Latest news with #ScottCountyCourt
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Davenport driver arrested after police find wrecked car, cocaine and cash: Court records
A 50-year-old Davenport man was in custody Saturday after Davenport Police say he drove the wrong way on a one-way and wrecked his car, according to Scott County arrest affidavits. Diondre Wakefield faces felony charges of controlled-substance violation and failure to affix a drug stamp, along with a serious misdemeanor charge of eluding, according to Scott County Court documents. About 11:53 p.m. Friday, Davenport Police saw Wakefield driving a white Dodge Charger in the area of the 400 block of Gaines Street, affidavits show. Officers knew Wakefield had several warrants for his arrest including local from Davenport Police and interstate from Rock Island County, according to affidavits. Police identified Wakefield as the driver. Officers activated their emergency lights and sirens to initiate a stop, but Wakefield 'immediately turned the wrong way on a one-way road and willfully failed to stop, fleeing at a high rate of speed,' police say in affidavits. Police relocated the Charger shortly afterward. The car had wrecked in the 800 block of Marquette Street and it was unoccupied. A K9 was on the scene and tracked southeast from the car. Officers gave Wakefield commands to surrender, but he remained hidden and refused to comply, affidavits say. During the track, police found a clear plastic bag containing 13.1 grams of cocaine discarded in a back yard, along with $42 cash. There was no tax stamp affixed to this, according to affidavits. The track continued south. Police found Wakefield about two houses south of where the narcotics and money were located. He had $755 cash. 'The large amount of the suspected crack cocaine along with the large amount of cash indicate (Wakefield) to be selling the crack cocaine,' police say in arrest affidavits. Wakefield was being held on a total $15,000 bond in Scott County Jail on Saturday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘I was afraid for my life.' Adriana Blake homicide Scott County trial continues
Adriana Blake took the stand Wednesday in Scott County Court to give testimony in her murder case. She and a co-defendant, Devon Braet, are accused in the deaths of Brian Goodwin, 44, and Amy Smith, 44, in January 2024. Our Quad Cities News was in the courtroom when Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham asked Blake about details of taking an Uber to her uncle's house. Blake said she wasn't sure about some of the details and that she doesn't remember many details from that day. Blake said Braet had her cell phone the majority of the time between Jan. 14-16, 2024, and Braet used her phone to call for an Uber. Cunningham told the court that personal items were carried into the uncle's home and Blake admitted taking a DVR from Goodwin's home. That DVR contained recordings from video cameras around the property. Blake said she didn't know the password to the DVR, so Braet told her to take it, and they would figure out the password later. She said she did it because she was afraid for her life. Blake said Braet thought Blake's ankle monitor was listening to them and recording them. Cunningham asked how a gas can was removed from the home of Braet's mother. Blake said it might have taken by Goodwin and Braet to use while they were snow-blowing the property. Blake said the can might have been in a Dodge Nitro SUV they drove. A witness said the Nitro smelled like gas, like a gas can had tipped over in it. Blake admitted she may have driven the Nitro for days with the gas smell. Blake said she and Braet recruited a person to work on the SUV to repair the heater and broken headlight so as not to draw the attention of police. But Blake said she probably wanted to draw police attention to the situation. When Cunningham suggested that Blake could have called police, Blake said 'By the time they got there I'd be dead.' Blake said she was too afraid of Braet to call, even when she was with her uncle. Blake said Braet had accidentally fired a gun in the house when the firearm was in a backpack, and she was afraid to lock him out. Her uncle's testimony didn't mention a gunshot or accidental discharge of a gun. He testified earlier that Blake and he had a falling out and hadn't talked in months, but Blake told the court they had been communicating on Facebook during that time. There were no phone call records between her uncle and Blake until early Jan. 15, 2024. The uncle said he didn't know Braet, but Blake said the two had met at her grandmother's house and that her uncle's testimony was incorrect. Blake said she had no idea how Smith's identification ended up in Blake's wallet and that Blake was surprised to see this during discovery. Blake said there was no body-camera footage of police finding the identification. She said she didn't dispute that it was in the car, but she had no idea how it got in her wallet. Testimony in the trial continues Thursday. Blake spoke quietly and sometimes see,d embarrassed as she described the events leading up to the deaths of Smith and Goodwin. The jurors watched and listened attentively along with more than 20 other people seated in the courtroom. A fire and two deaths in 2024 In January 2024, Brian Goodwin, 44, and Amy Smith, 44, were found dead after a fire in a home on the 5200 block of Division Street. Both had been shot, investigators found. Blake faces two charges of first-degree murder, a Class A felony; two charges of first-degree robbery, a Class B felony; two charges of assault while participating in a felony, a Class C felony; dominion and control of a firearm by a felon, a Class D felony; two charges of going armed with intent, a Class D felony; two charges of abuse of a corpse – mutilate/dismember to hide a crime, a Class C felony; and first-degree arson, a Class B felony; along with misdemeanor charges. Braet will be tried separately. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Davenport city leaders testify in Scott County lawsuit about 3 settlements
