RAP SHEET

Dispatcher: 911 . . .

What is the location of your emergency?
Caller: Um, actually, I guess I've been robbed.
D: Where, ma'm? What's the location?
C: I'm in a hotel, and this is really going to sound...
D: What's the hotel ma'm?
C: Um, actually I don't know...
D: OK, are you in a room?
C: No, Quality Inn Suites By Choice Hotels... and they're trying to take off down the hall...
D: OK, ma'm? Are you at the Quality Inn Suites on Merle Hay Road? Are you by Interstate 80?
C: Yeah, very close...
D: Ma'm, what room are you in?
C: One.... one.... 129... And they have, um, a what do you call it? Um... um... what the hell do you call it?
D: M'am, just answer my questions, OK? The suspect; what's he wearing?
C: Um, I guess, a beige jacket. And his girlfriend, she's, like, white and ...
D: What did they take from you?
C: My money, my money. Oh my God. They tried to kick me out. I mean, they were acting like they were my friends...
D: Where are they now?
C: I'm at Quality Inn...
D: No, listen to my questions. Where are they now?
C: In... the hotel.
D: OK, where physically at Quality Inn Suites? Quality Inn Suites is a really big building, where are you?
C: Um, actually, I went outside, because I ... [Officer on the scene: Suspects are in room 129?] That's what I'm thinking. I mean, she's driving a Cadillac, a gray Cadillac. They took me out of a club and got me to... I feel really stupid right about now. I really feel stupid. But, bottom line is, I mean, they took my money...oh my God. That's really jacked up.
D: Are you with an officer?
C: Yeah. A guy in a brown suit, a green suit. [To the officer:] OK, they're in a gray car, and they screwed me over. And, I'm like, what the hell? [Officer: How long ago did they leave?] They didn't leave. They're here. They tried to...
D: [Hangs up]

Officer's Report: Dorothy said she had been out drinking with a black male named KC and a white female. Dorothy was very intoxicated and having a hard time remembering details of what happened. KC, the white female and Dorothy went into a room at the hotel. While in the room Dorothy looked in her purse and found that her money ($360) was missing. Dorothy confronted KC and told him to give her money back. Dorothy reported that KC told her that there was nothing she could do about it and did not return the money. Dorothy did not see who had taken the money out of her purse. Dorothy was too intoxicated to drive her vehicle home. I transported Dorothy to East 26th and Euclid and released her to [her uncle's] girlfriend.

Docket diving

The rumors of an impending consolidation were so stifling that, with productivity in a tailspin, Younkers issued a letter to employees in late 2000, assuring them that they'd get 26 weeks of salary if the company underwent a "change of control." But two years later, when the Younkers division in Des Moines consolidated with the Carson Pirie Scott division in Milwaukee, the company reneged on the promises in the earlier productivity-boosting letter. Taking their case for the compensation to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, dozens of former employees were collectively granted nearly $1.7 million in damages in September. But this month the court ruled on one final, costly issue: a small fortune in attorney's fees.

As federal Judge Robert Pratt pointed out, the award of attorney's fees in such a suit is based on a handful of factors, including the defendant's culpability and whether the added cost will have a deterrent effect on the offending party. On the culpability issue, plaintiffs argued the department store defendant was "extremely culpable," charging that "[parent company] Saks put together a scheme to deliberately take advantage of the Class Plaintiffs... and preyed upon the Class Plaintiffs' insecurities." While Pratt was less vindictive, he agreed that, in the culpability department, "the scales are tipped" in favor of the former employees. According to Pratt, the scales were also tipped in favor of weighing down the defendant with the added costs as a warning against future deception. "[A]n award of attorneys' fees in this matter," Pratt predicted, "will deter Defendant, and other like employers, from carelessly drafting documents meant to be clearly understood by everyday persons."

But, even with the decision made to make Saks pay, the matter of how much merited some analysis. The plaintiffs argued the legal work added up to nearly $300,000. The defense shot back that $25,000 of that total was for "excessive, redundant and duplicative work." Injected into a debate about the lawyers' use of time, however, Pratt took the opportunity to inject an indictment of the wider legal community. In several extended footnotes, Pratt referenced a report released last month that outlined skyrocketing attorneys' fees, which have reached as high as $1,000 per hour.
"Unfortunately, the average, non-corporate client, is completely unable to afford such rates..." Pratt opined. "The concern, of course, is that average persons are being denied access to the courts for their inability to pay legal fees. Meanwhile, law firms are seeing ever-increasing profits and shifting more and more of their expenses, once deemed part and parcel of running a law office, to those persons most in need of services, but least able to pay."

