Jurors at the trial of the man charged with fatally stabbing a University of Iowa student have been shown surveillance video of a woman running and a vehicle tied to the defendant driving by her seconds later. Investigators testified yesterday about how the video became a significant lead in the month-long search for Mollie Tibbetts. The 20-year-old woman disappeared while running in July 2018 near Brooklyn in Poweshiek County. Within days of obtaining the video, they had recovered Tibbetts’ body from a cornfield and arrested Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an illegal immigrant working as a farmhand in the area. Day three of Bahena Rivera’s first-degree murder trial is today.
A former youth counselor who entered a plea of guilty in March to sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy has been allowed to withdraw the plea after learning the deal she had reached with prosecutors would not be honored by the judge. 29-year-old Danielle Hook learned this week that the judge in her case would not grant her suspended prison sentences after she entered guilty pleas in March to third-degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. District Judge Chad Kepros said in a filing Wednesday that Hook wasn’t eligible for suspended sentences because she was a mandatory reporter of child abuse and because the victim was younger than age 18. The judge said Iowa law would require she serve up to 15 years in prison.
Dr. Todd Olson has been named the 11th president of Mount Mercy University. Olson will begin his duties at the Cedar Rapids school on July 21. Since 2003, Dr. Olson has served as the Vice President for Student Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. A Minnesota native, Dr. Olson earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris and went on to receive his master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Kansas and his PhD in higher education from the University of Denver.
The Iowa Board of Regents has lifted the state of emergency it put in place in March of 2020. Regents President Mike Richards says they have taken into consideration the “significant improvements of management of COVID-19 both in the State of Iowa and nationally” as well as the CDC’s recently revised guidance on social distancing, and mask-wearing for people who are fully vaccinated. The Regents will be implementing guidelines to transition from the state of emergence. Faculty and staff are returning to campus on July 1, 2021. Institutions will be required to return to offering in-person classes for this fall semester, hybrid and distance learning will continue pending consultation with the Board. Effective immediately faculty, staff, and students will not be required to wear a mask or socially distance. These guidelines will not apply to any medical settings. The Board of Regents says they are encouraging everyone in the campus community to get COVID-19 vaccination but will not require one.
Governor Kim Reynolds announced yesterday that the director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has resigned, effective June 3. Paul Trombino had been in the position less than 5 months after Reynolds appointed him back on January 14. Up until that time, he had been serving as interim director of the Department of Administrative Services as well as the Governor’s Chief Operating Officer. A news release from Reynolds’ office says Trombino “is leaving his position to pursue other opportunities,” and an interim director will be named at a later date.
A Black Hawk County jury has found an Oskaloosa man not guilty of exposing himself to a University of Northern Iowa co-ed in a women’s dorm shower in 2019. Jurors deliberated for about two hours before finding 22-year-old Tre Mone Jalin Nimmers not guilty of invasion of privacy and indecent exposure. The verdict came yesterday following a day of testimony Wednesday. Nimmers still faces a trespassing ticket in connection with the incident, which will be the subject of a future magistrate trial. The woman, a UNI student, testified that she was showering in the women’s wing of a dorm around 7 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2019, when a man ripped open the shower curtain. She said the man was touching himself, and ran when she screamed. On the stand, the woman identified Nimmers as the shower intruder. The defense attorney said the state’s case was based on a surveillance video that showed Nimmers at a building next door, more than two weeks later.