City of Davenport leaders testified Wednesday in a Scott County Court trial after allegations that the City of Davenport violated state law. Mayor Mike Matson and other city leaders, including Alderperson Marion Meginnis, took the stand Wednesday. Scott County Court records show that, although deputies tried to make contact with retired assistant city attorney Brian Heyer, attempts to serve him a subpoena have been unsuccessful. In January 2024, Dr. Allen L. Diercks, who lives in Bettendorf and owns property in Davenport, filed a petition about the open meetings act and settlements of nearly $2 million with three city employees. In the civil suit, he is represented by attorneys Michael J. Meloy, and John T. Flynn, Scott County Court documents show, A judge is presiding over the trial, which began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue for four days. (In a bench trial, the judge makes the decisions, whereas jurors make the decisions in a jury trial.) Read the lawsuit below: Dierks-lawsuitDownload Details of the lawsuit The lawsuit names as defendants the City of Davenport, the Davenport City Council, and City Attorney Tom Warner. The suit challenges the execution of three 'settlement' contracts by Warner of about $2 million with three city employees, and says the contracts were signed without prior city council approval in violation of the Iowa Code. Warner was the corporation counsel for the City of Davenport and was a full-time in-house legal employee of the city, the suit says. The suit says Corrin Spiegel was the city administrator in 2023 and was hired in 2016 as city administrator, and that Spiegel was Warner's immediate job and operational supervisor. Tiffany Thorndike and Samantha Torres were at-will employees who were supervised by Spiegel and who both worked as executive assistants for the office of the mayor and the city council, according to the suit. On Sept. 8, 2023, 'without prior council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting,' Warner signed two separate settlement agreements with Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500 dollars, respectively, the suit claims, saying the council did not vote to approve nor was provided the actual Thorndike and Torres agreements 'prior to its execution on September 8, 2023.' On Oct. 2023, 'without prior Council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting,' the suit accuses Warner of signing a third settlement agreement with Spiegel, for $1,600,000, including $600,000 dollars for lost wages and $1 million for emotional pain and suffering. The Council did not vote to approve and was not provided the actual Spiegel settlement agreement prior to its execution on Oct. 6, 2023, the suit says. Each of these three settlement agreements was a Chapter 22 public record upon the dates of their execution, according to the suit. The lawsuit claims each of the three executed settlement agreements constitutes a void contract between the parties signing the agreements. The council did not approve any of these three settlement agreements, by a recorded vote in an open meeting, with Thorndike, Torres and Spiegel, prior to the date Warner signed said agreements with the three employees, the suit says. On Nov. 10, 2023, according to the suit, the city disbursed settlement funds to Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500. On or about Nov. 20, 2023, the suit says, the city announced that Warner was retiring effective Jan. 2, 2024. On Nov. 22, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the settlement agreement executed with Spiegel, 'keeping the contract, which was a public record, secret from public knowledge and inspection' for a period of 47 days, after the date Warner executed the settlement agreement with Spiegel on Oct. 6, 2023. On Nov. 29, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the Thorndike and Torres settlements, 'keeping these contracts, which were public records, secret from public knowledge and inspection for 83 days' after Warner executed the agreements on Sept. 8, 2023, the suit says. On or about Dec. 4, 2023, Warner was placed on administrative leave by the city, 'without the City disclosing the reason for Warner's administrative leave,' the suit says, adding the three large monetary settlements 'were purposely kept secret, by Warner and Mayor Matson, from the public until after the November 7, 2023 municipal election for Mayor, to protect the incumbent Mayor from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in his re-election bid for a third term in office.' The suit alleges the settlement agreements were 'purposely kept secret' by Warner and the council from the public until after the municipal elections for alderpersons 'to protect incumbent alderpersons from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in their reelection bids.' On Dec. 13, 2023, the council held an executive session 'to discuss strategy with counsel in matters involving litigation,' according to the lawsuit, which says a 'a secret (executive) session' was held after the mayor adjourned the regular council meeting in a session 'involving litigation.' According to the suit, 'At the conclusion of the secret (executive) session' held on Dec. 13, 2023, the council, by vote of 6 to 1 (3 council persons not voting), voted to 'ratify' the three settlements. In the suit, Diercks requests that the court: Declare these three employee settlement agreements were void and could not be ratified by the council on Dec. 13, 2023, after they were executed. Schedule an oral hearing on this matter before the court and, after the hearing, 'declare that the Council's December 13, 2023 'ratification' was erroneous, illegal, arbitrary and capricious and was void.' Schedule a trial on the Declaratory Judgment action, the Open Meetings count and the Certiorari count. Declare that Warner's actions in signing the three contracts and the Council's actions to 'ratify' these three contracts on Dec. 13, 2023 were each 'illegal, … erroneous and void.' Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council failed to follow statutes. Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council violated the Iowa Code. Find that the City of Davenport and Warner violated the Davenport City Code on the stipulated settlement amounts that are allowed by Warner to sign. Find that Warner is personally liable for unlawfully signing the three contracts and causing the 'three extravagant monetary payments' made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres. 'Declare that the City shall take legal action to clawback all monetary payments made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres.' (A 'clawback' is a contractual provision by which money already paid to an employee must be returned to an employer, sometimes with a penalty.) Award Dr. Allen L. Diercks attorney fees for the council's violations of the Iowa Open Meetings Act. Enter other relief to Diercks that is just and equitable, including court costs and attorney fees. The suit refers to Chapter 21 of the Official Meetings Open to the Public (see the Iowa Code here) that regulates public meetings. Read Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code here. Read Chapter 22 about open records here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Yahoo
Davenport man faces 23 charges of child pornography
A 20-year-old Davenport man faces child-pornography charges after he was arrested on a warrant, according to Scott County Court arrest affidavits and Scott County Jail records. Tyler Rupe faces 23 felony charges of purchase/possess depiction of a minor in a sex act – first offense, according to Scott County arrest affidavits and Scott County Jail records. On Sept. 28, 2023, arrest affidavits say Davenport Police detectives were assigned a CyberTip investigation from the Iowa Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which is centered on identifying and prosecuting people who engage in the sexual exploitation of minors through the use of the Internet. Scott County Court arrest affidavits say that three separate reports (two from Microsoft and one from Kik, which is a messaging app that allows users to send messages, photos, videos, GIFs, and even sketches, and supports group chats,) had been made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) ranging in date from July 31, 2021-July 25, 2023, regarding child pornography. 'These reports were found to be linked by a shared IP address,' affidavits show. 'Several search warrants were executed on various ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and social media companies as a part of this investigation,' according to arrest affidavits. Rupe's Dropbox account was seized by law enforcement on or about Oct. 16, 2023, say affidavits, which show 'The account was found to contain 34 videos depicting prepubescent and/or pubescent minor females and/or males in various states of full or partial nudity,' Rupe's cell phone was seized on Jan. 8, 2024, in Davenport, and was found to contain about 190 images depicting prepubescent and/or pubescent children in various states of full or partial nudity, according to affidavits, which say 'Several of these images depict children as young as approximately 4-7 years old. Five of the images were identified by Project Vic as previously identified CSAM (Child Sex Abuse Material).' The phone was found to contain about 75 videos depicting pre-pubescent and/or pubescent children in various states of full or partial nudity, show affidavits, which say 'Several of these videos depict children as young as approximately 4-7 years old. Five of the videos depict minor children engaged in sex acts with animals (bestiality).' After he was read his Miranda Rights, Rupe admitted 'to requesting, receiving and sending child pornography with other users online,' arrest affidavits show, and he 'admitted to having previously viewed child pornography involving a child under the age of 5 years old.' Rupe was being held on a $75,000 bond Saturday in Scott County Jail. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
Bettendorf Police arrest man who faces sexual abuse, other felony charges
A 52-year-old man who had been incarcerated in Tutwiler, Mississippi, was being held Wednesday on sexual abuse charges in connection with complaints involving minor victims from 2011-2016, Scott County Court records show. According to Scott County Court arrest affidavits, David Pai, who was arrested on a warrant, faces 13 felony charges, including six charges of second-degree sexual abuse, three charges of third-degree sexual abuse, two charges of child endangerment – bodily injury, and two charges of drug distribution to a person under 18, according to Scott County Court arrest affidavits. A supplemental affidavit in Scott County Court says on or about Sept. 22, 2024, a report was filed with Bettendorrf Police alleging Pai 'sexually, physically, and emotionally' abused children between 2011-2016. One victim was between the ages of 11-12 and the other 9-14, Scott County Court records say. The victims reported that Pai hit them in the head with his hands, hit them with objects such as a broom stick, and deliberately hit their heads together. Also, the Scott County Court affidavit says Pai held down one minor, choked the victim, and flashed a Taser by a victim's head. Additionally, the report says Pai locked the victims in a dog kennel as a form of punishment. Both victims said Pai gave them marijuana, according to Scott County Court documents. One victim filed a report regarding similar sexual and physical abuse in Lamoille County, Vermont, according to an affidavit, which says from that investigation, Pai was 'arrested, convicted and incarcerated' for multiple offenses against a victim and the victim's mother. According to Scott County affidavits, Pai was incarcerated through the Vermont Department of Corrections and was housed in a facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi. Pai, who was being held Wednesday on a $75,000 bond in Scott County Jail, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing May 9 in Scott County Court. In February, Pai was listed as a Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities fugitive. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
