Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

Dispatcher: 911...

Dispatcher: Sheriff's office...
Caller: Hi... I'm calling from the emergency department. I have to make a claim on a patient. He was found crawling out of the ditch this morning. It was a bicycle trauma. He now says that he was attacked by three men last night around 9:30 or 10. He was riding his bicycle, and he was attacked and thrown into the ditch.
D: OK. Um, and he doesn't know who it was?
C: Huh-uh [no].
D: And it was Methodist?
C: Mercy.
D: OK, we'll have somebody call down there.

Officer's Report: Deputy Parker and I were dispatched to a bicycle accident. Upon arrival, we came into contact with [the victim]. [He] was pretty incoherent. It appeared [he] fell off his bike. [He] was extremely cold. A passerby stated they noticed [him] crawling out of the ditch. [The victim] gave me his mother's and his address. I went to that location and spoke to his mother and she said he left last night at 20:30 to get some cigarettes and never came home... [An ambulance] took [the victim] to Mercy Hospital. Deputy Parker took [the victim's] bike to his residence. At 10:00, Mercy called and stated [the victim] said he was jumped last night by three individuals. I went to Mercy to speak with [him]. [The victim] stated that [the suspects] beat him and stole $600 from him. [The victim] stated that [one of the suspects] wants him dead. [The victim] stated his mother has been worried for weeks about [the suspect] going to kill him. [The victim] stated [the suspect] drives a Chevy pickup with a white hood or a brown Dodge pickup. [The victim] was being admitted to the hospital and was still doing X-rays. [A nurse] stated [the victim's] blood-alcohol level was .322. [The nurse] did say [the victim] had hypothermia, and was yelling "Don't kill me" and "Don't hurt me" constantly. I went back and spoke to [the victim's] mother and she stated that [the victim] does not have that kind of money. [He] gets $603 in Social Security on the first of the month. However, he sold his TV for $20 as he had no money left. [The victim's] mother stated she had no idea who [the suspect] was, and [the victim] had never stated that someone wanted him dead.

Docket diving

Philip Boehm had a rough evening. First, his basement flooded. As he was cleaning up the mess, a friend called him to report she'd been in a car accident and needed his help. That's when his night got worse.

When Boehm, a Charles City resident, arrived at the scene of the accident, he noticed a Floyd County sheriff's deputy administering a sobriety test to his friend. As he was sitting in his pickup, another deputy began chatting with him. At some point during the conversation, the deputy smelled alcohol coming from Boehm's truck and asked him to step out of the vehicle for a sobriety test.

Based on the result of a "horizontal gaze" eye test (theoretically, the eyeball will begin twitching at certain angles when someone is intoxicated), the deputy arrested Boehm and took him to the county jail for further testing. Boehm called his attorney, then submitted to a breath test at 12:14 a.m. The test revealed his blood alcohol concentration to be .110. Boehm was charged with operating while intoxicated, and he was sentenced to one year of probation and 24 hours of community service.

Boehm appealed the verdict. He claimed that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, based on the state's inability to prove that his breath test was administered within two hours of him operating his truck. Based on testimony given at the trial, the Iowa Court of Appeals pieced together the following timeline for Boehm's evening:

"Boehm testified that he started drinking wine and began monitoring the flooding in his basement at 9 p.m.," the court wrote in its decision. "He further testified that he went into his basement three to four times, approximately every fifteen to twenty minutes... A reasonable juror could thus conclude that Boehm's fourth descent into the basement occurred at 10 p.m. At some point in time following this last check, [Boehm's friend] called Boehm asking for assistance. Boehm noted that 'twenty minutes at most' passed before he reached the accident scene where he was eventually arrested. Thus, according to Boehm's own timeline, he could have been driving his vehicle as late as 10:20 p.m..."

The appeals court ultimately sided with the state and affirmed Boehm's conviction.

"We conclude sufficient evidence supports the finding that Boehm operated his vehicle within the two-hour period before his breath specimen was drawn," the court wrote in its decision.

Sucks to be you

Name: Darnell Alonzo Green
Location of incident: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: A Des Moines police officer on routine patrol noticed someone carrying a window air conditioner out of a garage and toward a waiting car. When the officer asked Darnell Alonzo Green what he was doing with the A/C, Green said the unit was his. But when the officer knocked on the door of the residence next to the detached garage, the homeowners said the unit was theirs, and that they were also missing a push mower. The cops then went to Green's home and found the push mower in his backyard. Green was arrested on burglary and possession of burglar's tools charges and transported to the Polk County Jail.

Boys will be boys?

As temperatures rise, so too does the number of bored kids causing trouble while they're on summer break. Des Moines police logs are brimming with youth mischief, including one incident on June 10, when a victim was found at a downtown homeless shelter, incoherent, with six stab wounds in his back. The only thing he could recall was being attacked by "a group of juveniles." In an unrelated incident, two days later, police arrested two juvenile males for making homemade bombs, after cops found the detonated bombs outside, and lighters, toilet bowl cleaner, plastic wrap and duct tape hidden behind a ceiling panel in one boy's basement.

On the clock

Des Moines Police - June 22

5:00 a.m.
Burglary in the 2100 block of Cottage Grove Avenue. Police met with a victim who reported that the following items had been stolen from her residence while she slept: various DVDs valued at $1,000; a purse and its contents worth $50; and $185 in cash.

3:58 p.m.
Assault in the 3000 block of University Avenue. According to police reports, the suspect is a regular customer at Burger King, where the victim works. On this occasion, he entered the restaurant and asked the victim what time she would be off work. The suspect left the building, but returned at midnight, at the end of her shift. When the victim got into her vehicle, the suspect entered through the passenger side door, and he tried to kiss and grope the victim. She told him "no," and he threatened her. He exited the vehicle, walked around the vehicle to the open driver's side window, and put $20 down the victim's shirt and groped her again. The victim pushed him back and left the parking lot. On a previous occasion, when the suspect was at Burger King, he asked the victim when he could see her and he tried to give her money. The victim did not reply to him and did not take the money.

9:20 p.m.
Burglary in the 3000 block of SE 17th Street. The victim told police that she left her house and did not lock the door. She believes someone entered the residence and stole the following items: 90 Pampers "Cruisers" diapers, size 4, valued at $50; one $20 bill; and various DVDs.

(Alleged) drug dealers

Name: Hector Lopez
Arrested: June 22
Possession with intent to deliver schedule II narcotics

Name: Chris Leon Christopher
Arrested: June 21
Possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine

Name: Amanda Sherry Frazier
Arrested: June 15
Possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine

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