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Court orders recalculation of restitution for Davenport apartment fire

May 25, 2011 By

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled there should be a recalculation of the restitution a man convicted of torching a Davenport apartment building was ordered to pay. 

The three-story building in Davenport had been condemned. and Charles Sims of Montpelier had been fired from his job as a maintenance man for the building. Sims was convicted of second-degree arson and third-degree burglary in connection with the fire that destroyed the 100-year-old structure in February of 2009. 

After his conviction, Sims was ordered to pay over $231,000 in restitution to cover three outstanding loans on the property.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled the restitution order should be recalculated to reflect the true value of the abandoned building just before the fire. And the court ruled late fees tacked onto the loans because the building’s owner failed to make mortgage payments on time should not be assessed to the maintenance man. 

A district court will now reopen the case and recalculate the restitution order.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Appeals court rules on case involving “snitch” in Council Bluffs

May 25, 2011 By

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled in a case involving a Council Bluffs man who was sentenced to life in prison for trying to kill a “snitch.” 

The case dates back to late 2009 when David Maddox and two other men were driving near the Missouri River, north of council Bluffs. Maddox and the man in the back seat dragged the victim in this case down to the river bank. The two men beat the man who they accused of being a “snitch” to cops and took what the victim had in his pockets, then threw him in the river.

The victim, who had been an informant for the police, rode the river’s current and eventually got out of the river and walked nearly two miles in sub-freezing temperatures to a Council Bluffs convenience store for help.

Maddox was convicted of first degree robbery, attempted murder and first degree kidnapping. He appealed, saying there wasn’t enought evidence to convict him on the kidnapping charge.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the kidnapping conviction, but decided Maddox was guilty of third degree rather than first degree kidnapping. First degree kidnapping carries a life prison sentence; while the maximum sentence for third degree kidnapping is 10 years.

Maddox did not appeal his attempted murder or robbery convictions.

When Maddox and his accomplice in this case were arrested in December of 2009, they were tracked to a house in Omaha. A nearby school and King Science Center in Omaha were locked down while the arrests were made.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Former West Liberty Foods worker appeals identity theft conviction

May 25, 2011 By

A woman from Mexico who was living in Mount Pleasant has appealed her identity theft conviction because she’s now being deported. 

The identity theft came to light when a woman named Emilee Deuitch learned someone using her name, date of birth and Social Security number had gotten treatment at a West Burlington hospital.

It turns out Cinthia Callejas-Solorzano had used the woman’s identity to get a job at West Liberty Foods. Callejas-Solorzano is a native of Mexico and she bought a driver’s license and Social Security card with Deuitch’s personal information on it.

She admitted to the identity theft, but now appeals, saying her lawyer failed to alert her to the immigration consequences of her guilty plea. The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the woman’s identity theft conviction, but noted it could review the woman’s complaints about her lawyer later.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Casino & hotel evacuated after lightning strike, fire

May 25, 2011 By

Lightning hit a hotel and casino complex in south-central Iowa early this morning, knocking out power, sparking a fire and forcing all guests and patrons to flee.

Captain Kyle Wilson, of the Osceola Volunteer Fire Department, says they were called to Terrible’s Lakeside Hotel and Casino about 3:45 A-M. Captain Wilson says the staff had already gotten everyone out before the first fire crew arrived.

“It was completely evacuated,” Wilson says. “We had several transformer boxes exploded. There was pretty good fire in the two walkways. The lower level and the upper level walkways going into the casino basically is where most of the fire damage was.”

He says the cause of the mayhem was clear. “Officially, it was just a lightning storm that hit, blew up the transformers, extended into the mechanical room,” Wilson says. “If everything goes right, they should be able to get up and going late this evening.”

He says the power is out to the casino area but he thought the hotel section should have electricity. Since they were dealing with a dangerous electrical situation, Wilson says his crew had to wait outside while an Alliant Energy employee switched off the power so it was safe for firefighters to enter.

