Latest Iowa news, sports, business and entertainment
April 01, 2012 18:38 GMT
%reldate(2012-04-01T08:30:00
APARTMENT-SHOWING ASSAULT
Iowa City woman assaulted while showing apartment
(Information in the following story is from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/)
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa City police say they've arrested a man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman who was showing him an apartment.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that 21-year-old Peng Tang was arrested Friday night on suspicion of kidnapping and sexual assault.
Police say the woman was showing Tang her apartment Thursday night for a possible sublet. Officers say when the pair entered a bedroom, Tang attacked the woman, telling her he had a knife. Police say that before leaving, Tang took sexually explicit photos of the woman and threatened to post them online if she contacted police.
Tang remained jailed and was unavailable for comment Saturday.
TRAFFIC STOP-OFFICERS
Former Des Moines officers charged in 2008 case
(Information in the following story is from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Polk County prosecutors have filed charges against two former Des Moines police officers accused of assaulting a man during a traffic stop in 2008.
The Des Moines Register reports that former officers Mersed Dautovic and John Mailander were charged in March with willful injury, felonious misconduct in office and perjury.
Dautovic allegedly beat Octavius Bonds with a baton during the traffic stop. Bonds and Erin Evans, the driver of the car, sued the city, which paid $500,000 to settle the case.
Mailander pleaded guilty to a federal charge in the case earlier this year after he and Dautovic were indicted by federal grand jury.
AUDITOR PETITION QUESTIONED
Local Iowa auditor rejects call to bow out of race
(Information in the following story is from: The Gazette, http://www.gazetteonline.com/)
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Embattled Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett is rejecting calls from fellow Democrats drop his bid for re-election.
The requests follow a string of incidents involving Slockett, including his 2007 drunken driving conviction.
Slockett, the auditor and elections commissioner since 1977, told The Gazette of Cedar Rapids that he will stay in the race.
Documents given to The Gazette this week under Iowa's open-records law show that some of Slockett's employees were upset that he circulated a re-election petition at the office. Some claim he harassed people into signing a re-election petition he circulated in his own office.
Democrats State Senator Bob Dvorsky of Coralville and Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City say they think it's time for Slockett to step aside.
SURGEON RESIGNATION-IOWA
Star surgeon says he left Iowa because of weather
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A star University of Iowa surgeon who is playing a key role in a messy personnel dispute says he resigned from the university last year because of the dreary Iowa winters.
John Chaloupka, an internationally known expert in treating brain aneurysms, resigned his $380,000 per-year job last June for reasons that have not been fully explained. A month later, Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida announced it had hired Chaloupka.
Chaloupka's departure came weeks after he filed a legal affidavit calling his boss a liar who made racially insensitive remarks about foreign doctors. His affidavit supported legal claims by suspended radiology professor Malik Juweid.
Chaloupka testified in a February deposition that he left because he was "getting worn down by the winters and wanted to live in a warmer climate."
CIGARETTES STOLEN
Nearly $1,400 worth of cigarettes stolen in Iowa
(Information in the following story is from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Des Moines police are looking for the person or persons responsible for stealing nearly $1,400 worth of cigarettes from a convenience store.
The Des Moines Register reports that officers were called to the Git-N-Go around 4:30 a.m. Friday. Officers say a concrete block had been used to smash in the store's glass door. The cigarettes were taken from behind the store's counter.
Police say the store has cameras, but officers were unable to obtain footage at the time of the break-in. Police do have muddy footprints as evidence.
No arrests have been made.
PARENTS ATTACKED
Mason City man pleads guilty in attack on parents
(Information in the following story is from: KIMT-TV, http://www.kimt.com)
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A 30-year-old Mason City man accused of attacking his parents has changed his plea to guilty in the case.
Mason City television station KIMT reports that Ramyleo Abujobarah pleaded guilty Friday to assault. In exchange for his plea, burglary and mischief charges in the case have been dropped. His sentencing date has not been set.
Police say Abujobarah kicked in the door of his parents' home at midnight on December 27th. Court records say he entered his parents' bedroom and choked his father and punched his mother.
PASTOR-ASSAULT TRIAL
Mason City pastor acquitted in assault case
(Information in the following story is from: Globe Gazette, http://www.globegazette.com/)
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A jury has acquitted a Mason City Lutheran pastor accused of hitting a teen who used profanity during a confirmation class in church.
The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that the Reverend Paul Nelson of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church was found not guilty Friday night of assault.
Nelson testified that he hit the boy in the arm after the boy uttered an expletive in church. Nelson said he struck the teen three more times when the boy said the word again.
The teen said the altercation started when he refused to stop texting a friend on his cellphone in class. The boy said he uttered the expletive when Nelson took his phone.
CHURCH FIRE
Burlington man found guilty in church fire
(Information in the following story is from: The Hawk Eye, http://www.thehawkeye.com)
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) -- A Des Moines County jury has found a Burlington man guilty of setting a fire that gutted a local church.
The Burlington Hawk Eye reports that 43-year-old Victor Clegg Junior was found guilty Friday of second-degree arson for setting fire to Union Baptist Church last April.
Clegg had also been charged with burglary in the case, but the jury instead found him guilty of trespassing.
Clegg, who was also convicted of arson in 2009 for setting a Michigan restaurant on fire, is set to be sentenced May 14th.
He has been held in the county jail since his arrest last April.
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