Lindaman third trial set for April in Mason City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

The third trial of a Charles City man on a charge of sexual abuse has been set to begin in April in Mason City, and he has now also been arrested for allegedly tampering with a witness.

The retrial of Douglas Linderman last month ended in a mistrial after a witness brought up Linderman’s previous criminal history from the 1980s.

It was the second time Linderman was being tried on the charge of sexual abuse in the third degree after a previous conviction in 2016 was overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court.

District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt set the new trial to begin Monday, April 9, in Cerro Gordo County District Court. The last trial had been moved from Floyd County to Franklin County on a change of venue because of pretrial publicity.

Lindaman, age 62, is accused of sexually touching a then-17-year-old boy in 2011 after hiring the boy as a farmhand. Third-degree sexual abuse is a Class C felony.

Lindaman argues that the touch was not sexual in nature, but rather therapeutic, because he was trying to help the boy deal with psychological problems that he refers to in several instances as a “psychological pus pocket.”

Charges were filed in 2015 and Lindaman was found guilty in Floyd County District Court after a jury trial in 2016.

He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, but Lindaman appealed and the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the conviction because the district court had not taken the proper steps to assure that Lindaman’s decision to represent himself during the trial was fully informed.

Lindaman was a former attorney who had lost his law license after conviction in 1988 on two felony charges of lascivious acts with a child.

It was a reference by a witness to the prison time that Lindaman had served on the 1988 convictions that resulted in the mistrial last month.

Lindaman has also recently been arrested for tampering with a witness, an aggravated misdemeanor, because of the wording of a small claims lawsuit he has filed against the family of the alleged sexual abuse victim.

After the father of the alleged victim confronted Lindaman in 2011, Lindaman gave the family a check for $3,000 and drew up an agreement stipulating that the parties waive charges for defamation of character, slander or libel, and that the $3,000 check represented net damages between them.

Lindaman’s small claims lawsuit seeks damages from the family, arguing that the family did not follow the terms of the agreement.

But the arrest warrant alleges that in the small claims lawsuit, “Mr. Lindaman offers to dismiss the suit if the parties acknowledge the validity of an agreement,” which it alleges is tampering with a witness.

Lindaman was released on $2,000 bond for the tampering arrest. Lindaman is free on $10,000 bond for the sexual abuse charge.

Formal charges on the tampering complaint had not been filed by the county attorney as of Friday.

Also, in preparation for the new trial, Lindaman has continued his efforts to have prospective jury members mailed a questionnaire in advance of jury selection.

The questionnaire has 60 “psycho-sexual” questions to help in “the identification of jurors with explicit and implicit bias around sexual orientation.” Lindaman has identified himself as gay.

Lindaman had made a similar questionnaire request before the previous trial, but Judge Rosenbladt had ruled against it, saying Iowa law requires prospective jurors to be sworn to answer truthfully during jury selection and an advance mailed questionnaire could not be sworn.

In his motions for the next trial, Lindaman argues that the questionnaire would not have to be sworn.

Rosenbladt has not yet ruled on the new motions.