New Cedar Rapids City Council member Don Karr says someone at City Hall placed a dozen nude photos of women in a cabinet of his cubicle. The 64-year-old Karr believes the person who planted the photos, downloaded from Playboy magazine, was hoping they would set him up for trouble.
“When I ran my election, there were some people that were intimidated by me because of my attitude about open government and what we need to do to run this city,” Karr told Radio Iowa. “I think it’s a possibility somebody doesn’t like the way I think things should be done – and might have tried to send me a warning or make me look bad.”
Karr took the oath of office for the at-large council seat on January 2. He discovered the nude photos last Friday. Karr says he initially thought about just throwing them away, but instead, decided to report it to the city’s Human Resources Department.
“I want to make this transparent, get it in the open and out of the way and make the person who did it realize that it’s not going to work,” Karr said. Police are checking the photos for fingerprints and information about which computer they may have been downloaded. Karr suspects the perpetrator placed the photos in the cabinet hoping a city staff member would be helping Karr set up his cubicle.
“Just think what kind of attitude they would of had with me, ‘What is this guy, a pervert?’ What about the charges they could have filed? I think it was a setup to put me in a bad position,” Karr said. He says the photos had to be placed by someone who had access to City Hall between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.