Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

911 call
Dispatcher: Sheriff’s office…

Caller (a sheriff’s deputy): Hey…
It’s 451.
D: What’s up?
C: Bypass to I-80, the off-ramp here, headed westbound, there’s a Blazer that went off in the ditch. I’m going to get out and make sure he’s OK. He’s stuck pretty good … I don’t have my radio. They are trying to get out. They keep putting it in reverse. Looks like they either busted through a field or… I don’t know if there’s kids, drunk, what. … I got my flashers on.
D: [Unintelligible]
C: Looks like he might have been trying to cut through this guy’s field and [shouting to someone on the scene:] Hey! Come on out! … Are you OK? What are you doing in this guy’s field?
D: Is he hurt?
C: [To suspect:] Are you hurt? … Are you alone in that car?
C: [To dispatch:] I’ll let you go…
D: OK.

Officer’s Report: I was dispatched to the I-80 westbound ramp from Highway 65 northbound. … I saw a white SUV on the north side of the ramp facing west with the front end in a drainage ditch. An off-duty Pleasant Hill police officer… was on the scene. He said he saw the SUV stuck in the field, and the driver was attempting to drive the vehicle out. … The driver… was out of the vehicle [when we approached]. When asked how he got the vehicle where it was, he replied, “I have no idea.” When asked where he was going, he said, “I don’t know.” He said he is from out of town and staying at the Holiday Inn by the Des Moines Airport. He had bloodshot eyes, was slurring his speech and had a distinct smell of alcohol on his breath. He admitted to drinking three mixed drinks of Bacardi and Coke. In order to escort [the suspect] to my squad car, deputies on the scene assisted him over the fence. He was warned the fence was topped with barbed wire, and not to grab it… [but he] repeatedly placed his hand on the barbs and caused two minor lacerations to the palm of his hand. … While waiting for rescue, I administered the standardized field sobriety tests. [The suspect failed the tests.]

Docket diving

Perhaps it all began as an ill-advised attempt at chivalry. Dione Lamar Griggs’ girlfriend, Trina Watkins, had been fired from her job at a Murphy USA gas station in Davenport, and Griggs was mad. He didn’t think Watkins deserved to get fired. And he vowed revenge upon the gas station and the employees present during the firing.

On Oct. 17, 2004 — a month after Watkins had been canned — Griggs woke up DeShon Collins, a friend who was staying at Griggs’ home, and began to talk to Collins about the incident. Griggs again expressed a desire for revenge, and he had a plan: Between 10 a.m. and noon, he told Collins, an assistant manager named Colleen France would be depositing cash revenues from the gas station at a nearby bank. He even knew the make of the vehicle France would be driving.

The two men got into Collins’ car and drove to the gas station. Collins would later testify that both also ingested ecstasy and cocaine while they watched France collect the cash and leave the gas station. They followed France’s car to the bank and pulled Collins’ car into a space nearby. According to testimony from Collins, Griggs handed Collins a gun and said, “Hurry up and rob her.”

The plot didn’t go exactly as planned. Collins attempted to rob France, but employees from nearby grocery store, along with several onlookers, wrestled Collins to the ground, where he had an asthma attack. Griggs managed to get away in Collins’ car.

About an hour later, Collins’ girlfriend, Jeanne Sindt, got a phone call from Watkins. She wanted Sindt to help her pick up Collins’ car — the one that allegedly had been used in the robbery — at a Taco Bell restaurant. The women drove the car to an apartment complex, where Griggs was waiting for them. There, the three ditched Collins’ car and drove off in Watkin’s car.

Based on witness accounts from onlookers and bank customers, along with incriminating testimony from Collins, France and Sindt, Dion Griggs was convicted of first-degree robbery and sentenced to no more than 25 years in prison. He recently appealed that conviction, arguing (among other things) that the court didn’t have enough independent evidence to convict him.

However, the appellate court found that there was plenty of independent evidence. For example, France testified that she left the gas station, cash in hand, at 11:45 a.m. on Oct. 17. Exactly 19 minutes later, Davenport police received a call alerting them to the robbery. As well, cell phone records showed a slew of calls between Collins’ and Watkins’ cell phones beginning at 12:06 p.m., after Collins had left his cell phone in the car with Griggs.

In addition, the court opined, Griggs had the motive, opportunity and knowledge necessary to commit the crime. The court upheld Griggs’ conviction. He is currently doing time at the Newton Correctional Facility.

13 : number of sworn officers employed by the city of Windsor Heights.

Sucks to be you

Name: Jim Shaw
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Sucks to be Shaw because: Rapid City Mayor Jim Shaw must pay $100 as a result of his actions in an incident at the Iowa State Fair this summer. Shaw allegedly confronted the driver of a vehicle that motored through a crowd of people, the Associated Press reports. Shaw believed the driver’s actions were rude, so he confronted him. This week, Shaw was convicted of a misdemeanor in an Iowa court.

A crowded forecast
Every year, the Iowa Department of Human Rights Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning releases a report predicting Iowa’s long-term prison population numbers. According to the report, “If current offender behaviors and justice system trends, policies and practices continue,” Iowa’s inmate population could reach 10,329 by June of 2015 — an increase of more than 18 percent in 10 years. Even taking into consideration “increased prison capacity that will be made available as a result of currently authorized prison construction projects,” the report says, the female inmate population would exceed capacity by 84 percent and the male inmate population would exceed capacity by about 36 percent in 2015.

On the clock

Des Moines Police – Nov. 27

2:56 a.m.
Stabbing in the 100 block of S.W. Army Post Road. Police were dispatched to a residence, where they found a male lying on the living-room floor in jeans and tennis shoes, no shirt. His girlfriend had answered the door and let police in. The victim had towels covering up a stab wound to his stomach, and his intestines were coming out of the wound, according to police reports. He also had a cut to a finger on his right hand and a cut on the back of one tricep. The victim’s girlfriend said that he showed up at her door and said “something about being in a fight at the Kum & Go, and he was stabbed.” Medics transported the victim to Methodist Hospital, where he underwent surgery. When he was able to talk to police, he said that three males, who’d been driving a dark-colored car, surrounded him. The victim said one suspect, who was blond-haired, about 5’8’’ tall, and wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, was the one who stabbed him. The victim claimed the suspects did not say anything during the attack. The investigation is ongoing.

7:00 a.m.
Burglary in the 3400 block of E. Aurora. The victim was house-sitting. When he looked out the window of the residence, he realized a walk-in garage door was open. He went outside and observed that the breakers were off in the garage. He contacted the homeowner, who gave him a list of the items that should be in the garage. The victim reported that a welder, an air compressor and an acetylene bottle were missing.

9:30 a.m.
Disorderly conduct in the 100 block of S.W. Porter. Two juvenile males were playing soccer in a gymnasium when one became upset with the other. The aggressor began to threaten the victim and push him. The victim left the room to “avoid a confrontation,” according to police reports, and began to exercise on an elliptical machine in an adjoining room. The aggressor followed, got onto the elliptical machine behind the victim, and began to choke the victim. The aggressor then grabbed the victim by the shirt and punched him in the left side of the face, causing redness and swelling. The aggressor was arrested and transported to the juvenile detention center. He was charged with assault causing injury and disorderly conduct. CV

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