4/16: Student Free Speech and Tinker v. Des Moines Anniversary

Student Free Speech and Tinker v. Des Moines Anniversary

John Tinker

February 2019

Marybeth Tinker & John Tinker

They wore black armbands to school to protest the vietnam war

• They were suspended
• They ended up suing
• Students had been given the right to wear freedom buttons due to the civil rights act

50 years later, why relevant today?

• “This is the first time the supreme court recognized that students in schools have their first amendment right”
• “This was a significant change as how students in public schools were seen.”

Parents were both active in civil rights movement

Lived in a small town in Iowa

• Only one black family, kids in that family were not permitted to use the public swimming pool.
• He was a pastor in the small town but after trying to do something about the family not being able to go to the pool his contract was not renewed.
• They then moved to des moines where he was at a church and they did not renew his contract there either due to him wanting to help black people
• “By the time the war in vietnam was building up, it was natural for us to be opposed to it.”
• “Black arm bands were worn during the civil rights era to memorialize the three girls who were killed in Birmingham”
• “It was very natural to wear black armbands to mourn the deaths in Vietnam”
• When school authorities found out they were going to wear armbands, they said they would not be allowed. They wore them anyways and then were suspended from school.

The suppression of student speech often happens because students speak out about issues the school is causing.

Place in California where students wanted to wear American Flag shirts on Cinco De Mayo. He doesn’t agree with this stance, but he does agree that they have the right to freedom of expression.

Tinkertourusa.org

Mary Beth Tinker

“I decided to go ahead and try to be brave like other kids I had seen on the news as examples.”

Her friends told her when she wore the arm band that she would get in trouble but she still wore it.

John Tinker

• “It’s important that students are taught the first amendment”

This is all about the first amendment

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District

November 12, 1968

It does not have to do with religion.

42 US code 1983

Court dismissed the petition to the circuit the decision was split 4 to 4

Met prior to the time in any of the armbands have been worn and enacted policy which was not written but which was agreed upon among themselves that no students would be allowed to wear the armbands

Christopher Eckhardt and Mary Beth Tinker wore them on the first day

The students mom was called and she said she supported him not wanting to remove the arm band

Mar Beth wore it throughout the entire morning without any incident related to anyway disrupting others.

Dan L. Johnson speaking on behalf of Tinker

“There should not be any special rules for freedom of expression in schools.”

4/9: Snyder V. Phelps

Snyder vs. Phelps

Petitioner: Albert Snyder

Respondent: Fred W. Phelps, Sr.

2010

• The family of deceased Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder filed a lawsuit against members of the Westboro Baptist Church who picketed at his funeral. The family accused the church and its founders of defamation, invasion of privacy and the intentional infliction of emotional distress for displaying signs that said, “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Fag troops” at Snyder’s funeral.
• Does the First Amendment protect protesters at a funeral from liability for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family of the deceased?

So you think theres no basis in the constitution to protect these protestors what so ever?

• “If our four fathers would have seen this we wouldn’t have even had to worry about this because they would be put in fire for treason” – his dad
• “There are other countries who won’t even let these people on their soil, and we let them get 500 feet from a soldiers funeral?”
• “It’s a slap in the face to our military men and women.”

They’re trying to get attention, what is your understanding? Why do they do this?

• “For the media, for the money.”
• “They’re not a church, they’re anything but a church”

They protest at really any high profile funeral

• “There’s not much we can do about it anymore when the government won’t do anything about it… when someone gets hurt let it be on the supreme court justices hands.”
• “Along with the rice comes responsibility, and noone has done this before this group”

Remembering his son

• He was proud to be a soldier
• “If he could see this I don’t think he would be very proud of this country right now.” – Albert Snyder

“At this time I get along with me life, I’m tired, and I’m ready to get this over with.”

Were you surprised by this decision?

Ask yourself as a reporter:

What is the story, who is the story, are you going to ignore the protestors, and if that’s what you decide are you really truthful on what is going on, if you make the protestors the story have you hijacked the story away from the soldier who died?

• Are you being truthful to your audiences

Most are from one family

Marge Phelps – LEADER

They don’t care about the pain they cause.

“All we wanted to do was bury Matt with dignity and respect.” – Albert Snyder

13 total kids, but 9 are involved in the church.

Nobody going into the funeral heard or saw westboro picketers, when the funeral started they left.

• “If we had walked into the church with our picket signs, liability may be different.” – marge
• The snyder family did not ask for the westboro church to the funeral
  • He was just trying to put himself to rest
  • You cannot redo a burial or funeral ceremony. This is a case of exploiting a private families grief.
• He brought it into the media by his anger with his sons death – therefore marge says he can’t put that out in the media and expect people not to respond

People called in and were able to ask the lawyers questions

Marge says the priest that was there at the funeral testified saying that he did not hear westboro

