Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

Dispatcher: 911...

Caller: I was headed down to Polk City, and I drove through Madrid. And where the road turns to go to Polk City on Highway 17, there is a gentleman sitting in the wrong lane. It looks like he's either passed out or sleeping. The car is running.
D: He's in the lane of traffic?
C: He's in the lane of traffic, yes...
D: Are you there by him now?
C: I'm sitting right next to him. Well, I pulled alongside of him and tried to yell at him, but you could hear his music on inside his car...
D: You think he needs medical attention?
C: He looks like he's sleeping. He's sleeping or passed out. ...
D: We'll send somebody up there. Are you going to wait by there?
C: You want me to wait here?
D: That's totally up to you.
C: I don't want to startle him and have him wake up and see me, especially if he's passed out and has his foot on the brake. It is his brake light. ... He's in the left lane of traffic.
D: Is he a traffic hazard?
C: Uh, yeah... He's totally in the wrong lane. You know how soon someone will be there?
D: We'll send them out as soon as we can...

Officer's Report: I was dispatched... on a report that... a green Mitsubishi Mirage was stopped, facing westbound, on N.W. 158th Avenue at the stop sign at N.W. 142nd Street/Highway 17, in the eastbound lane. The driver of the vehicle was reported to be passed out or asleep behind the wheel of the vehicle. Upon arrival, I met with [the witness], who had reported the suspicious vehicle. I observed the vehicle to be in the location as initially reported and observed a male driver, later identified at Tracy Cooley, passed out, in the driver's seat, which was in an upright position, slightly slumped to his right. The vehicle was running, and Tracy had his right foot on the brake pedal of the vehicle, which was still in "drive." Loud rock music was playing in the vehicle, despite Tracy being passed out. ... I felt that the running vehicle was an immediate threat to the general motoring public, and I reached into the vehicle, put the vehicle in "park" and turned off the vehicle, removing the keys. My actions did not awaken Tracy. I had to yell several times to wake Tracy. Upon waking him, I observed that he had red/watery eyes, slurred speech and an odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. Tracy appeared to be excited, restless, had exaggerated reflexes and was very talkative. I had Tracy step out of the vehicle, so that I could conduct the standardized field sobriety testing on him and had [the witness] move Tracy's vehicle onto the shoulder of the roadway, as it was an immediate traffic hazard. [The officer then conducted the sobriety tests, most of which Cooley failed]. ... Tracey consented to the [breath] test and tested over .08 blood alcohol content at .093 blood alcohol content at 21:34. I then arrested Tracy... and transported him to the Polk County Jail for further processing. ... A check for wants/warrants found that Tracy had an outstanding arrest warrant for domestic abuse, failure to appear out of Adel. I notified Polk County Jail staff of this and to place a hold on him for Adel.

Docket diving

Consuelo Mickens and Jesse Colwell were regulars at The Pawn Store in Des Moines. So regular, in fact, that employees at the pawn shop knew the couple on a first-name basis and got along well with them. Staffers also thought that the two - who usually came in together - were married (although, it was later discovered, they are not. The couple does have three children together, however.)

On Sept. 25, 2002, Mickens decided to sell a pear-shaped, one-and-a-quarter-carat diamond ring to The Pawn Store. She was given $225 for the ring, and she signed a receipt - common in pawn-shop commerce - that guaranteed her the right to reclaim the jewelry for a certain price within 30 days.

Colwell, however, apparently objected to Mickens' decision to pawn the ring. A few days later, Mickens charges, Colwell returned to The Pawn Store and used the receipt ticket to buy back the ring without her consent. This angered Mickens, who believed she was the only one who should be able to reclaim her own pawned merchandise. She quarreled with The Pawn Store's owner, Jeff Pocock, on two separate occasions, and eventually filed a lawsuit against the store in February of 2004. She claimed the store was guilty of breach of contract, conversion (because the store had, she said, transferred ownership of the ring to Colwell) and slander.

The store defended itself by pointing out that Mickens had given "implicit permission" for Colwell to redeem her property, based on two assumptions, according to court testimony: First, because "Mickens had previously consented to having Colwell reclaim her various pawned items," and second, because "the couple held themselves out to be husband and wife to the store's owner and employees."

A Polk County district court judge ruled in favor of The Pawn Store on all three claims. Mickens appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals, which wrote that,"although the pawn ticket in question was signed by Mickens alone, the parties' repeated past conduct provides substantial evidence that Colwell, having possession of the pawn ticket, was authorized to reclaim the ring pawned by Mickens."

For her part, Mickens denied that she'd ever allowed her boyfriend to retrieve items from The Pawn Store in her stead. But employees vigorously disagreed, and produced enough documentation that the court found the employees testimony more credible than Mickens'.

The appeal came back last week, in favor of The Pawn Store.

On the clock

Des Moines Police - Aug. 2

12:15 p.m.

Strong-arm robbery in the 300 block of Holcomb Avenue. The victim was riding his bicycle toward Birdland City Pool, when the suspect approached him and punched him in the side of his head, knocking the victim off of his bike. The suspect fled on the bike. Two witnesses, who were waiting outside the gates for the pool to open, saw the incident and told police that the suspect is a high student.

9:15 p.m.

Assault causing injury at Nollen Plaza. Police responded to a victim who said he had been assaulted by two males, one a suspect in his 20s, the other in his 40s. The fight allegedly broke out over stolen property. The suspects punched and kicked the victim. One suspect attempted to choke the victim with a belt, but the other suspect pulled him off. Both suspects fled the scene.

11:30 p.m.

Possession, and sick and care at Mercy Hospital. A police officer was working off-duty at Mercy Hospital when a man entered the hospital and said there was an overdose victim in his car. Medical staff retrieved the victim. When he awoke in the hospital, he became "very nervous," according to the police report, that authorities would find something in his pocket. Medical staff found a foil pouch in his pocket, the contents of which later tested positive for heroin. The victim refused to tell police where he obtained the heroin.

$22.5 billion. Amount of money spent on alcohol by underage drinkers in 2001 (that's 17.5 percent of all alcohol sales in the U.S.)

Sucks to be you

Name: Jack Leroy Losee

Place of Incident: Iowa State Penitentiary

Posed for this picture because: First, Losee wanted to die. Now he wants out of prison. But state officials have decided he'll get neither. Losee, who was convicted of murdering two Des Moines residents in 1982, will not be paroled, ruled Iowa's parole board this week. More than a decade ago, Losee asked to be executed, which the state of Iowa does not allow. He will continue serving his life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Dr. Pepper

Police were notified when Mercy Hospital staff reported that a woman seeking medical attention last week began to get belligerent. The woman claimed that she had been pepper-sprayed by Des Moines police officers, and she demanded to see a doctor. She allegedly was using "loud, profane language," according to police. When a nurse on duty asked for her first name, she replied, "Dawn."

When the nurse asked for her last name, she replied, but the nurse could not understand her. The nurse asked her to repeat her last name, at which point the woman allegedly threw "a small purse" at the nurse, striking her in the face, police reports state. The purse was found to have pepper spray in it. Police were called in to help calm and restrain the woman.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: John Hamilton Bartlett
Arrested: Aug. 2
Third offense

Name: Anthony Mark Kedas
Arrested: Aug. 1
Third offense

Name: Jimmie Leroy Keith
Arrested: July 31
Second offense

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