Dispatcher: 911...

Dispatcher: Location of your emergency?
Caller: Um, it's on northeast 14th... by the interstate by the old Zook's Harley Davidson store. There's like, a group of kids out there.
D: In front of the Harley Davidson store?
C: Yeah... They're in a pickup truck. A green one... they're in the ditch. And they could be possibly drunk. Somebody's telling me this, that they, like, cut [him] off. They came flying up on them, and they went into the ditch. They should [still] be in the ditch unless they've gotten - [to someone on scene]: I don't think they've gotten out, right? [To dispatcher:] No, he says they should still be there...
D: What color car was that?
C: Green pickup... and it was bunch of kids. [To someone on scene:] You thinking he's hurt? [To dispatcher:] He doesn't think anyone's hurt.
D: Were they swerving before?
C: ...He just didn't think they were going to stop behind him at the light. He said they came flying off the interstate, and he didn't think they were going to stop, and then the light turned and he flew right through... They just went right into the ditch.
D: OK, we'll send them out there.
C: OK, thank you.

Officer's Report: Dispatched to N.E. 14th St. and N.E. 51st Ave. on a crime alert call of a green Chevy pickup... stuck in the ditch off road with five intoxicated juvenile males around it. Upon arrival to the scene, the truck was gone; the crime alert caller had followed them to the Quik Trip at 4801 N.E. 14th St. and then moved on... Upon arrival to the Quik Trip, the truck was located at the gas pumps. The vehicle had a broken white fence post sticking out of the bottom of it, was leaking transmission fluid and had grass stuck to the front and rear bumpers. There were five white males standing around the vehicle attempting to put transmission fluid in it... All of the subjects appeared intoxicated with red, watery eyes, unsteady balance, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol on their persons. None would admit to driving at the time of the accident. I asked if any were sober and able to drive the truck and none came forward. [Two suspects] had a very belligerent, uncooperative attitude, failed to follow simple instructions given to them, and were resistant to being told what to do. They appeared to be the most intoxicated of the group... Every effort was made to secure the cooperation from these individuals to get them home to a sober person, but the two would not cooperate. The other three subjects were polite, contrite and cooperative. They were released to a sober person and allowed to go home. [The two uncooperative suspects] were transported to the Polk County jail for booking by transport deputies. The truck was towed to R and R Towing in Johnston. Two full 40 oz. cans of beer were found in the back of the truck.

Docket diving

On April 12, the Iowa Board of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence of Reece Bowen, a Dubuque County man who had been charged with third degree sexual assault against a teenaged girl. Bowen filed for appeal on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, and that he'd been denied a fair trial.

The charges against him stemmed from an incident in the fall of 2002, when the then-13-year-old victim claims Reece sexually assaulted her, after he'd asked her to babysit his infant daughter. Reece allegedly told the victim that "if she told anyone, he would kill her," according to court documents. "[The victim] took this threat seriously, and did not tell her mother for several weeks after the incident. [The victim] was so frightened that her mother agreed not to notify authorities."

Nearly two years after the incident, the victim told an Iowa City physician what had happened. During Bowen's court proceedings, the doctor testified that the victim was "anxious and tearful, but her answers to questions flowed smoothly."

As a mandatory reporter, the doctor informed police of the assault. Similarly, the law enforcement officer who interviewed the victim a few days later reported that she appeared confident about the details of the assault, although her ability to assign an exact date to the attack was impaired. The officer told the court that specific dates can be difficult for children "unless they can relate it to some time in school or some teacher they had." Based on the victim's memory of her seventh-grade teacher, as well as the estimated age of Bowen's infant daughter at the time, the officer determined the date of the assault to be October 2002.

Several witnesses testified on behalf of Bowen, claiming that there were "inconsistencies" in the victim's retelling of the alleged assault. For example, the victim had drawn a picture of the layout of the room where the attack took place. Bowen presented a videotape showing the room, which did not exactly match the victim's rendition. Her drawing also included a birdcage with several birds inside. Witnesses for the defense testified that Bowen didn't own pet birds.

