A bill in the Iowa House would ban warrant resolution clinics after a participant in Polk County was charged with first degree murder a week later.
“Warrant resolution clinics, if they’re going to do it the way they did this one, should never happen again in the state of Iowa,” said Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison who led House Oversight Committee debate of the bill.
The clinic let people with warrants for low-level crimes like traffic violations and misdemeanors pay a fine, avoid arrest and set a court date for their case. Holt said prosecutors and the judge who set aside the warrant for Sharmeeka Evans didn’t properly consider her criminal history, which included assaults, forgery, harassment and child endangerment.
Seven days after getting her arrest warrant cleared, Evans was arrested for shooting a 36-year-old Des Moines woman to death. “To add to the growing lack of accountability in our criminal justice system we now have a warrant resolution clinic that withdraws the warrant of a career criminal with a violent history who seven days later has allegedly shot and killed a mother of three…This is inexcusable,” Holt said.
Ralph Hall, the father of Ashley Marie Hall — the woman who was shot to death earlier this month, spoke with reporters after the meeting. “What did happen with my child was very, very tragic,” Hall said, “but I honestly feel like it didn’t have any direct connection to the warrant clinics or how the warrant clinics should be used or not used.”
Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham said the warrant resolution clinic helped get about 50 people back into contact with the justice system to face their charges. If the bill becomes law, organizers of programs that dismiss outstanding arrest warrants could be charged with a crime and be fined up to $10,000. House Speaker Pat Grassley says the full House will debate the bill next week.