Dispatcher: 911...

Caller: Yeah, uh, I had a guy just come in and hit me. Um...
D: What's your address?
C: Northwest Second Avenue.
D: Are you at a business there?
C: Yeah, it's M&M Auto.
D: Where's the guy?
C: He just took off.
D: Was he a customer or something?
C: He was. Yeah. Well, his girlfriend was. Whatever...
D: What's your name?
C: Muitasim.
D: And where did the guy that hit you go?
C: He just took off.
D: Which direction?
C: Uh, north of I-80.
D: Northbound in what kind of car?
C: Uh, in a kind of... [to someone on the scene] Hey, what kind of car was it? [to dispatcher] Um, a Lincoln Town Car. A black one.
D: Did anybody get plates?
C: No.
D: Do you know his name?
C: Uh, I got the number that she came in with.
D: Well, give that to the officers when they get there. We'll send them over. You don't need any medical assistance, do you?
C: No, he just punched me and walked away.
D: OK, we'll be there.
C: OK, thanks.

Officer's Report: I was dispatched to M&M Auto on Northwest Second Avenue reference an assault report. Upon arrival, owner/manager Muitasim told me that he had sold a car to a female subject named Shaneeka recently. She had given him a $1,000 deposit and was to pay him an additional $1,000 when he was finished fixing the car so she could pick it up. She told him she would give him $500 then make payments on the last $500, to which he agreed. Today she called him and told him she did not have the money and would not be able to get it so she did not want the car and would like her money back. Muitasim told her that was not an option, since he was working on fixing the car for her. She then came to the business this morning and was arguing with him, again asking for her money back. When he refused she told him she was going to sue him. He said he would see her in court and she went to the vehicle she had arrived in. A black male subject, who had driven Shaneeka to the business, then approached Muitasim yelling at him, then punched him on the right side of his face. The man went back to the car and the couple left the premises before anyone was able to get the license plate number. Muitasim provided a possible phone number. I tried several times to contact Shaneeka by phone, but no one answered.

Docket diving

Johnston officials told Andrew Christenson to hold his horses. But, thanks to the Iowa Supreme Court, nay-saying city officials might not have the final word in Christenson's construction plans.

With the primary residence built in 1923, Christenson's property on Merle Hay Road has become "an island of bygone days, encased within a progressive, vibrant, rapidly sprawling metropolitan suburb," court documents observed. "The acreage was once part of a farm in a sea of other farms, and it retains many characteristics of its rural past today." But in 1998 a "vicious, inclement storm" tore through the city, destroying Christenson's farrier shed and barn and prompting the Johnston resident to begin plans to build a 16,000-square-foot outbuilding to store feed, vehicles and horses. Just one problem: The replacement structure ran afoul of the most current municipal ordinance that mandated any structure in a mixed-use zoning be limited to 3,600 square feet. So Christenson went before the city's board of adjustment in late 2001, requesting a special exception and variance from the size and height restrictions. Noting that the "building was appropriate for the intended use as storage for equipment and an exercise area for horses," the board approved Christenson's application.

But Christenson wasn't out of the gates just yet, and instead of taking action on his site plan, the city council asked the board to reconsider its decision "based on an opinion by the city attorney that the intended use of the structure for horses was prohibited under numerous city ordinances as an illegal expansion of a nonconforming use." When the board of adjustment voted a month later to affirm its original decision despite the attorney's objection, the city took the case to Polk County District Court. But when the court ruled in the city's favor, it was Christenson's turn to appeal, arguing that, based on the doctrine of issue preclusion, the city had no right to seek declaratory judgment in district court after the board of adjustment had made a clear decision.

"Issue preclusion," Justice Mark Cady wrote for the Supreme Court, "means simply that when an issue has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit." The city argued that housing horses was prohibited by local ordinance and the board didn't take into account that Christenson's "need" for a bigger building rested on an illegal foundation. But the court disagreed, observing that the board did take the animals into account - as evidenced by the reference to horses in their resolution. That being the case, by skipping the site-plan approval and instead seeking a declaratory judgment to stop the construction, the city had overstepped its bounds and taken a second bite at the legal apple.

"The board of adjustment has a special and exclusive role in land-use development and is alone responsible to approve exceptions and variances to ordinances. This power cannot be usurped by the city in any manner, including the exercise of its site-plan authority," the Supreme Court ruled late last month. "[T]he city cannot use its site-plan authority to circumvent or overrule a decision by the board of adjustment by rejecting a plan on a ground properly decided by the board of adjustment." As such, the barn-raising debate will race on, giving Christenson another shot at reconstructing his "island of bygone days."

Sucks to be you

Name: Dennis Cook
Place of Incident: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: Dennis Cook and Keith Hiatt reportedly knew each other from mutual construction work, but early this month Hiatt was found stabbed to death in Cook's Grand Avenue apartment. After making the call to police, Cook told a judge last week that it was Hiatt who attacked him in his home and that the fatal stabbing resulted from a late-night fight that, police believe, involved alcohol. Cook is charged with first-degree murder and is being held in Polk County Jail on $500,000 bond.

Unfinished business

According to the City of Des Moines' April report of aging accounts receivable:

- Polk County Emergency Management owes the city $1,890.90 for clean up regarding the discovery of a "suspicious powder" in the skywalk near Ninth and Locust streets on March 10.
- Polk County Emergency Management also owes $1,275 for clean up regarding the discovery of a "suspicious powder" at the U.S. Postal Service on Second Avenue on March 19.
- The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick owe $693.44 for police overtime services rendered during the St. Patrick's Day parade on March 17.

On the clock

Des Moines Police - April 5

12:15 p.m. Use of public property in the 1000 block of Hickman Road, involving a police officer in an unmarked car waved down by a female in the "high prostitution area of Hickman." The female suspect entered the officer's vehicle and told him to leave quickly so police wouldn't see her getting into the car. According to the police report, "[the female suspect] offered for him to take her to her apartment for sex." The suspect was arrested for "using public property for prostitution."
5:25 p.m. Fire investigation in the 2200 block of Southeast Rose Street, involving a male victim who was approached at a Park Avenue Git 'N' Go by two male suspects seeking a ride to the North Side. The victim agreed, but stopped briefly at his residence on Southeast Rose Street, leaving the suspects in the vehicle when he went inside his apartment. Inside for several minutes, the victim then heard sirens outside and returned to the parking lot to find his car burning. The victim reported that "when he left the car the suspect in the rear seat was smoking [and] there had been a partly filled gas can in the rear seat." The victim acknowledged that he often gives rides to strangers, and employees at the Git 'N' Go did not remember seeing the suspects.
9:07 p.m. Shooting (drive-by) in the 1300 block of Forest Avenue, involving a crime alert regarding shots fired near Evelyn Davis Park. Upon arrival at the scene, police observed that the park was empty but were soon flagged down by a female victim who reported that she had heard two shots. She also reported that, when she went outside to investigate, she discovered that her car parked in the driveway had a bullet hole in the rear driver's side panel. As of the report, police had no suspects.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: Clayton Dale Smith
Arrested: April 5
Third offense

Name: Darwin Manuel Salas
Arrested: April 5
First offense

Name: Jeremy Sean Leckwood
Arrested: April 5
First offense

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