Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

Dispatcher: 911...

Dispatcher: Location of your emergency?
Caller: Um, it's Bondurant, Iowa.
D: Address in Bondurant, please?
C: [provides address]
D: What do you got there, ma'am?
C: Well, my daughter and I just got home, and our back door was open, and when I turned around to set down the groceries, it looked like someone went through our house.
D: Are you back out of the house? Are you out of there?
C: We're out of the house. I immediately called my mother-in-law.
D: Got it. Do you see any suspicious cars or anything around?
C: Um, no. I haven't seen anything. We've been gone for the last two-and-a-half hours, so I don't know.
D: Came home, and the back door, you said?
C: Came home and the back door was open. I didn't think anything of it. I thought we must have left it open, but when I turned around, it looked like someone had went through the house, the cupboards and -
D: OK, ma'am, you just hang on with me. What's your name?
C: [provides name]
D: ...are you in your car or outside?
C: I'm actually just across the street from our house right now.
D: Are you at a neighbor's?
C: Yes.
D: You don't see unusual cars there, right?
C: No, I don't.
D: O.K., don't go back over. Stay at the neighbor's, and when you see a marked patrol car, you can identify yourself. ...
C: O.K., thank you.
D: Uh huh.

Officer's Report: I was dispatched... reference a house burglary with an open door. [The victim] said she came home from getting groceries around 1:15 p.m. after leaving during "The Price is Right" around 10:15 a.m., and found the front door to her house open.... Deputy Richards and myself checked the entire house and found no one inside. A this point we had [the victim] come in and look around to tell us what was missing. After checking, [The victim] found an empty check box, which later was determined had contained 20 checks. She was also missing a bottle of Oxicoten that had around 65 pills in it, a bottle of Percoset which had about 40 pills in it, a bag of 50 needle-less syringes with saline in the them and a bottle of Robitussen with codeine. ... A coffee can from under the bed was found laying next to the bed with change spilled all over the floor. [The victim] said there was also $400 in bills in the can that was missing. ... [The victim] said she is very sure that all of the house doors were locked before she left this morning. [The victim's husband] said his wife is a stickler for making sure all of the doors are locked at all times. ... No suspects or witnesses at this time.

Docket diving

The Iowa Court of Appeals has reversed the convictions of a man found guilty of kidnapping and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, on the grounds that the woman who accused him may have been taking methamphetamine before the alleged incident.

The decision could have implications for sexual assault and rape victims, particularly those who've been accused of prior drug use.

Randall Lamoreaux and Sharon Bakkum, who met while both were doing time for prior criminal offenses at a residential facility, have differing stories about what happened on the night of Aug. 30, 2003.

Both agree that they went on a date, which included stops at two Mason City-area bars and an Ultimate Fighting event. Then they drove to a friend's trailer home.

Lamoreaux said he and Bakkum had consensual sex at the trailer house, then he offered to drive her home. In the truck, he said, Bakkum's behavior suddenly became erratic, and she began to physically attack him. He stopped the truck and threw her out. That was the last he saw of Bakkum that evening, he testified.

Bakkum's version of events was much different. She said that Lamoreaux got upset when she refused to perform oral sex on him. As he was driving her home, she said, he detoured onto a gravel road outside of Mason City, where he threw her out of the pickup truck, pinned her to the ground and ripped off her clothing. Bakkum said that Lamoreaux then physically assaulted her, shoving a handful of gravel in her mouth when she tried to scream, tying his belt around her neck in an attempt to strangle her, and finally forcibly penetrating her with his fingers.

When she was able to fend him off for a moment, she ran to his truck and called 911 with his cell phone - a 6:16 a.m. call that is verified by phone records. She then ran to find help, she said.

Law enforcement officials who found Bakkum described injuries to her knees, elbows, back, buttocks and thighs. She also had marks around her neck that were "consistent with strangulation."

