From the KCRG-TV9 Newsroom:
This morning, the case involving a fatal stabbing caught on video on the northwest side of Cedar Rapids last year is being deliberated by a Linn County jury. Attorneys gave their closing arguments and the judge gave jury instructions yesterday in the case against Shane Teslik, the man who stabbed Devonna Walker outside an apartment complex. Prosecutors say Teslik used the n-word several times, including that night, to provoke Walker to attack his then-fiancé, Jessie Chavez. But Teslik’s lawyers say his words and actions were a matter of defending himself, Chavez and his daughter. They were standing behind him when Walker charged towards Chavez. The jury got the case late yesterday afternoon.
A bill in the Iowa legislature would open up the statue of limitations in a settlement for child sex abuse victims in the Boy Scouts. More than 82,000 former Scouts nationwide have filed claims in the nearly $2.5 billion settlement. Iowa lawmakers say victims are entitled to up to nearly $3 million. But if state law doesn’t change, they will get only around 30 percent of this amount. Currently, Iowa law requires child sex abuse victims to file suit by the age of 19. Lawmakers say they hope this bill will help open this up for 300 to 350 Boy Scouts in Iowa.
A Cedar Rapids homeless advocacy nonprofit is turning its old emergency shelter into affordable rental units. Waypoint says the emergency shelter, which closed in January, was the most expensive program it offered. The organization plans to remodel the space and turn it into 6 to 8 apartment units. Wayfair says its plans are in the early stages so it’s unknown how much they’ll charge for rent and how many people it might help.
The ACLU of Iowa and the National Alliance to End Homelessness signed on to a “friend of the court brief” filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief is in connection with a case involving an Oregon city’s anti-camping ordinance, arguing homeless people with nowhere else to go should be allowed to sleep on public land. It’s not allowed in Grants Pass, Oregon. The ACLU of Iowa says cities in Iowa like Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have what it calls “problem ordinances” when it comes to homeless people. The Supreme Court has not said when it will take up the case.
