Local & State News 1
www.newtondailynews.com | Wednesday | July 20, 2016 | 7A
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Pipeline protest planned at condemnation hearing
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DES MOINES — Opponents of a crude oil pipeline under construction in Iowa continue to fight the project and plan to protest next week after a land condemnation hearing for a central Iowa landowner being forced to allow a Texas oil company to cross his farm. Polk County officials are expected to condemn property Monday on Dan Higginbottom’s farm under eminent domain laws the Iowa Utilities Board authorized Dakota Access to use for its $3.8 billion pipeline cutting across Iowa diagonally.
moved to Mitchell County
HAMPTON — A judge has moved a Hampton man’s homicide trial to Mitchell County. Court records say an order was entered Friday moving Ronald Rand’s trial. The records say the trial is set to begin Aug. 22. Last week a judge granted Rand’s request to move the trial out of Franklin County. His attorney had filed the motion, citing media coverage that could affect potential jurors in Franklin County.
MARSHALLTOWN — The former director of the Marshalltown Convention & Visitors Bureau has been given probation and a fine for embezzling from the organization. Shannon Espenscheid, 44, was told at her sentencing hearing Monday she must serve two to five years of probation and pay a $1,000 fine. She’d pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge. Police say Espenscheid made at least $10,000 in personal purchases with a bureau business credit card.
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Flags in Iowa to remain at half-staff for law enforcement DES MOINES — Gov. Terry Branstad has ordered flags in Iowa to remain at half-staff to honor law enforcement officers killed in a shooting in Louisiana. Branstad announced Tuesday that all U.S. and state flags under the control of the state will fly at half-staff until sunset Friday to honor officers killed Sunday in Baton Rouge, La. The White House released a presidential proclamation Monday to fly U.S. flags around the country at half-staff.
Ex-convention and visitors bureau director gets probation
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Former teacher gets probation for sex with student CHEROKEE — A former teacher in northwest Iowa has been given five years of probation and a suspended 10-year prison term for having a sexual relationship with a student. Court records say Chad Osler, of Manchester, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse after prosecutors dropped two related charges. At his sentencing Monday he also was fined $1,000. —The Associated Press
Feds charge woman with fraud in Super Bowl ticket scam IOWA CITY (AP) — An Iowa woman accused of duping dozens of people into buying non-existent tickets to the Super Bowl and other high-profile events has been charged with fraud in what investigators say was a years-long Ponzi scheme that improperly netted her at least $531,000. Ranae Van Roekel of Boyden, Iowa, was charged in federal court Monday with mail and tax fraud, four years after the scheme became public. Prosecutors say the 48-year-old was a self-employed ticket broker who ran the business “Get ‘em Now Tickets” from January 2008 to June 2012 and told a good story to personal contacts she duped. They say she falsely claimed to have personal relationships and ties to events that gave her an inside track for deeply discounted tickets, hotel rooms and VIP passes — once saying she was on the planning committee for the 2012 Super Bowl. Van Roekel targeted acquaintances she had met through her family’s involvement in youth football activities, investigators say. After customers would pay thousands of dollars for tickets in advance, Van Roekel later informed them that she couldn’t fill most of the orders. To avoid detection, she issued some victims refunds using money that came in from new ticket orders. But by 2012, many were out thousands of dollars and angry with themselves for trusting her, according to lawyers who represented them. “She definitely was taking advantage of relationships that she had with people, using that to her advantage to be able to sell them,” said attorney Corey Lorenzen, who represented about a dozen of them. “She had put together a pretty elaborate story.”
Tom Vilsack: A rise from orphanage to Cabinet secretary MT. PLEASANT (AP) — Tom Vilsack’s political story already reads like a modern Horatio Alger tale: a humble beginning at an orphanage in Pittsburgh, a rise to governor of Iowa and then to the nation’s secretary of agriculture. Back in Iowa last weekend, Vilsack declined to acknowledge whether he’s being considered for another celebrated chapter — as running mate to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But when it came to Republican nominee Donald Trump, he didn’t hold back. “I get really irritated when I hear Donald Trump say, ‘Let’s make America great again,’” Vilsack said in an Associated Press interview. “I look at it and I think, wait a second, I started out life in an orphanage. I didn’t have a last name. ... America gave me this opportunity to go from that beginning to sitting in the White House in the Cabinet Room with the president of the United States.” With his Midwestern ties, experience in elected office, policy
record in Washington and strong links to rural America, Vilsack could bring some key advantages to the Democratic ticket. His family ties to the Clintons date back to Vilsack 1972 when his late brother-inlaw worked with Hillary Clinton. “I’m confident that Hillary Clinton is going to have a very, very accomplished, serious, solid running mate who is going to help her lead this country,” Vilsack said. “Who it is, no one knows, but I’m confident of her capacity to pick the right person.” Vilsack returned Saturday to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, the small town where his political career was launched in the 1980s by accident. A disgruntled citizen stormed a City Council meeting and shot and killed the mayor, prompting Vilsack to fill the void. Born in Pittsburgh, Vilsack was orphaned at birth and raised by adoptive parents. He met his
wife, Christie Bell, in college in New York and moved to her hometown of Mt. Pleasant after he finished law school. Vilsack’s two terms as Iowa’s governor were a time of hardfought compromise with at least one, and sometimes both, legislative houses controlled by Republicans. He often touts as successes achieving universal preschool in Iowa, expanded state spending on renewable fuel research and restoring voting rights to felons post-sentence. “Picking Vilsack would be the antithesis of Trump,” said political consultant Jeff Link, who worked on Vilsack’s brief 2008 presidential bid. “He is solid. He is steady. He is experienced.” Vilsack bonded with the Clintons when Hillary Clinton campaigned for his long-shot bid for governor in 1998. The two later worked together, sharing ideas during the development of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. And in 2005, they teamed up on a domestic policy agenda as leaders with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.
Iowa dog breeder pleads guilty to filing false records DES MOINES (AP) — A northwest Iowa dog breeder fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for maintaining unsanitary and unsafe conditions for animals pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements in an effort to avoid paying the fines. Court documents show 61-year-old Gary Felts entered an agreement on July 13 with prosecutors to plead
guilty to one count of false statements. He faces up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000. The USDA obtained a civil judgment against Felts for nearly $19,000 in 2012 after inspections over a five-year period of his Black Diamond Kennel operation in Kingsley found multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Inspectors repeatedly cited him for maintaining in-
adequate veterinary care and filthy kennels littered with debris and animal waste with no protection from wind, rain sun and snow. Kennels also had sharp edges that could injure animals and flooring which animals’ feet could pass through. Felts failed to pay the fine and a federal judge ordered a payment plan which required him to file yearly financial disclosure statements.
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“In the financial disclosure statements, defendant concealed from the United States Attorney’s Office bank account information and the information regarding a worker compensation settlement and payment,” the plea agreement filed with the court on July 13 said. Investigators discovered Felts received a $25,000 workers’ compensation settlement in 2013 he hid from
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disclosure. Felts’ operation has been twice listed as one of the nation’s worst puppy mills by the Humane Society of the United States. The Massachusetts-based animal rights group Companion Animal Protection Society, which has been pushing the government to act for years, said it’s past time Felts is held responsible for the conditions at his kennels.
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