The Iowa Attorney General’s (AG) Office has notified the City of Denison that no charges will be filed against the City’s Police Chief, for forcibly entering a residence in an attempt to execute a search warrant. Police Chief John Emswiler today (Thursday), released a letter from the Iowa AG’s Office which said aninvestigation into a complaint for “Breaking into a residence without a warrant” in Sept. 2015 was closed, and no charges will be filed. The investigation was handled by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, and the report given to the Crawford County Attorney’s Office before being forwarded to the AG’s Office for review.

The letter from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office states “On September 18th, 2015, Chief Emswiler possessed knowledge that a valid arrest warrant had been issued for [name redacted]. Emswiler proceeded to [address redacted] Broadway (Street) in Denison, in an attempt to execute the search warrant. As of September 18, 2015 [address redacted] was the known residence of [the subject of the warrant]. When Emswiler arrived, he knocked on the door in an attempt to announce his presence.

“Emswiler had a reasonable belief that [the subject of the warrant] would be present at [the residence] since law enforcement had recent contact with (the subject) at the same location, and knew it to be his residence. When there was no answer, Emswiler validly entered the residence in an attempt to locate [the subject]. Because it was [the subject’s] residence, there was no requirement to obtain a search warrant or any other process to gain lawful entry.

“Applying the facts of this particular investigation to the statutory and case law, Chief Emswiler was well within his authority as a law enforcement officer to forcibily execute a valid arrest warrant on [the subject] at his residence.”