“Once we got electricity out, we were able to get right in there,” Wilson says. “We had everything in position while we were waiting on them and then we got in there and got it knocked down.”

He could not put a dollar estimate on the damage and couldn’t say how many people had been evacuated. A hotel official reached by phone would make no comment.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Iowa now #6 in USA for being bicycle friendly

May 25, 2011 By

Photo by Becky Fletcher, Des Moines Cycle Club

The League of American Bicyclists now ranks Iowa as the number-six most bike-friendly state in the nation. Iowa got high marks for educating and encouraging riders and for enforcing public safety laws.

Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says the top ten ranking allows Iowa to market itself as a great place for cycling vacations.

“We’re fast becoming known for being the world capitol of trails,” Wyatt says. “We’ve got about 1,600 miles of trails throughout the state. In addition, Iowa has 90,000 miles of paved country roads and that’s just been a great opportunity for bicyclists to connect from one area to another.”

Wyatt says Iowa’s national ranking would go higher if the state would approve legislation providing more protection for cyclists. Wisconsin has had a law since 1973 requiring drivers to give bicycles at least three feet of space when passing.

He says people might think being a rural, agricultural state is a disadvantage but he says having so many miles of paved county roads makes cycling easy.

“It really gives us the opportunity to be able to travel about wherever we want,” Wyatt says. “We get frequent inquires from people who want to ride across the state looking for a particular route. We’ve got dozens of routes that they can get from point A to point B.”

He says Iowa’s expanding bike trail system is pretty spectacular and helps small communities that are off the typical beaten path.

Wyatt says more people are looking to travel the countryside by bicycle as opposed to car which he says can bring people into lesser-traveled rural communities typically ignored by tourists.

The Iowa Bicycle Coalition has asked the University of Northern Iowa to do a study on the economic impact cycling has on the state.

Learn more at: http://www.iowabicyclecoalition.org/

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Human Interest, Recreation & Entertainment

Iowa uses planes, chemical weapons to battle moth

May 25, 2011 By

©Entomart.ins

The state of Iowa plans to employ the use of chemical weapons to try and protect our environment from a highly-destructive enemy swarming at the border — the gypsy moth. State entomologist Robin Pruisner says the winged, brown creatures are starting to appear in far northeast Iowa and an action plan is being put into place.

Pruisner says, “We’re never going to be able to eradicate this insect, but what we’re trying to do is lessen the impact of it, initially, so our environment and our trees can get accustomed to it and we can slide into a place where we can learn to live with the insect.”

The moths were brought to the U-S about 150 years ago to help with silk production, originally in the Boston area, but they escaped and have been spreading across the nation ever since.

“The gypsy moth feeds on somewhere between 300 and 500 different plants,” Pruisner says. “It does have a particular love of the oak tree, our state tree, and we are concerned about the health of our oak trees and our forest lands as well as our front yards.”

To battle the insect, she says the state is going to use plastic, blue flakes — about the size of chopped oatmeal — which are embedded with the same scent that’s given off by a female gypsy moth when she’s ready to mate.

“We can apply six ounces of these flakes per acre, that’s a very, very small amount, it doesn’t affect any other animal, any other insect,” Pruisner says. “Now, the male gypsy moth will literally smell the females everywhere and in the confusion, they can’t find a real female moth to mate with.”

This tactic is called “mating disruption treatment” and should help to keep the pest’s population in check, at least temporarily. Airplanes will be used to drop the flakes in four planned applications this year in two counties in northeast Iowa — Allamakee and Jackson.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Airplane passenger with measles prompts “public health emergency”

May 24, 2011 By

State health officials have declared a “public health emergency” after a passenger on a flight from Chicago to Des Moines tested positive for measles. Doctor Patricia Quinlisk, with the Iowa Department of Public Health, says the resident of Dallas County may have exposed others to the disease. She says the person was likely exposed to the measles in India and started coming down with the symptoms on the way back to Iowa. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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