Appeals Court rules in Clinton and Davenport cases

The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Clinton man accused of failing to care for a brain injured man. John Dodd was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay a two-hundred-50 dollar fine for his conviction for wanton neglect of a dependent person. Dodd appealed, saying there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction, but the Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled there was. Dodd was employed by a homecare agency called Tender Loving Care and in June of last year he was sent to care for Don Brewer, who was mentally and physically impaired from a brain injury. Brewer’s wife and family were going to a wedding reception, and left Brewer in Dodd’s care. Dodd says the man became belligerent and refused to take his meds, so Dodd fled because he says he was trained to get away from potentially violent situations. But he didn’t call his employer or the man’s family to report he’d left Brewer alone. When Brewer’s family returned, they found the brain injured man in the back yard, curled into a ball and crying. The Iowa Court of Appeals also ruled a woman has no basis for a lawsuit over a fall in a Davenport mall.Evelyn Dorothy sued the Northpark Mall in Davenport because she slipped and fell in baby vomit in the mall’s food court nearly two years ago. A lower court tossed out the case; she appealed, and the Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the mall, not Evelyn. The court says she couldn’t prove the vomit was present long enough that the mall staff should have known about it and had it either cleaned up or diverted foot traffic around it. The court said there are at least a dozen vendors in the mall’s food court, the area seats 350 and spills occur on a daily basis, especially during the lunch hour, when Evelyn fell.