The court upheld their right no matter how terrible it was

4/2: RBG Movie

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice of four to be confirmed to the court.
• Neither of her parents went to college so she was a first generation, but they taught her that education was very important
• Growing up, she liked to do the things boys liked to do such as climb on garage roofs
• Her mother died when she was 17. She always said to do two things always:
  • Be a lady
  • be independent
• “I became a lawyer in the days that women were not wanted in most men in the law profession”
• She went to cornell
• “My first semester at cornell, I never did a repeat date.”
• “He was the first boy I ever knew that cared that I had a brain” — talking about marty
• “Meeting marty was by far the most fortunate things to ever happen to me”
• Women did not come into the Harvard law school until the 50’s.. And even then it was only about 2%
  • Ruth said she felt uncomfortable to say anything in class
• She was once told she couldn’t enter a room at Harvard because she was female
• “I came to harvard as the mother of a 14 month old child”
  • “Playing with my daughter gave me a rest from the kind of work I was doing in law school and I think it made me more sane.”
• During law school (marty’s third year) marty had ovarian cancer
• Her son and daughter said he remembered her working till 3, 4 or 5 in the morning, show up to court at 9 and go on with her day. She would sleep all weekend to make up for it.
• Marty graduated from Harvard and this is when Ruth was in her second year of law school
• Ruth graduated from law school at Columbia in 1959
  • Had to transfer to be with Marty
  • No firm in NYC would hire her because she was a woman
• “Being a woman was an impediment” – Ruth
• There were thousands of state and federal laws that discriminated against gender
• Employers in most states were able to legally fire a woman for being pregnant
• Marching and protesting wasn’t her thing, she wanted to put her knowledge and law skills to work
• She began working with women’s rights movements
• First Case was with a girl who was in the air force
  • She was being treated unfairly
  • Lost in the district court, so went to the supreme court
  • The justices weren’t expecting to have to deal with her power and stature.
  • They won this case
• She loves going to oprah
• Gender based discrimination hurts everyone – ruth says
• She used each case to move things forward in women’s rights, it was like “knitting a sweater”
• She says she saw herself as a Kindergarten teacher because those judges did not think gender discrimination was a thing
  • She told them to think of women as all their daughters and granddaughters
• She won ⅚ cases
• He moved to Washington to be with Ruth, which was pretty much unheard of during this time
• Marty helped temper Ruth’s seriousness – says their son
• He allowed ruth to be who she was
• Ruth was a terrible cook
• Marty helped Ruth and respected her so much. He wanted her to be seriously considered for court.
• Bill Clinton nominated Ruth to be a Justice in the Supreme Court
• She was confirmed 96-3

She wanted to be able to convince her fellow justices to move her way even if it meant compromising a little.

You start with an assumption that you have got to treat both genders equally.

Lilly Ledbetter

• Obama signed this bill
• The Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act

Marty became weaker and weaker

• She somehow knew how to keep herself together in public
• 1932-2010 (marty)

She got cancer

• It made her enjoy the things of everyday life more
• When she came out of chemotherapy she began working out

She has become more public and more vocal

Ruth made rude comments about Trump

• She issued an apology

Many wanted her to step down so Obama could elect a different judge. She was asked if she regretted not stepping down and she said that she will do the job until she can’t do it to her best effort anymore.

She changed the way the world is for american women.

3/26: Spotlight Movie

Spotlight

Boston, MA 1976

Investigative Team at the Boston Globe

• Investing cases of child sex abuse in Boston by Catholic Priests
• “We like to spend a year or more investigating once we start a project”
• Focused on a way to make the paper essential to its readers

Marty Baron (new editor hire)

• He sees the issue of sexual abuse from priests
• Can we ask a judge to unseal documents?
• He has faith that this will be a good story and sort of gets shut down when he suggests the importance of this topic

Mark Ruffolo (writes the stories)

“53% of our subscribers are catholic”… the publisher is thinking about the money as a business man and asks Marty Baron if it is really that important

Walter Robinson – Editor of the papers “Spotlight” team

Mitchell Garabedian – Lawyer who dealt with a case having to do with a priest molesting children

• He will not allow Michael Rezendes to record the convo in any way shape or form and isn’t willing to help at all.
• Says the church is watching him closely

__________________________________________________________

• Interviews priest, and he said “if I can be of any help, don’t be afraid to ask.”
• Many ways to control the press
  • Diplomatic conversation about subject is the one used with the priest
• This movie shows: How difficult the truth is to come by
• “This is not just physical abuse, this is spiritual abuse too”
• “When a priest does this to you, he robs you of your faith too”
• When priests get caught they get sent to treatment centers
• Reporting technique: asking for help
  • He asks for help and says he’s working for spotlight and this gets him a meeting with him. Almost like he knows it’s for a good cause
• Reporting technique: saying people need to know what actually happened to get more information.
  • This gives the person a reason to get their story out for awareness or other personal reasons
• Technique: digging deeper.. Keep asking questions that lead to the next question. Also can get you more contacts to dig deeper
• Technique: contact anyone related to the topic. Get as much information as you can from everyone because one thing leads to another which leads to more information.
• Robby asks the priest if it could be over 90 and he replies with, “you gotta stop this Robby”
• Technique: They confront a lawyer in person in public.
  • They threaten the lawyer about writing a story about lawyers who hide priests who have molested children.
• Mike starts to question Ben (his boss) on things because he seemed to know something and was getting defensive
• Female detective showed up at priests home and he says he fooled around with little boys like it was totally normal. But he said he wouldn’t ever rape any of them because he was raped. Then his sister came and got angry and made her leave.
• He finds out the catholic church removed legal public documents from the Lawyer
  • This is a result from the relationship he built with him and not giving up on getting information from him.
  • He goes to the court house and finds legal documents missing
• Technique for reporting: Relating to the person you interview to get them to tell you things because they feel like they relate to you
  • Robby uses this while interviewing someone and talking about sports
• Technique: Finding legal documents and studying these and find out anything you can
  • Mike did this after finding out about legal documents through the Lawyer
  • He finds proof and wants to publish it immediately
  • Mike feels so passionately about the topic and what he does that he will almost do anything or risk his job for it.
• Robby confronts the bad guy about defending the priests
• After it is published, the next morning the phones are off the hook with people saying they were abused
• 249 priests and brothers were publicly accused
• More abuse in hundreds of cities throughout the US
• We sometimes fail and kind of facilitate and enable abuse

1. I think we can do better
2. What’s the follow?
3. Wants to see the church
4. Dedicating resources
5. Topple conventional wisdom
6. The church thinks in centuries
7. Knowledge is one thing but faith is another (knowledge/faith)
8. The meddlers outside

3/5: Aaron Hawbaker

Aaron Hawbaker – Public Defender

They can’t just put a body beside you, they have to put someone beside you that knows how to fight a fight.