But according to Iowa law, the jury only had to find that Bowen had "performed a sex act with [the victim]... by force or against [her] will, or while [she] was under the age of fourteen." Jurors determined this had been the case, and declared Bowen guilty of third degree sexual assault. Bowen appealed, charging that the "verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence," and complained that his attorney had made several missteps.

Bowen called the victim's recollection of the assault "so impossible and absurd and self-contradictory that it should be deemed a nullity by the court." But the Court of Appeals disagreed, arguing that the victim had recounted the same story to law enforcement, her doctor and the jury. The inconsistencies in her ability to remember the room's layout stemmed from the fact that she had likely never been in Bowen's home before the day of the attack, "therefore her inability to provide a detailed drawing of the room does not render her testimony incredible..." However, the court did preserve Bowen's claims of ineffective assistance from his lawyer, but wanted to interview the attorney before proceeding. Although Bowen could receive posy-conviction relief on his charge of ineffective counsel, third degree sexual assault carries punishment of a fine and up to 10 years in prison.

Sucks to be you

Name: Robert Lee Lindberg, Jr.
Place of incident: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: Police haven't yet released the details of a fatal hit-and-run accident that occurred during the wee hours of April 12 in the 1300 block of Idaho Street. But they do have a man in custody: Robert Lee Lindberg was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, after the body of 38-year-old Theug P. Boun was discovered lying near the side of the road. Lindberg is being held in Polk County Jail on $25,000 bond.

Best motive...

...Stealing a sketch book "to possibly impress girls."

At 9 p.m. on April 20, Des Moines police responded to a call in the 900 block of Crocker Street for a possible breaking and entering. The victim reported that his apartment had been broken into, and a "flashlight and 40 pages of sketches on a legal tablet" were missing, according to the police report. The victim is "an aspiring cartoonist" and told police the thieves probably wanted to use his drawings to impress the ladies "or for another unknown reason," the report states. The victim also said "this sort of thing has happened before, but [he] couldn't state when."

On the clock

Des Moines Police - April 20

5:45 a.m.
Burglary in the 2000 block of Lincoln Avenue. Police responded to a call from a victim whose spouse had died the previous day. After returning home, the victim discovered that the front door had been forced open, and the house had been "ransacked," according to the report. Jewelry and old coins were missing. The victim had reported a burglarized vehicle the previous day and thought it could be the same perpetrators.

11:00 a.m.
DOA investigation in the 1500 block of East 16th Street. Officers were alerted to the presence of a possible deceased person, and upon arrival, determined that the victim had, in fact, died. The police report states that the deceased victim, who had a history of emphysema, was found by a relative on a bedroom floor.

11:40 a.m.
Robbery in the 1800 block of Hickman Road. A female victim went to visit the suspect - an old acquaintance, who was in a psychiatric unit at Broadlawns Medical Center. When the victim approached the suspect, he asked her for a dollar. As she took out her billfold to give him a dollar, "suspect grabbed victim's wrist and took $426 out of the billfold," then ran north, according to the police report. The suspect was an accused drug abuser and was recently released from jail.

1:00 p.m.
Assault in the 4500 block of Grand Avenue. Police responded to a call from Greenwood Park, where a middle-school-aged suspect had become "defiant and wouldn't follow the teacher's instructions," before fleeing the park. Officers located the suspect and returned her to the park, where they waited for a relative to pick her up. While they waited, the suspect "became aggressive," kicking the inside of the police vehicle, spitting and throwing pebbles at officers and biting other bystanders. The suspect was turned over to the custody of her family member upon his arrival; however, she "did damage" to the inside of the police car, according to the report.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: Eric Alan Jungman
Arrested: April 20
Second offense

Name: Rocky Dean Chiles
Arrested: April 21
Second offense

Name: Emily Suzanne Fish
Arrested: April 20
Second offense

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