A paramedic with the Eagle Grove Ambulance Service faces charges after an incident earlier this week. Forty-six-year-old David Allen Baker of Eagle Grove is charged with the unlawful possession of a prescription drug and two counts of nonfelonious misconduct in office.

Last Monday, the city of Eagle Grove E.M.S. director notified the Wright County Sheriff’s office that on two occasions in the past week, the service has been missing narcotics. The ambulance service inventory was missing four 50-miligram vials of Demorol.

All of the missing narcotics were recovered during the investigation. Baker turned himself into the Wright County Sheriff’s office this morning and has been released on his own recognizance.

Contributed by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Des Moines Police are investigating the death of a woman on the city’s southwest side. Sergeant Christopher Scott says officers were called at 5:15 this morning to a strip mall parking lot by a man who reported an assault on a female. “Who that male was, I don’t know at this time,” Scott told Radio Iowa.

“When officers arrived on the scene, it was determined that the female was deceased and it turned into a death investigation.” The victim’s name has not been released and police are not discussing a possible cause of death. Officers did find a man near the scene at 4808 Southwest 9th Street.

The man was taken into custody for questioning, but he has not been charged. Scott was unsure if the man is considered a suspect or a witness. He also could not confirm if the man was the one who called police. Investigators do have one key piece of evidence – a vehicle.

“There was a pickup truck, it was the only vehicle in the parking lot,” Scott said. “I know definitely it’s connected to one person or another. It has been impounded and is part of the investigation.” Detectives are also investigating a scene a few blocks away at Southwest 7th Street and Army Post Road. Scott called it a “place of interest” in the case.

Jorge Canal Junior (photo from sex offender registry)

The Iowa supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a former teenager who sent a naked picture of himself to a minor on a cellphone. The case began in Dallas County in May of 2005 when then 18-year-old Jorge Canal Junior of Perry sent a cellphone photo of his erect penis to a 14-year-old female attending his high school.

The practice is commonly referred to as “sexting.” Canal and the girl were friends and he sent the photo after she asked him three or four times to do so in a phone call. The girl testified that she asked for the photograph to be sent only as a joke because some of her friends were doing it.

The girl thought she had deleted the photo, but her mother later found it and the girl’s father contacted police, who arrested Canal. [Read more...]