The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Red Oak woman on Friday night after a traffic stop. At 10:40pm Deputies stopped a vehicle after it failed to obey a stop sign. After further investigation the driver, Darian Heideman of Red Oak, was arrested for OWI 1st Offense and Possesion of Paraphernalia. No further details were released.

A high-ranking Iowa investigator who was fired after blowing the whistle on speeding by Gov. Terry Branstad’s security detail will not have his day in court, a judge ruled Friday. Judge David May, who was appointed by Branstad in 2016, dismissed all claims in a long-running lawsuit brought by former Division of Criminal Investigation agent Larry Hedlund. The ruling cancels a trial that had been scheduled for April 9 in the case, which exposed misconduct inside the Iowa Department of Public Safety and created a political headache for Branstad.

The ruling was denounced by supporters of Hedlund, now a Fort Dodge detective.
“They were out to get this guy. Right now it looks like they got away with it, but we’ll keep fighting,” said Hedlund’s attorney, Tom Duff, who pledged an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

The case dates to April 2013, when an SUV zipped past Hedlund on Interstate 20 in northern Iowa traveling at a high rate of speed. Hedlund reported the speeding to a dispatcher, who sent a trooper to respond. The SUV was clocked going 84 in a 65-mph zone. But the trooper declined to stop the SUV after seeing that the driver was another trooper transporting Branstad and then-Lt.-Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Hedlund complained to superiors Branstad’s drivers routinely sped, creating a safety hazard that needed to be addressed. They turned the tables on Hedlund, asking why he was working on a scheduled day off and removing him from duty pending a disciplinary investigation. Hedlund was then fired for what the department said was insubordination that started weeks earlier and was unrelated to the speeding incident. Hedlund had been clashing with his DCI superiors, opposing their reorganization plan.

Branstad denied any retaliation against Hedlund, saying at a news conference that his firing was “for the morale and for the safety and well-being of the department.” The governor’s driver, who was eventually ticketed, testified that he routinely sped because he took “great pride” in getting Branstad to events on time. State officials later warned troopers on the executive detail to obey the speed limit.

Hedlund was a 25-year department veteran who supervised cases in northern Iowa. He filed a lawsuit contending that his superiors wrongly destroyed his career for complaining about the speeding and other misconduct. He claimed that Branstad’s suggestion that he was a security threat was defamatory and that other employees engaged in far worse misconduct but weren’t fired.

He wrote that Hedlund and other state officers cannot bring wrongful termination lawsuits under an Iowa law intended to protect whistleblowers. Instead, May agreed with the state that they must appeal their terminations administratively through a governor-appointed board.

May ruled that Branstad, now the U.S. ambassador to China, didn’t defame Hedlund because the governor had “absolute privilege against liability” for statements made within the course of his duties. May found that Hedlund did present “evidence of several bad acts by his superiors” that were potentially malicious, dishonest and intended to harass. But he said the conduct didn’t reach the high bar needed to prove a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Lastly, he found that Hedlund, now 60, failed to present enough evidence that age was a factor in the firing, siding with the state that remarks by his supervisor about Hedlund being in the “twilight of his career” and near retirement weren’t relevant.
The Iowa attorney general’s office, which defended the state, said it was pleased.
“We appreciate the hard work the judge put into the case,” spokesman Lynn Hicks said.

HAWARDEN, Iowa (AP) — A flood warning is in effect for parts of Sioux County in far northwestern Iowa until Sunday evening. The Sioux City Journal says , based on information from the National Weather Service, that the Big Sioux River near Hawarden was over flood stage Friday morning at 23 feet and causing some flooding of fields and low-lying areas. Minor flooding begins at 19 feet.

The levels are expected to decline several feet over the next several days. In Akron, river levels are expected to crest within the next day. Flood warnings are also in effect for parts of the Little Sioux River, including areas near Milford and Spencer.

Spring snow-melt is part of the reason for the swollen Big Sioux, and recent rains that fell onto frozen ground added to that.

The Cass County Treasurer’s office has issued the first new license plate design in the County, to Craig Sporleder.  Early in 2017, Governor Branstad and Governor Reynolds asked the DOT to redesign the 1998 “county standard” blue and white with a silver-grey city and country image in the background plates.  Although this plate design has served Iowa well, it’s become a bit dated and stale. Iowans voted for the new “City and Country Reboot” design last August.

Cass County Treasurer Tracey J. Marshall shows the 1st, redesigned license plate issued in the County, with its owner, Craig Sporleder

It provides an updated representation of the urban and rural theme. The top blue border profiles city and country images and the bottom green border is intended to evoke growth, nature and wellness.  Reminds us Iowa is a great place to live, wherever you choose.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) maintains license plate design standards that are intended to make sure license plates are recognizable and legible.  The license plate design was created with these standards in mind while keeping the purpose of the plate in mind, which is to help law enforcement and others clearly read the letters and numbers that identify the vehicle.

