Branstad accused of pattern of speed infractions

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who pledged in July that state troopers driving him around the state would no longer speed, was stopped for speeding in August.

Just like a well-publicized April 26 incident in Hamilton County, Branstad's SUV was again allowed to go without a ticket.

“You've got to be kidding me,” Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said after hearing about the latest traffic stop. “It's the governor's responsibility to change the culture, and it begins with himself and not deferring it to the troopers.”

Meanwhile, Brian London, the former public safety commissioner, raised concerns about what might be a pattern of Branstad allowing his drivers to speed. London said a recent check of a federal database ordered by the governor's staff showed law enforcement officers have run the license plate on Branstad's vehicle more than 20 times since he took office in January 2011.

London said the report also shows former Gov. Chet Culver's plates were checked about 13 times.

Department of Public Safety officials and Branstad's office declined to confirm or deny the numbers contained in the report, citing federal restrictions on disclosure. The information provides ammunition for Branstad critics in what is expected to be his sixth campaign for governor.

Busy day for Branstad

Branstad's silver Chevy Tahoe was pulled over for speeding at 11:34 a.m. Aug. 27 on Highway 3 in Franklin County, just west of Hampton. Chief Franklin County Deputy Linn Larson gave Trooper Darren Argabright a written warning, but not a citation.

“The vehicle was given a warning because it met the criteria what a warning for anyone else was,” Franklin County Sheriff Larry Richtsmeier said. “If (Argabright) had been one more mile up, he'd have got the ticket. That's the way this officer is; he don't care who you are.”

Larson did not know the SUV was carrying Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who attended events in Webster City, Clarion, Hampton and Lime Springs that day. The traffic stop happened between a 10 a.m. town hall meeting in Clarion and a noon town hall in Hampton.

Larson did not run the SUV's plate, 343 CFO, to see who owned the vehicle, he said. A search would have showed the vehicle not listed in computerized files, a designation allowed for state cars carrying dignitaries.

Argabright got out of the SUV and met Larson in front of his patrol car, Larson said.

“He told me what he had as passengers in the vehicle,” Larson said. “I didn't confirm that, because it didn't matter one bit to my vehicle stop. There was speed involved, and that was that.”

Larson does not recall how fast Argabright was driving in the 55-mph zone, and the speed is not marked on the warning.

Similar stops just months apart

The stop was similar to an April 26 incident just 25 miles south, in Hamilton County. In that case, Trooper Steve Lawrence was clocked driving 84 mph on Highway 20, which has a speed limit of 65 mph, with Branstad and Reynolds aboard.

A Division of Criminal Investigation agent spotted the speeding SUV and reported it to dispatch. Trooper Matt Eimers pursued the SUV for several miles, passing numerous vehicles, before determining the SUV was driving Branstad and Reynolds. He stopped the pursuit.

DCI agent Larry Hedlund, who reported the speeding SUV, was put on paid leave within days of complaining that the driver wasn't ticketed. Hedlund, a 25-year veteran, was fired July 17 and has since sued for wrongful termination.

An internal review ended with a $181 speeding ticket for Lawrence. Eimers was not disciplined.

Pledge to stop speeding

Branstad called a news conference July 18, denouncing Hedlund's claims that his firing was related to the speeding incident. The governor pledged troopers not on emergency business would be told not to exceed speed limits.

“We need to obey the speeding laws and traffic laws,” Branstad told reporters. “I don't want to see another incident like this one.”

The Franklin County stop happened six weeks later.

Argabright immediately told his supervisor about the Aug. 27 warning and was disciplined, Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Scott Bright said. “It's all complete and finished,” Bright said.

Branstad downplayed the August stop while talking with reporters Friday in Dubuque.

“In this case, the individual was going less than 10 miles over the speed limit,” Branstad said. “He has been disciplined by the Department of Public Safety. We think it's really important to set a good example. When people fail to abide by the law, they need to be penalized for doing so.”

Police checks on governor's SUV

London, who was ousted Sept. 3 in the wake of the Hedlund scandal, believes there might be a larger problem.

In July, the Associated Press asked the department to run a report, showing how many times Branstad's regular SUV, a Chevy Tahoe with plates 511 SOS, had been queried in the National Crime Information Center.

That's a computerized database of criminal justice information available to federal, state and local law enforcement. Law enforcement officers can tap into the database from computers in their patrol cars to check license plates they see on the road.

Use of the database is limited to criminal justice agencies, and authorized users are “restricted to only those privileges necessary to perform an authorized task,” the Department of Justice reports on its National Crime Information Center website.

Lt. Rob Hansen, who served as public safety's public information officer under London, started researching the AP query and learned that the database's license plate data could be searched back five years, London said.

Branstad's then chief of staff, Jeff Boeyink, said the department should search not only for Branstad's plate but those used by Chet Culver, Branstad's predecessor and a Democrat, London said. The query included three plates: 511 SOS and two plates used by Culver and his wife, Mari Culver, London said.

The data query took several days, London said. When part of the report was available, Hansen took the information to the Attorney General's Office for review, which is customary for open records requests, London said. The attorneys told Hansen the information could not be released to the public, because doing so violated a use agreement for the National Crime Information Center.

“Even though the state did access it, it shouldn't have been done,” said Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for the attorney general.

Hansen told the AP he could not provide the data, which some Iowans decried as a cover-up.

Attempt to waive rules

This angered Branstad, who insisted London ask the federal government to waive the rules in this case so the records could be released, London said. When the five-year data query was complete, London reviewed it before sealing it in an envelope and delivering it to Boeyink.

“Approximately 36 times the governor's license plate number came up in NCIC over the last five years,” London said. “Culver's were the minority, 13 to 14 times. The rest were Branstad.”

Not all of these hits are infractions; some could be officers just curious about a vehicle.

Later, when London asked Boeyink whether Branstad had written a letter requesting the FBI waiver, Boeyink said Branstad decided against it, London said.

“It wouldn't look good for 22 of 36 times the plate had been run, especially when there was such a brouhaha over the first one,” London said.

Boeyink, who resigned from Branstad's staff Sept. 6 and took a job with a Des Moines-based public relations and lobbying firm, did not return calls for comment.

Branstad's spokesman Tim Albrecht did not confirm or deny the numbers of hits, but referred the question to the Iowa State Patrol's Bright.

Bright said he couldn't confirm the numbers, because they came from a restricted database. He doesn't know whether running the report initially violated federal rules.

“I probably never would have run it,” he said.

Sandy Breault, spokeswoman for the FBI's Omaha district, said that while the FBI maintains the database, the states provide data to the National Crime Information Center and administer the programs. She had no comment about the query in Iowa.

Pressure to keep schedule?

Bright, who drove two previous Iowa governors, Tom Vilsack and Culver, from 2001 to 2007, said he never felt pressured to speed to get to public events. If they were running late, the trooper or governors' staff would call ahead to the next event, he said.

He doesn't believe things have changed under Branstad.

“He's going to be a good soldier,” Danielson, a firefighter with deep connections in the public safety department, said of Bright. “Under every administration, there's a pressure to keep the schedule and not be late. It might be time to look at a better policy regarding the governor's security detail.”

Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, who is running for governor in 2014, called on Branstad to tell the public how many times his drivers have been stopped by law enforcement.

“No one is above the law in this state,” Hatch wrote in a statement Friday. “His refusal to release reports of possible previous incidents seems to mean that this behavior is a pattern. I call on him to release a full report on the times that his security detail has been pulled over.”