By The Gazette Editorial Board — The Iowa Supreme Court wisely overruled lower-court decisions that would have allowed information on dismissed criminal cases to be removed from public electronic court records. Proceedings of Iowa’s courts have always been available to the public. The state Legislature requires it. The Internet and advanced computer technology, however, have [...]
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UPDATE: A co-owner of Woody’s Show Club pleaded guilty and was sentenced on a lesser charge Friday in Linn County District Court for employing underage girls to dance at the strip bar in 2010. Bryan Bresler, 32, of Cedar Rapids, pleaded guilty to exhibiting persons, a serious misdemeanor, and was given a deferred judgment and [...]
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The man suspected of killing his wife and fleeing to South Dakota earlier this month told investigators he “lost it and blacked out” during an argument in their Greene home. Thomas J. Petersen, 39, of Greene, now faces a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the June 4 stabbing death of his wife, Judy [...]
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A Cedar Rapids man accused of four bank robberies bonded out of jail Monday, just as a search warrant was filed showing the discovery of cash and clothing in his apartment that, police say, tie the man to the robberies. Daniel Ray Nicholson, 33, was charged Friday with four counts of second-degree robbery. He is [...]
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A Swisher man was sentenced last week in Johnson County District Court to a combination of jail time, probation and time in a halfway house for assaulting an elderly man in a road rage incident. Brandon Poulson, 23, pleaded guilty to willful injury causing bodily injury and harassment for punching and injuring Bernard Brown, 70, [...]
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Police said a man sexually assaulted a woman while holding her captive in his Cedar Rapids apartment for about 10 hours. William E. Roby, 51, of 143 37th St. NE, Apt. N1, was arrested without incident at his residence Monday afternoon. He is accused of forcing a 62-year-old woman into his apartment around 8 p.m. Sunday. Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, a [...]
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A 38-year-old Fayette County man with a lengthy history of setting fires dating back to 1991 was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison for threatening to blow up a building where his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend lived in 2010. Shawn Gant pleaded guilty last October to making a telephone threat to damage or [...]
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