which was enacted in July of last year.