If you are below the poverty level you automatically get an attorney appointed to you.

• This is who Hawbaker gets

His office has 9 other attorneys, 3 private investigators, 3 full time secretaries

Budget: Primarily Salaries

What does a defense attorney do even though they know they are representing a criminal that is most likely guilty?

• “I’ve seen some pictures that none of you would want to see.”
• “The first thing you have to do is absolutely believe and adopt.”
• “You should feel confident that the people that are sitting in prison should be there. The only way you can do that is having someone like me, testing the proof of the state.”
• “What drives me to work crazy hours, is that I don’t want someone sitting in prison for something I did or did not do”
• “What is criminal changes with time. What we label as monsters changes in time. What should never change with time is the method we imprison those people.”

The thing that has never changed is the constitutional guarantee to a fair trial.

• What’s criminal does change over time
  • EX) legalization of marijuana

The definition of what we call murder has evolved over time.

Why are you a defendant lawyer instead of being on the other side?

• A lot of people who don’t know me really hate me on social media, I don’t care what they think I own and believe the importance of what I do

How does the work of a defense lawyer start?

1. Establish relationship with your client
   1. They need to trust you
   2. Sometimes you have to convince them to make tough decisions. If they don’t have trust in you it’s going to be a difficult representation

• Look at what they have, and establish if you believe they’re guilty or innocent
• Mostly what we do is play on the general assumptions from your own personal experiences, and often times people can play on that.
• They are the ultimate skeptis. They have to rely on their own senses when something doesn’t smell right. They must convince themselves that they are wrong, or they need to continue to pursue it.

“You don’t make a lot of friends doing what I do.”

“I’ve had to convince someone that 78 years sounds good.”

Joked about having late fees at the Rod Library and when they built the 4th floor saying it was named after him.

You have to put away leaps of logic and assumptions in the courtroom and only think of the evidence.

Difficulty getting Jury to Understand:

• Idea of that burden of proof

Courtroom – only place where people can lose their freedom

Cross-examination and the closing argument are the two most important to him

• Often times the only witness he has is his client
• Many times his entire case is cross-examination
• Negative space is his playground

If what they are saying is true, what else should be true?

• Permanent facts are often ignored by law enforcement, and he makes them prominent

Most difficult case, he had a not guilty case.

• It was a domestic abuse. A woman stabbed a guy and he died.
• There was some evidence that he was an abusive/bad man.
• They were claiming self defense
• He waived a jury
• If there’s enough credible evidence that it’s self defense, the state will declare it as self defense. This is hard for the Jury to grasp.
• She had a difficult time on the stand admitting she did it.
• There was a video of an interview which he submitted to the judge
• When she was informed he passed away, she completely lost it.
• The judge needed to have time to view these videos, when he came home the next day. He brought it up to when she was told he was seriously injured. And then to when she was told he passed away.
• The next day was decision day for the Judge. And he said not guilty.
• She now is doing well and is married

Second time he waived the jury trial is when he had a guy who robbed a bank.

Have you lost any friendships over decisions?

• “If i did they weren’t friends”.. Laughs.. “Not that I’m aware of.”

What can we do better about reporting on court cases?

• If people have questions he is happy to answer, but if anyone says his name or that he told them that relationship ends.
• Jail is different than prison… get it right

Is there any court case you’d go back and do something differently?

• “I think I’ve gotten more finesse over time”
• The difference would be the forms and types of questions asked.
• The tactics would have been the same
• Trying to weave the explanation of facts into something the jury will understand is something he has gotten better with at time, but this is due to having practice at what he does. “I think my finesse is better now, but I can’t think of anything I would have done differently.”

Never objected to media presence in the courtroom. He just chooses not to participate in it.

Post conviction relief, which means you get another lawyer to look at what he did to make sure he didn’t screw up.

He doesn’t ask his clients if they’re guilty

If you weren’t a public defender which job do you think you would have?

• Writer
• To have the time to sit down and put words into a meaningful book interests him

Does he stay in touch with clients after they are no longer his client?

• No, not really.
• Even though it turned for the good, I am part of a very bad memory and a very dark time for them. So, it doesn’t surprise me that they don’t want to talk.

Thoughts on Death Penalty

• He says we should never be so sure that the death penalty should happen to them

3/12: Laura Shultes & Rich Greenlee

Laura Schultes

• University of Arizona 2009
• Worked in Chile with human rights work

More writing and oral argument than trials

What we want

Documents from the Cedar Rapids Police

Department Related to 2015 and 2016

Shooting incidents

As a Litigant in a lawsuit (the one they were on)

• Request Documents through the “discovery process”
• Broad right to discovery (anything relevant to your claim)
• Only limited for “good cause”
• Limitation requested: Keep the documents confidential

As a member of the public

• Request through Iowa’s open records law
• Broad right to access “public documents”
• Limitations on disclosure established by Statute
  • Iowa Code 22.7

Their proposal was that everything be filed under seal. This protects it from public disclosure.