Materials for Iowa’s license plates are supplied by Minnesota-based 3M Co., and they are manufactured by inmates at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Cass County will be using the old-style plates until inventory is depleted.  Only personalized plates ordered through the state will be issued with the new design.

A collision between a Nissan SUV and a truck with a flat bed in Atlantic, Friday afternoon, resulted in the driver of the truck being transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital, for treatment of possible/unknown injuries. Atlantic Police Lt. Paul Wood told KJAN News the Nissan, with three occupants, was traveling north on Sunnyside Lane, and had stopped to turn left onto 2nd Street.

When the van pulled out, it was struck by the eastbound Dodge. Both vehicles ended up on the north side of the intersection. The accident happened a little after 4-p.m.

No one in the SUV was injured. No names were immediately available.

Republican Congressman Steve King’s supporters and opponents gathered in Sioux Center last (Thursday) night as the “Sioux County Conservatives” hosted King at a public event. Steve Mahr helped organize a protest outside the venue, before the meeting began. “Steve King behaves like a bully and a bully is not great representation of who this community is,” Mahr said. “…Kindness is important and I would not allow my children to speak to others than way Steve King speaks about others.”

King later responded to the assertion he doesn’t represent the views of Iowans in the fourth congressional district. “All they need to do is look at the polling and look at the election results,” King told reporters, “and they really shouldn’t be insulting the constituents here in this district.” During last (Thursday) night’s forum, King was asked to explain a comment posted on his campaign’s Facebook page that criticized one of the students who survived the Florida school shooting. It accused Emma Gonzalez of betraying her Cuban heritage by speaking in favor of gun restrictions during her speech at last week’s march in Washington. That Facebook post motivated Mahr and others to protest King last (Thursday) night.

“Instead of responding to the criticisms and the propositions presented by children, by teenagers, by students — he attacked their identity,” Mahr said, “which is what bullies do.” King says his campaign is using Facebook to provide “a rebuttal” to what he says are the “irrational arguments” about guns being made by Gonzalez and other high school students.

“We know what Castro did. He confiscated the guns and he told them: ‘You don’t have need of guns because we’re all here, we’re all on the side of the revolution. so you’ll never need a gun again. It’s just going to be a peaceful island,” King said. “And so, instead, he imprisoned 11 million people on that island and I only pointed out the irony of that.” King spoke with reporters after his supporters AND opponents attended last night’s meeting in the Sioux Center library.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of a high school teacher who claimed his only physical contact with the student was hugging, finding that the hugging amounted to sexual misconduct in light of instant messages that showed she had “become the object of” his sexual desires.

Bradley Wickes, a 38-year-old former Camanche High School social studies teacher, was convicted in 2015 of a charge of sexual exploitation by a school employee and sentenced to five years in prison. Although the only physical contact Wickes had with the 17-year-old student were hugs at school and school-related events, the court concluded that more than a thousand Facebook Messenger exchanges between them over 45 days indicated that she had “become the object of Wickes’s fantasies and sexual desires, and the hugs that coincided with these messages were for his sexual gratification.”

Wickes challenged the conclusion that hugging a student constituted sexual conduct. But the justices ruled against him, pointing out that rulings in other states — including Maryland in 2013, Oregon in 2009 and Vermont in 2006 — found that hugging can constitute sexual exploitation in certain cases. They said they would not narrow the scope of the teacher sexual exploitation law by finding that hugs alone cannot amount to sexual conduct.

The court acknowledged that there was no evidence showing that Wickes had engaged in a sex act with the teen or any physical contact other than hugging, but it said the Facebook Messenger exchanges show how attractive he found her and how he wanted a more intimate relationship with her.

Within days of that message, the girl’s family discovered the relationship and took her cellphone to the police. Wickes resigned and was charged soon thereafter. Although the justices determined that the hugging was illegal in this case, they said teachers shouldn’t be overly worried about innocent hugs with students.

The court also upheld Wickes’ five-year prison sentence, finding that it wasn’t cruel or unusual punishment.

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona woman says her husband believed he was in the clear after escaping from an Iowa prison 37 years ago and they were both shocked when authorities arrested him earlier this week.

Virginia Cagley says an Iowa prison warden wrote in a 2006 letter that a warrant for Charles “Chuck” Leroy Cagley had been withdrawn. Police said Cagley was serving a sentence for second-degree robbery in 1981 when he left a minimum security work detail.

They arrested him on an active felony extraditable warrant after the FBI notified the Prescott Valley police that the 68-year-old Cagley was living there. Authorities say he will be extradited back to Iowa. An Iowa Corrections Department spokesman says the agency is revising the case.