Assistant AG says Iowa is exempt

[RodISHI]

Exempt from abuse, exempt from theft, exempt from fraud and exempt from being sued for their abuses against peaceful law abiding citizens. Iowa officials and their goons are "exempt" from a lot of things.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Attorney General is asking a judge to dismiss a civil suit filed by a South Dakota man who says he was pistol-whipped by a transportation department officer.
David Howard of Sioux Falls filed suit in August against the Iowa Department of Transportation and officer Darrell Wiegand.
The 71-year-old Howard says Wiegand assaulted him during a traffic stop four years ago.
Assistant Attorney General Robin Glenn Formaker says the state is immune from lawsuits like Howard's.
And Formaker says Wiegand should be excluded from the suit because he was "a state employee acting in his official capacity" during the alleged incident and is also immune.
In his report of the incident, Wiegand says Howard resisted arrest. He doesn't mention any physical altercation.

Trucker continues DOT fight
Officer allegedly injured man during routine stop.

By JOHN MANGALONZO

[email protected]

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The scars of the past never really healed for David Howard, a 71-year-old Sioux Falls, S.D., truck driver who said he was repeatedly pistol-whipped by an Iowa Department of Transportation vehicle enforcement officer four years ago in Mount Pleasant.

The officer, who Howard identified as Darrell Wiegand, is the same officer a Fort Madison couple allege harassed and menaced them during a traffic stop earlier this year.

The Department of Transportation would not release the internal investigation supposedly conducted on Wiegand's March traffic stop of Jane and Carl Schneider, who were driving home in a recreational vehicle and pulling a trailer used for a gyrocopter, saying state law prohibits the release of personnel files.

Gov. Chet Culver's office reviewed a summary of the findings, and so did the office of the Ombudsman. Both said the investigation was "fair" and reasonable actions were taken.

But Jane, 59 and Carl, 66, still want to know what actions were taken, if any.

Howard heard of Jane and Carl Schneider's story, which opened up the wounds of the past, he said. His Estherville attorneys are drafting legal papers to be filed in Henry County District Court, perhaps naming DOT and Wiegand as defendants.

The case has been in front of the Iowa State Appeal Board, which opted to take no action on the case, paving the way for Howard to file the lawsuit in district court.

"We've been fighting since then," Howard said on the phone in a truck stop in Pennsylvania Monday. "They're (DOT) trying to cover it up."

Tale from the past

The date was June 6, 2005, and Howard was delivering goods to Millard Cold Storage. He had heard over his CB radio that a DOT car randomly was pulling drivers over and checking their logs.

He said he wasn't worried because he knew his papers were in order. After all, he said, he had been trucking for 51 years.

Howard got lost and somehow ended up on a dead-end street. He turned around and saw "red flashing lights" on the road.

"He stopped beside me," Howard said, adding he rolled his window and told Wiegand "I'm lost. Can you tell me where Millard Cold Storage or Mount Pleasant Foods is?"

Wiegand, according to Howard, asked for his logbook, which the driver gave the officer. He said the officer was looking beyond the allowable check on the book, so he questioned him.

"He just started turning red and talking loud," Howard said. "He was going back the whole month, and I told him 'you know you can't do that,' and he said 'I can do whatever I want.' "

Seeing the conversation was going nowhere, Howard said he told the officer he had deliveries to make..........continued

Couple's road trip ends on sour note
F.M. residents file complaint about IDOT stop.

By JOHN MANGALONZO

[email protected]


FORT MADISON -- Carl and Jane Schneider thought their trip home to Fort Madison from a two-week vacation would be pleasant. Then they would relax in their living room and talk about the fun time they had driving in their recreational vehicle and look at pictures they took.

They were wrong.

Carl, 66, who operated Blue Grass Dairy for many years and whose family has lived for four generations in town, and Jane, 59, said instead they had to deal with an afterthought of being treated like criminals during what they described as an unnecessary and "scary" traffic stop.

It was 8 p.m., Friday, when the couple said the horrifying experience unfolded. They were a few miles from home when Iowa Department of Transportation officer Darrell D. Wiegand pulled them over.

According to IDOT files, Wiegand had been a correctional officer in Oakdale before becoming a motor vehicle officer in 1994. A local phone listing for him could not be found, and all questions about the stop have been directed to IDOT officials in Des Moines.

"The officer did not ask for Carl's license or registration or insurance, instead he said he just wanted to know what the odd-looking trailer we were pulling was used for," Jane Schneider said. "Carl replied that it was for a gyrocopter and he and the officer chatted for a couple of minutes during which Carl explained to him we lived north of town and were returning home after a trip."

Wiegand, the couple said, asked them to stand in front of their RV and allegedly started interrogating them, asking, "What's that I smell? What's that smell?".........continued....

 

[William Joyce]

Sovereign immunity is a fuzzy concept that can protect government action from tort liability, but not always.

I've lost a few of those cases!

 

[neighhay]

A fund has been created for David Howard, the 71 year old trucker who has filed a civil suit against Iowa DOT and IDOT Officer Darrell Wiegand.
Send letters of support and/or checks to Mr. Howard
c/o Friends of David Howard
P.O. Box 204
Fort Madison IA 52627