Protective order is identical to the the Burlington one.

• The city used this protective order wanting to use it in the cedar rapids shooting case

City’s Argument

• There is no “good cause” for limiting discovery and forcing us to keep them confidentia
• The documents we want are NOT covered by 22.7

Does the open records law give the court guidance on what to do?

Questions for the Court

• Is this “good cause” for limiting discovery and forcing us to keep them confidential?

Iowa Code 22.7

• “The following public records shall be kept confidential, unless otherwise ordered by a court, by the lawful custodian of the records, or by another person duly authorized to release such information:”

5. Peace officers’ investigative reports, privileged records or information specified in section 80G.2, and specific portions of electronic mail and telephone billing records of law enforcement agencies…    IF that information is part of an ongoing investigation

Do the documents we want clearly and unambiguously fall within the explicit language of this statute?

Hawkeye case was exactly like theirs

Interesting thing in prep of the argument..

• Atlantic was a 4-3 decision. 4 were for, 3 against.
• 2 of the justices are gone
• 1 new judge
• 3 justices really don’t like how Atlantic turned out

Did any of the judges catch you off guard?

• Asked 1 question about the 80G.2, she didn’t do much research on it but she was able to answer something at least by what had already been said about it 15 minutes earlier

In terms of preparation, originally I think this all came up in the summer of 2017. I want to say it was august or september of that year that we had a hearing with the district court judge.

Local Council = Her

• Firm in Chicago is partnered with them behalf of the Mitchells

What happens next is when they get the supreme court position (which she says could be a couple months)

• Once they have that decision, they’ll see what it says. It may be very clear as to what they have to do, and it might just send the case back down to fight it down in district court
• These battles could definitely be continued.
• NEXT– get supreme court decision and use that as guidance

Case set for trial in 2020

Who pays legal fees?

• They work for free unless they win.
• “We take cases and nobody pays us anything”
• “If there is a pot of money to be had, our fee is ⅓ of the amount of recovery. We reimburse ourselves back for the expenses. Sometimes we have to pay for the persons medical treatment.”
  • Have NOT made any money on this case

District court order was narrow.

• It said the city has to give plaintiffs the police investigative reports for the 48 hours after the shooting.
• This includes cell phone records and video footage. Did not say anything about officer personnel files etc.

She knows the reporter covering this case. (Trish Mahathy)

• “I thought the media coverage was overall good”
• Did good job boiling it down to what the average person reading the newspaper is going to digest

Lots of clients have this idea of what justice means and a lot of times the courts just can’t give them that because the justice system has limitations. “It can’t make them whole again”

The reason the burden is on the city: if you are a litigant the rules of discovery are very broad. The law says it’s their job.

• The court wanted to figure out if there was really a harm in keeping the records confidential.
• “The undercurrent of this is, the city, if you read their brief.. They’re sort of hinting at this fact that we might leak everything out to the public.” “I think the court has that at the back of their mind”

The public trust is increased if the public can see what’s going on.

Whatever the court decides, it will become the law. It sets out a new standard.

Rich Greenlee

• He was the police sheriff when 2 young women were killed in Waverly in the 70s
• He was on the watch while this happened
• Regrets of Rich’s career is that we have not found the killer yet
• One girl’s family is deceased

Retired from the Bremer co sheriff’s office

• When he first started he had to have his own car and his own weapons
• A few months later they bought them squad cars
• A year later they got weapons
• First co squad car→ The red light on the top wouldn’t swirl around in the cold, it would just stay red. He says “we looked like rudolf the red nosed reindeer”
• Started working in traffic and the jail. Back in those days they ran the jails, there were no jailers
• 3 deputies in bremer county plus the sheriff at this time
• He only made $600 per month
• Worked nights for 3 years

While he went to hawkeye they had their first homicide

• Body found a mile into butler county
• Sheriff of Butler county was old fashioned and did not want to work the case. Because she was missing from Waverly they got involved handling the case.
• Julia Benning = girl murdered

On Nov. 28, 1975, the day after spending Thanksgiving with her parents, Julia was seen walking to work. But then, she disappeared.

• 18 years old
• Assumed she was strangled
• Her body was in the ditch for 6 months and frozen
• Very hard to tell what the actual cause of death was
• Popular young girl
• Mother very bitter toward law enforcement

He put photos of the two girls on the filing cabinet because he wanted to think of this each day until he solved the case

1976 Lisa Peak Reported missing from Wartberg

• Found in a field driveway
• 24-46 hours that the body was there
• “Rich you know we are both getting older with age and we woud both like some closure on this before we both die” – Lisa’s mother
• There’s new testing out now that they’re hoping to use to get some DNA off of to try and find the killer

Did one person kill both girls?

• Not sure, but they’re both found very similar
• Lisa peak found sexually assaulted
• Both of them were found within 2 miles of the Waverly limits

• “As a police officer you probably want to think it was the same killer that killed both girls, but you can’t look at it that way because you’ll get tunnel vision”
• These two cases are still active and in Rich’s brain

It is very possible that the killer could be dead because Rich is 72.

Julie’s Diary – missing pages from the month she went missing

Class Notes 2/26

Jeanne Clery

• Murdered 1986 in Bethlehem Pennsylvania
• Killed in her dorm on campus at Lehigh University (she was a college student)
• Her killer was a drug and alcohol abuser, a Lehigh student that she had never met.
• Clery’s parents, who believed the University had failed to share vital information with its students regarding campus safety, campaigned for legislative reform for several years following their daughter’s death.
  • This is now called the Clery Act
• A federal law requiring all universities and colleges receiving federal student financial aid programs to report crime statistics, alert campus of imminent dangers, and distribute an Annual Campus Security Report to current and prospective students and employees.

