Winners

It only took one rightfully enraged father to spark a widening panic in a party-hard corner of Northwest Iowa last week. When Michael Locascio found out that his daughter had been infected with HIV by her husband, Milford resident Dewayne Boyd, without any warning that he had been a carrier of the disease for more than a decade, the indignant dad went to the cops. What started as one allegation of malicious medical negligence quickly snowballed into four counts of criminal transmission of HIV, a Class B felony, as three more women came forward to press charges and dozens more rushed to area clinics to get tested for the terminal disease. While only six people have been convicted on such charges in the seven years since such transmission became a crime, Boyd was sitting in jail last week as rattled Great Lakes residents anxiously awaited a legal process that could ensure the dangerous prick gets a dose of his own medicine behind bars.

We love a good tough-talking cop - we've even been known to keep one on retainer. So when Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy vowed to defy new Iowa Supreme Court rules limiting what police can disclose publicly about criminal cases, we gave him an imaginary high five. McCarthy, who said he not only answers to the court, but to the public as well, thinks that the strict restrictions on information that are now in place (name, crime charged with and court date) would be counterproductive despite the insistence of other law enforcement officials who feel that "extrajudicial statements" to the media can hurt a person's chance at a fair trial. Said McCarthy to The Des Moines Register, "We don't say things about people we've arrested that will unduly prejudice anybody, but the fact of the matter is that we don't arrest people we think are innocent." Makes sense to us.

Losers

In a state intent on cracking down on child predators, the hits just keep on coming for sex offenders. Armed with a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling that upheld a 2002 state law banning sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or licensed child-care facility, Des Moines police are gearing up for a Sept. 1 deadline that has as many as 100 area offenders packing their bags and looking for new real estate to distance them from the potential temptation of future victims. But, although other states have enacted similar laws, local law enforcement officials acknowledge the get-tough move won't be easy to implement. Currently there is no comprehensive map of child-care centers, and police predict they will likely have difficulty identifying and arresting violators once the ban goes into effect. Not to mention, with 80 percent of metro neighborhoods estimated to be automatically off limits to child offenders as of Sept. 1, civil liberties advocates remain adamant that such stringent restrictions are flagrantly unconstitutional and are taking their claims to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A winner in these pages only one week ago after it looked as if a prosecutorial blunder and less-than-damning evidence against him could give Pierre Pierce an open look, the ex-Hawkeye basketball star was dealt a blow by judge Gregory Hulse, who said the negligence of those charging Pierce was not enough to dismiss the case. Hulse rejected the motion of famed Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish, who argued that the alleged victim in the case was never afraid of Pierce, let alone held captive by her, and that since Pierce was invited into her home he could not have legally burgled it. In the end, however, Pierce agreed to plead guilty to third-degree burglary, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and two other crimes. And under the deal, prosecutors have recommended that Pierce be given a suspended five-year sentence for third-degree burglary. He also has agreed to plead guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, false imprisonment and criminal mischief, and could receive minimal prison time, which will hopefully give him some yard time to work on his free throws before embarking on a CBA career. CV

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