And even though medical examiners detected Lamoreaux's blood on Bakkum's jeans, sweatshirt and bra, and his DNA under her fingernails - often considered hard evidence of a struggle - Iowa Court of Appeals judges overturned Lamoreaux's convictions last week. Why?

After a Wright County jury found Lamoreaux guilty, he appealed. He argued that evidence of Bakkum's prior drug usage should have been permissible in court. Bakkum had allegedly been hooked on methamphetamine in the past, and her ex-husband testified that Bakkum was "short-fused, edgy and sometimes physically violent when she came down from a drug high," according to court documents.

Bakkum, however, told the jury that she did not use drugs the night of the alleged incident. In fact, she testified that she hadn't used meth for more than a year. She did, however, admit to drinking during her August 2003 date with Lamoreaux, and said she could have "blacked out" at some point during the evening.

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that such evidence was "relevant" to Bakkum's ability to "accurately perceive, recall and relate the events" of the fateful night. The judges granted Lamoreaux a new trial.

On the clock

3:00 p.m.
Burglary in the 2600 block of Boston Ave. Police responded to a victim who said that she took her children to school in the morning, then went to work. After picking the children up later, she returned home to find an open back door and signs that someone had been in her residence. There was no evidence of forced entry, but the victim reported the following items missing: a phone, a Sony PS2, an RCA camcorder, a Barbie doll, 10 various DVDs and 10 PS2 games.

3:46 p.m.
D.O.A. in the 3100 block of S.E. 22nd St. Officers arrived to find the male victim on the floor in the basement. A roommate had found him. Someone on the scene told police that the victim had complained of a toothache earlier in the day. A medical examiner stated that a heart attack likely was the cause of death.

6:00 p.m.
Burglary in the 1700 block of E. Aurora Ave. Police were dispatched on report of a burglary in which 200 to 250 wooden pallets had been stolen from a business. Police located where the suspects entered the property, and were provided with the names of potential suspects.

6:15 p.m.
Assault in the 1300 block of E. 27th Court. A female victim told police that her brother got angry with her while the two were at her residence. He allegedly "charged her," according to police reports, pushing her to the ground. The victim reported hitting a table as she fell. The suspect had left the premises by the time officers arrived.

7:30 p.m.
Domestic assault in the 1300 block of Williams St. The female suspect and the male victim have a child together. They are in the process of separating. As the victim was packing his belongings and the some of the child's belongings, the two got into a dispute, and the female suspect allegedly threatened to stab the male. The male ran to his brother's house to call police.

8:37 p.m.
Assault with motor vehicle in the 3700 block of E. 43rd Court. Upon arrival at the scene, police spoke with a woman who said that the suspect had attempted to run over a male juvenile, who was riding a skateboard down the street when the suspect's vehicle swerved toward him. The suspect, who was located when police arrived, said that he accidentally lost control of his car and struck the curb, but was not trying to hit the boy.

Sucks to be you

Name: Roy Kelvin Harnden
Location: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: Police were called to a Des Moines apartment complex on a report that a maintenance man there had told two children to "pull their pants down." After police had interviewed people on the scene and talked to the alleged victims, they asked Harnden what had happened. Harnden stated, "I fucked up tonight," and told the officers he'd "fallen off the wagon," according to police reports. When police later ran Harnden's name through the system, they discovered he had been convicted in 1999 of indecent conduct with a child under 13. Harnden was taken to jail.

Positive prints

After an investigator managed to collect DNA samples from Peter Christian by taking two water bottles and a fork he'd used during an interview, a jury convicted the Johnson County man of sexual assault. Police found that the samples taken from the bottles and fork matched DNA found at the scenes of two sexual assaults that occurred in Iowa City earlier that year. Christian recently appealed his convictions, saying that his DNA had been taken without a warrant. The Iowa Court of Appeals denied his request. One interesting facet: Christian was interviewing for a volunteer position at a crisis center for rape victims when investigators secretly collected his DNA samples.

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