HELEN HAIRE SPEAKER:

Timely Warning: required notifications

• Specific crimes needed for a crime alert

Sexual assault can be one of 4 different things.. So she doesn’t like calling it that.

• If she has the information she will put it in the communication but she doesn’t always have that information

What is Clery?

• Violators can be fined up to $57,317 (started at $25,000; increased to $27,000, then $35,000) by the US Department of Education
• Enacted in 1990
  • Didn’t really get enforced until early 2000’s
  • Didn’t come up with a guidebook for universities until 2005

Every Institution must:

• Collect, classify, and count crime reports and crime statistics
• Issue campus alerts
  • Emergency notification
  • Timely warnings
• Publish an annual security report

She says they do not wait to have all information because we would still be waiting.

Added in 2008, Institutions with on-campus student housing facilities MUST:

• Disclose missing student notification procedures that pertain to students residing in those facilities
• Maintain a fire log
• Publish an annual fire safety report
• Submit fire statistics to DOE

*** THIS IS ONLY IN CAMPUS HOUSING

Annual fire and safety requirements

• Must be released/published by Oct. 1 – NO EXCEPTIONS
• Policy statements/procedures
• As of 2010, also must include fire report if have on campus student housing
• Last 3 years of crime and fires stats

Clery Geography

4 geographic locations identified

1. On campus
2. (1a) Residential Housing
3. Public Property
4. Non-Campus
   1. Not necessarily off campus

Part 1 offenses

• Murder and non-negligent manslaughter
• Negligent manslaughter

Sexual Assault BELOW

• Rape
• Foldling
• Statutory Rape
• Incest
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Burglary
• Motor Vehicle theft
• Arson

Offenses Added in the VAWA Reauthorization of 2013

• Domestic violence
• Dating Violence
• Stalking

How We Count Statistics

• Victim Count
• Incident count
  • 3 people walking down the street together, all 3 get robbed it = 1

Hierarchy Rule

• Only report the crime that is highest up on the hierarchy
  • Even if more than one happened
• Exceptions
  • Arson… if there is any crime and there’s arson involved, both are counted
  • Murder → Sex Offenses
  • Bias Crimes
  • VAWA Offenses (violence against women act)
    • EX) Domestic violence. 2 ppl married living together and aggravated assault occurs.. You count domestic violence and domestic assault
  • Liquor Law Violations

Hate Crimes

• Any of the previously listed offensives that are motivated by bias and
• Larceny theft
• Simple assault
• Intimidation
• Destruction/damage/vandalism of property

Bias Categories

• Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Ethnicity
• Disability

How are crime stats compiled?

• Must Query
  • University police/security
  • Campus security authorities
  • Local law enforcement

Things that aren’t motor vehicles:

• Airplane
• Tractor
• Jetski
• Boat

Helen Haire

• Chief of police and director of public safety

Rape has gone up.. She says “I attribute that to people being more likely to report”

“We had somebody that we charged with four burglaries.. So you know it could be one person who has commited multiple of these crimes” “If we catch someone doing multiple crimes we have to report each separate”

• Reporting percentages of crime statistics can be misleading because of this

Private Investigator: Jeff Tilson

Lives in Waverly

• Was Chief in Vinton for 24 years
• Was also in South Dakota for 5 years before Vinton
• Retired from law enforcement in 2004 right before ferguson in Missouri
• Took a year to unwind from being on call 24/7
• Licensed as a private investigator in Iowa
  • Licensed, bonded, and insured
  • Licensed by the Department of Public Safety
• 5,000 bond that anyone can make claim to if he damaged them in any way. A bond is an immediate payment

If you think of anyone in law enforcement, their job is to investigate crimes.

Private investigator does things cops “shouldn’t, won’t, or couldn’t do” but need to be looked into

He gets calls from spouses

“I get calls from friends, I have a friend going through this miserable situation”

• He charges by the hour and milage
• $75/ hr (typical rate, depending on the situation)

“If I’m half as good as what I do, putting myself in a high amount of danger isn’t necessary. As a police officer I didn’t necessarily have that choice.”

He can fire clients.

When I get a call in a cheating situation, 95% of the time the person calling already knows what’s going on. They don’t need me to tell them, they need me to prove it.

I never want to get shot, I never want to shoot anyone, and I never want to get sued.

He wants to talk to reporters that only want ot report the truth

Every news org has one person that you know if you talk to them, they’ll report the truth and not the first thing they hear.

• He can give a thousand examples of being in a miserable situation because reporters reported the first thing they heard

20 years ago a car full of kids from CR stole a car from vinton

• Putting others in danger.. He took the car out, they came to a complete stop and it slid down the ditch and the car rolled
• He went and typed a press release, but instead of copying and pasting, a reporter accidentally put “cop going 964 mph”

Dave Staudt – District Court Judge

Dave Staudt – District court judge

• District 1 out of 8 judicial districts
• Blackhawk, Grundy, Clayton, Howard, Fayette, etc.

• Can handle any kind of case there is.. Ex: anything from a speeding ticket to a murder

Supreme Court of Iowa

Court of Appeals

District Court Judge

• Handles mostly felonies. Such as kidnapping, dealing drugs, murders
• Civil matters (divorce)
• They can go down but the ass. And magistrate can’t go up

Associate district court judge

• Handles things such as OWI, assault, drug possession

Magistrate:

• can only handle misdemeanor cases
• If this case gets appealed, this goes to the district court judge.

