Lindaman seeks release or transfer before new trial

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Douglas Lindaman has filed a motion to be released from prison or returned to Floyd County, after an Iowa Supreme Court panel overturned his conviction on sexual abuse charges and sent the case back for retrial last month.

Lindaman filed two hand-written motions from Newton Correctional Facility, where he is being held. They were filed in Floyd County on Tuesday.

The first motion argued that his actions during his previous trial have proven he is not a flight risk and he should be released, or failing that, that he should be transferred from state prison to Floyd County.

Lindaman was charged in 2015 with having sexually touched a 17-year-old boy in 2011, after hiring the boy as a farmhand. He was convicted at a jury trial April 12, 2016, in Floyd County District Court in Charles City, on one count of sexual abuse in the third degree, a Class C felony.

On May 19, a panel of three state Supreme Court justices reversed Lindaman’s conviction, agreeing with Lindaman’s appeal that the original trial court judge had failed to meet the constitutional requirements to make sure Lindaman was making an informed decision to represent himself at his trial.

In his first motion filed this week, Lindaman asks the Floyd County District Court to “enter an order for release, and the defendant requests that he be released on his own recognizance.”

“In support thereof,” he wrote, “the defendant has appeared and honored all court orders. By contrast, the county attorney has failed to disclose (until the middle of the last trial) the failure of two electronic devices to record my full disclosure statements of July 30, 2011, to the DCI, which were exculpable!!!

“The court can set a court date in 10 to 20 days so we can begin our motions as to the retrial and for time to consult with legal counsel,” he wrote.

“Alternately, enter an order for transport back to Floyd County,” Lindaman wrote.

On May 23, Floyd County Attorney Rachel Ginbey, who prosecuted the original trial last year, filed a motion asking that bail now be set at the same terms she had requested when Lindaman was arrested in 2015 — $10,000 cash-only bond in Lindaman’s name only and supervision by the Department of Corrections.

At that time a Floyd County magistrate agreed with the $10,000 amount, but did not agree with Ginbey’s request for Department of Corrections supervision.

Lindaman’s second motion filed Tuesday argued that he again should not be required to be supervised by the DOC, because there is no change in his status from when the original bail terms were set.

“Defendant has always appeared for all court hearings,” he wrote in the motion.

Additionally, Lindaman argued, he has a “clear incentive” to show up for hearings, because Iowa law allows compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

“Under Chapter 663A …  the defendant was imprisoned for 400 days @ $50/day, or $20,000. The chapter permits Loss of Income to a maximum of $25,000. So defendant can collect $45,000,” Lindaman wrote.

“So the defendant has a clear incentive to show up for hearings which did not exist prior to the trial and earlier bond,” he said.

Iowa law allows $50 per day and up to $25,000 in lost income for someone whose conviction is overturned if that person is not found guilty in a subsequent trial, but the compensation has only rarely been collected.

The law requires a person to prove “by clear and convincing evidence” that he or she didn’t commit the crime, not just that the state didn’t have enough evidence for a conviction or made procedural errors.

County Attorney Ginbey told the Press earlier that there is no specific time limit for a judge to act on the motions that have been filed, “but it should be done soon.”

“Most likely, Mr. Lindaman will be transported back to Charles City prior to being released and a hearing will be held on his conditions of release,” Ginbey said in response to emailed questions after she filed her latest motion.

The Supreme Court panel’s reversal of Lindaman’s conviction returns the case to the point where charges have been filed and depositions held, ready for a new trial to begin, Ginbey said.