But regardless of the troubling national trend and his observation that the $250-per-hour rate for one of the plaintiffs' attorneys did strike him as "extraordinary," Pratt determined the lawyers' rates were certainly "reasonable" when compared with the general "Marketplace." And because the defense didn't directly attack their opposing counsel's rates, but rather their efficiency while on the clock, Pratt pointed out that "while it is always tempting to look back at a lawyers' work and be critical of the way counsel spent their time, it is not reasonable for the Courts to do so." As such, the federal judge ruled this month that Saks will have to pony up another $301,110.27 in attorneys' fees, bringing the total cost of the severance suit to $1,962,427.89.

Sucks to be you

Name: Roderick Reifenstahl
Place of Incident: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: Though police say it was an inopportune donut purchase on his food-stamp card that identified him as a suspect in a cash-grab from a Blazing 7s gaming machine, Roderick Reifenstahl allegedly went armed with a knife to the home of a Des Moines woman last week, reportedly telling her to write a note to her daughter before he "cut her head off" because he was convinced she had tipped off the cops. Now, in addition to charges stemming from the theft of $1,600 cash from the gaming machine, Reifenstahl is facing charges of kidnapping, burglary and going armed with intent to commit injury.

Unfinished business

According to the City of Des Moines' January report the following companies owe the city for past due fees regarding street excavation:

-- Chas Goering owes $12,721.11 for fees dating to October.
-- Gallong Inc. owes $6,153.14 for fees dating to November.
-- Mihalovich Plumbing owes $5,896.43 for fees dating to September.
-- Rhiners Plumbing owes $5,756.66 for fees dating to Novembe.
-- Waldinger Corporation owes $3,358.91 for fees dating to November.
-- Accurate Mechanical owes $2,970.35 for fees dating to October.
-- Kriens Plumbing owes $1,611.04 for fees dating to November.

On the clock

Des Moines Police- Jan. 12

3:15 p.m. Burglary in the 700 block of Southwest 62nd Street, involving a victim who reported that shortly after midnight he heard someone knocking on his door and, when he opened it, two males with their faces covered "charged at him," kicked him multiple times and demanded money. The victim gave the suspects $50 cash, but they subsequently "kicked him three more times, took his cordless phone and left with the phone." Victim reported that two juvenile males, dressed in the same clothes as the suspects, had stopped by the house earlier in the evening and he "loaned" one of the males $20. The victim also reported that the two males "have caused a lot of problems in the neighborhood" and one was expelled from high school and suspected of being involved with a South Side gang.

5:15 p.m. Robbery of an individual in the 2500 block of Kingman Boulevard, involving a Pizza Hut driver who, after returning to his vehicle during a delivery, was tackled from behind and knocked to the ground by an unknown suspect. Once on the ground, the suspect began punching him and demanded all his money. The victim gave the suspect his money and observed three men running from the scene.

7:19 p.m. Assault with intent in the 3200 block of Second Avenue, involving a victim who alleged that a suspect, who had been staying at his grandparents residence was no longer welcome and "wanted to fight about it." As the two males exited the residence, the suspect pushed the victim while he was going down the stairs and "struck him in the nose, causing him to fall back. According to the witness, the suspect struck the victim numerous times with his fist in the head, kicked him and kneed him." The suspect fled on foot and the victim was taken to the hospital.

7:45 p.m. Assault on an officer in the 1500 block of East Hull Avenue, involving a parole officer asking a juvenile male probationer "to do something [he] did not want to do." The juvenile subsequently hit the parole officer in the left cheek with his elbow and was taken to the juvenile court facility by officers.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: Aaron James McManus
Arrested: Jan. 10
First offense

Name: Revoe Thomas Mulinex
Arrested: Jan. 10
First offense

Name: Larry Laverne Johnson
Arrested: Jan. 12
Second offense

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