Simple Misdemeanors: traffic tickets, simple assaults, trespassing

• Most of these are taken care of by spending up to 30 days in jail along with court costs (excluding tickets)

Serious Misdemeanor:

OWI

• Lowest fee for these is 2500
• License get suspended
• SR22 insurance = high risk insurance

Felony A B C D

• A = Life
  • EX) first degree murder, first degree kidnapping or sexual assault

• B = 25 years
  • Attempted murder
• C = 10
  • EX) Sexual Assault(basic), or a more serious drug charge… possession with intent to deliver meth
  • Have to do at least ⅓ of the sentence before released
• D = 5
  • EX) Forgery, extortion

Second degree murder is 50 years

Deferred Judgement:

Let’s say friday night you get caught smoking weed and police catch you and charge you w possession of marijuana.

• The judge will enter a judgement of a sentence
• Deferred judgement is where the judge says okay I’m deferring judgement to a later time which is basically an opportunity not to be charged. Such as being placed on probation, community service, substance abuse evaluation.
  • If all this goes well your record goes sealed. It’s like this case never happened.
• Cannot have more than 2 deferred judgement

You can’t ever say ALWAYS

• Also, never say never

Cannot consent to sex until you’re 15

Forcible felonies

• If you commit and are convicted of this crime you HAVE TO go to prison
• 1st degree robbery, attempted murder, some drug cases

Sexual Assault

The touching of sexual parts or the touching of a mouth on sexual parts

There is no such thing as a technicality

Two kinds of trial

• Jury
• Judge

You can have these for any charge

Allocution

• Allowed to say anything you want to to a judge
• Someone is most likely going to have a better change if they speak

In the US you’re innocent until proven guilty.

• State must prove evidence you commited the crime within reasonable doubt

Accusatorial

Inquisitorial

You cannot argue with a police officer… if you start arguing with them you’re going to jail.

• You can later sue them if you feel they wrongfully arrested you

Jury:

• Randomly select due to kind of case
• 24 people.. 12 get striked out due to bias and other reasons
• Must be 18 to be a juror

When you go into court you cannot have your phone on.

• Exception for media that are under the case
• You can take photos if you’re a reporter UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
• There’s a balance between allowing cameras and photos in the courtroom.
• “I don’t read about my cases because I don’t know what this other person saw. I don’t want to know about that.”
• As a judge it’s a different perspective. “I want to make sure things are fair”
• Problem about recording in a courtroom:
  • Distraction
  • Intimidating sometimes. YOU CANNOT TAKE PHOTOS OF THE JURY

Sequestration

• Not allowed to sit by other witnesses of the trial and you can’t hear what other people said so what you really know is heard.

Ways to protect jurors:

• They give them a number, so the people in the back don’t know your actual name for safety reasons.
• “We protect jurors from being on TV or having their picture taken.”

You can almost go to any court hearing

• Really no limitation on who can come into the courtroom

Rights we have when we go to the court house:

• Cannot wear hats
• Don’t have your phone out
• Don’t take photos, bring camera
• Can ask judge to take a photo
• Sit in a pew somewhere
• You can come anytime and leave anytime
• Can bring notebooks
• No food or drink
• Bag is ran through x-ray machine

How do you defend despicable individuals as a defense lawyer?

• Everyone deserves a defense and to be treated fairly
• Police officers have an opinion of what they think should happen to people.
• We need to treat every person fair, people would ask me this. Think about it this way. If you had a cousin. Your cousin is a guy that is 22 years old in college, not on scholarship, works 30 hours a week, has what he says is consensual sex but gets charged with rape. He deserves to have someone represent him.
• I never felt bad if someone was found not guilty because the state couldn’t prove their case. That’s how the law works. If you can’t prove your case you can’t do anything.
• “Is the system perfect? No, there’s glaring problems that we try to work on and make better. Part of the problem with our system right now is the over representation of blacks in prison.”
• Unless you commit a forcible felony, you’re probably going to get probation

“I think over the years I try really hard to try to let people to have the opportunity to tell me what it is they want to tell me.”

“I try to be as respectful of everybody as I can”

2/5 – Cedar Rapids Officer Involved in Shooting

Iowa Supreme Court Decision – Cedar Rapids Officer Involved Shooting

Dashcam Notes:

• November 1, 2016
• Night Time
• 1/17 AM
• Takes the driver (male) out of vehicle
• Dogs are going nuts
• The man fights back when being handcuffed, the dog gets let out. Man gets back in the truck and starts driving with the door open with officer, then shots are fired. The officer falls from the car and says “Shots Fired”
• The officer pulled him out of the car without taking the man’s license back or anything and just put him in handcuffs immediately
• Don’t know how dog was trained, don’t know reason for being pulled over
• The cop was aggressive
• Officer: Lucas Jones
• His mic. Wasn’t working

Text of the petition for jury

• Plaintiffs: Jerime Eron Mitchell and Brakcen Ann Mitchell
  • Attorneys Riccolo, Semelroth & Henningsen, PC and PowerRodgers & Smith, L.L.P., against
• Defendants: City of Cedar Rapids and Officer Lucas Jones
• Both Cedar Rapids Residents

Relevant history of Officer Lucas

• Hired in 2011
• After was assigned a canine and worked alongside the canine
• On or about October 20, 2015, and at all times relevant, Officer Lucas Jones was involved in a police-involved shooting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
  • Fired 16 rounds at Jonathan Gossman (victim of 2015)
• Gossman did not hit, strike, or assault Officer Lucas Jones nor did he hit, strike, or assault any other person at the time he was fired upon.
• No charges for this, and gossman died
• Lucas Jones was speeding and running stop signed to get behind Mitchell
• Defendant Jones stopped Mitchell because he claimed that Plaintiff’s rear license plate lights were not operational. The rear license plates lights of Plaintiff Mitchell’s vehicle were, in face, operational at the time he initiated the stop of Mitchell.
• He did not have a real reason for pulling Mitchell over.
• Asked Jerime Mitchell to immediately exit the vehicle, and then Officer unlawfully attempted to open/enter Plaintiff Mitchell’s driver’s side door.
• Then he placed him in an arm-bar hold.
• He was then being detained without being informed what he did and was at 1:18:24 a.m. pushed with force against the side of Mitchell’s vehicle. Mitchell is saying “what did I do?”
• After asking many times, Mitchell was then slammed to the ground by a leg sweep. Then officer is instructing the canine to “Kill him! Kill Him!”
• Mitchell fears for his life and fights back at him, Mitchell then managed to get into the driver’s side of the vehicle while being attacked by the canine and officer Jones.
• At no point did Mitchell have any weapon or grab, push, strike officer jones or his dog during this time.
• Jones upholstered his firearm and pointed it at mitchell’s head, and informed him “I’m going to kill you, Man!”
• Mitchell attempted to retreat from the danger and Jones opened fire with multiple shots on Plaintiff Jerime Eron Mitchell’s person, one of which struck him, ultimately paralyzing him from the neck down and was unable to control his vehicle.
• He lost consciousness
• No charges have been brought against mitchell for the traffic stop in this case.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/cedar-rapids-officer-deny-allegations-in-police-shooting-lawsuit-20170424

• Jerime Jones (victim shot by Lucas Jones) is now paralyzed from the neck down
• The Mitchells are suing the city and Jones for negligence, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium, and asking for damages. The suit claims Jones and the city were “reckless, willful and wanton” in their actions.
• Police recovered a pound of marijuana, scales and cash in a backpack inside Mitchell’s truck, indicating Mitchell was on the verge of making a marijuana deal, Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said.
• Jones put Mitchell in an arm bar, forced his hands behind his back and pushed him against the truck without telling him why he was being detained.

https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Jerime-Mitchell-shooting-one-year-later-454369953.html

• Not the first time he shot someone
• Mitchell’s wife Bracken said in a statement that Officer Jones may not have killed Mitchell, but he took his life, adding that nothing for them will ever be the same.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/cedar-rapids-iowa-jerime-mitchell-lawsuit-police-negligence-20181230

• For now, the civil trial has been bumped to Aug. 11, 2020 — nearly four years after the shooting.
• Mitchell’s attorneys argue the police department is funded with taxpayer money — and so the public has a right to know how it’s being run.

Video of Court

• Sessions provide an additional option for the people of Iowa to come see live court
• When a party is unhappy about results of a trial, they have the right to appeal. The right to appeal is considered a fundamental right of fairness.
• In a trial one Judge makes decisions, in an Appellate court 5 judges make decisions
• Tonight is an oral argument.
• Don’t be surprised if a justice interrupts a lawyer to ask a question.

ORAL ARGUMENT OF THE IOWA SUPREME COURT

Bill Stone

• Here on behalf of officer Jones
• Judge David Wiggins, “what makes this record confidencial”
  • “It is under code 22.75”
• Judge Brent R Appel, “Focuses on specific documents ordinarily on the person seeking protection, and that’s not really what we have here I dont think… Tell me if I’m wrong.”
  • Bill Stone said, “It doesn’t just protect records from the City and Officer Jones, but it protects any medical records of the Plaintiff”
• Judge David Wiggins, “
• Judge Thomas D. Waterman, “Is it true the investigation was closed, and it was no longer ongoing?
  • Stone, “That is true your honor”
• Brent Appel – Generally speaking in police misconduct cases, there’s a failure of disclosure

—- Talk about the media,

• Judge Christensen, “Would you agree with me that you’re relying a lot on 22.75? “ And also asks if he agrees that this information would not be a part of an ongoing investigation

Judge Edward Mansfield, “Why should we do anything with our prior hawkeye decision now?”

• Stone – speaks about hawkeye
• CF Hawkeye vs Jackson… The iowa supreme court, so far there are at least 3 cases that have all said there’s no balancing test to be applied.

Plaintiff speaker:

Broad range documents, some potentially under 22.75, are being hidden from the public.

• She states that the information that is out is the information that the Defendant wants to be out and that it issnt in the best interest for the plaintiff

• “Our interest here is getting all the information out to the public”
  • “It does increase the work that the attorneys have to do.”
• Mansfield, “Don’t we just have to decide what 22.75 means here?”
• “The court can otherwise order disclosure, reguardless” – speaker
• Judge Appel – it may be your best argument that this isn’t a 22 problem
• It would provide the courts the test to not require disclosure.
• Judge Appel – Ongoing investigation wasn’t even a thing until telephone billing was a thing.
  • Speaker – our position is that given the language of 22.7, the balancing test is the appropriate test to apply here.
  • Judge Appel – we don’t engage in a balancing test to see if we release/don’t release. If it does fit within the box then it is exempt within disclosure.

Judge Mansfield – Neither side is disputing that you have a right to the records the question is if they can give them to 3rd parties

Speaker – the defendants havent set forth specific statements to why these records should be kept from the public.

Speaker – our position is that unless they can set forth something, that the standard hasnt been met. The public should be able to see what s going on behind closed doors. Our position is that the litigation process is open to the public.

“Are we going to gag the jurors from being able to talk about it?”

In every case it is important that we have a fair jury. To the extent that that’s a concern there are procedures and rules in place to make sure that’s a problem of the past.

Bill ——

Judge Wiggins – Why are you afraid of them having the option of not having it protected

Mansfield – could CR hold the dash cam video if they wanted

1/22: Guest Speaker (Elizabeth Collins Family)

Bodies of Evansdale Cousins Found

• Family has not seen bodies
• Hunters found them

Talked with the grandma

• She says there is no way it could be family
• She also says it isn’t drug related because of how everything was done. There was no blood, or anything to show that they’re out to get them

Anelia Video at site where the girls were found:

• Very remote area
• Hired a plane to take pictures of what it looked like from above
• In the original video, when they went to see where he shot the deer. She took out part of this because there was leftover blood from the deer but she made sure not to include this because she didn’t want any blood associated with the crime

Found on https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/lyric-cook-and-elizabeth-collins/

• Elizabeth Collins, 8 & Lyric Cook, 10
• Bodies Found in Seven Bridges Wildlife Park in Bremer County: Dec. 5, 2012
• Reported missing on July 13, 2012
• Girls seen 12:23 p.m. July 13. Their bikes and Elizabeth’s purse were later found on a trail on the corner of Meyers lake where they had been spotted earlier. No clues to their whereabouts.
• They were found by a hunter at seven bridges wildlife area 25 miles ffrom where last seen.
• Cook’s dad has a charge with possession, dealing, and making methamphetamine

Guest Speaker: Drew (Elizabeth’s Dad)

• “When is the last time you talked about the girls?”
  • Grandmother, “everyday”
  • When the case happened in Indiana, it ramped things up again. They never know when it is going to happen.
• “How much have you stayed in touch with law enforcement?”
  • A lot, he says.
  • People call him with tips.. He was asked how he handled tips like that
    • “I get a lot from instant messenger, or people I don’t really know. A lot of those I don’t like to listen to. We need something to bite into, so most of them are nothing leads.”
• Asks his mom how she has dealt with it
  • You have to stand back and do something to help. There’s not a lot you can do, just be there
• Must ask parent or guardian if you can speak to younger children

Asked how they react to the media

• Drew states they haven’t had much trouble with the media
• A couple times they had people hiding and taking photos at their house, but other than that but the journalism if anything helped them
  • Never made them feel like they were suspects
  • If anything they were kind and considerate.
• The cousin Lyric’s parents are Misty and Dan Cook
  • Misty and Dan were in and out of prison for meth
  • They didn’t cooperate as well
  • They grew up thinking the police were bad
• Drew has his own tree business, his son, kelly, does the trees and drew does the business side of it
  • Has been doing it for 20 years
• Kelly was 12/13 when it happened
• There was one guy that ambushed him with a question, he didn’t like him because he had negative questions.
• Drew’s mom: says people ask why drew doesn’t get over this because it’s been 6 years.
  • “It’s old news, I guess. But to us it’s not. It’s unfinished news.”
• Angels park in evansdale: it was originally for the girls but then there were a couple other families that had children die. It morphed into a park for the community. It is across where the bikes were found.
• Asked what he remembers when they went missing
  • He remembers there being a storm the night before, walked out the door, went to work just like a normal day.
  • He then went home and Heather said the girls went out on a bike ride and they hadn’t come back yet
  • He then called the police and they later found the bikes and Elizabeth’s purse thrown over the fence
• To keep busy he worked, and did other things such as making a poster for sex offenders that haven’t registered

Drew is asked about his faith and if it was questioned or made stronger

• Wasn’t ever mad at God because God can’t stop any of this stuff from happening.
• “I don’t think at that time I was close to God.”
• His wife had a heart attack, and she had a pacemaker put in. They were trying to get her healthy while the girls went missing
• Statistically kids that are taken are killed within hours

Grandmother says she was relieved because all she could think of was her being tortured and she was almost thankful that that’s not what it was.

• She says she leans on God

What do you think should happen to someone who did this?

• Drew’s mom says she wants the courts to be the ones to decide this. “I certainly don’t think someone like that should be loose in society again.”
• Drew said “I’d like to take a blow torch and a pair of pliers to them.. That’s the truth”
  • This person took by daughter and threw her outside like trash after they murdered her.”

Do you ever read bad comments online about you?

• He says he comments back
• People post negative things and one person posted a photo from years before it happened of him partying and made bad comments on him

Have you ever thought about forgiveness?

• “It’s easy to say, and it’s another thing to do.”

Grandmother:

• States Elizabeth was always hugging her family members and always glowing with happiness in photos

Drew does not speak to Lyric’s family anymore

• This is because they didn’t cooperate when they went missing and to him it meant they were selfish

How do you think this has changed you as a family?

• I remember one day there was a slow moving van out front.. It was the FBI
• His marriage fell apart
• He doesn’t do a lot anymore
• He says his family is sort of like an incomplete puzzle

Drew helps other people that are going through this

Has this changed what you allow your girls to do?

• “If I’m in the house, they don’t even go out to the car alone”

How has this impacted your relationship with your family?

• I feel like all my kids are tight
• It brought us together
• But ripped them apart because heathers mom didn’t listen well to drew

During the time before they were found did you think they were alive?

• I always had hope.
• He got a call the day they were found to go to the city hall

Just remember that these are people and they’re going through the worst time of their life