(Washington, D-C) – The Justice Department today (Tuesday), announced that it has secured an agreement to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Davenport, Iowa, landlord Juan Goitia violated the Fair Housing Act by sexually harassing female tenants. The settlement also resolves claims against 908 Bridge Cooperative which, along with Goitia, owned the properties where the harassment occurred.

Under the consent order, which still must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, defendants are required to pay $135,000 to compensate individuals harmed by the harassment and pay a civil penalty to the United States. The consent order also:

• prohibits Goitia from continuing to manage rental housing;
• requires Goitia to retain an independent property manager to manage any rental properties he owns now or in the future; and
• requires defendants to obtain fair housing training and implement comprehensive non-discrimination policies and complaint procedures to prevent sexual harassment at their properties in the future.

“Sexual harassment by housing providers is an illegal and egregious abuse of power that deprives tenants of their right to be safe and secure in their homes,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to protecting the rights of vulnerable tenants subjected to sexual harassment and will continue to hold landlords accountable and obtain relief for survivors.”

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that since at least 2010, Goitia subjected female tenants to harassment that included making unwelcome sexual comments and advances, touching tenants’ bodies without their consent, entering the homes of female tenants without their consent and without prior notice, and taking adverse actions against tenants who resisted his sexual overtures or complained about the harassment.

This case was litigated by attorneys in the department’s Civil Rights Division and the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. The Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative is led by the Civil Rights Division, in coordination with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country. The goal of the department’s initiative is to address and raise awareness about sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, loan officers, or other people who have control over housing. Since launching the initiative in October 2017, the Department of Justice has filed 23 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing and recovered over $9.6 million for victims of such harassment.

(Anamosa, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Corrections, Monday, said Anamosa State Penitentiary inmate Taylor Bradley Denney was pronounced dead due to apparent suicide at approximately 9:45 p.m., Saturday, May 14.  Denney was 30 years old at the time of his death.

He had been serving a 10-year maximum term for the crime of Arson 2nd Degree from Scott County. His sentence began on April 30, 2021. The department says it investigates all suspected suicides within its correctional facilities.

Auditor of State Rob Sand today (Tuesday) released a report on a special investigation of the City of Silver City for the period May 1, 2017 through April 30, 2021. A copy of the full, 150 page report is available at https://www.auditor.iowa.gov/reports/file/69320/embed. The special investigation was requested by City officials as a result of concerns regarding certain financial transactions processed by the former City Clerk, Artema Gray, and covered the period May 1, 2017, through April 30, 2021.

Sand reported the special investigation identified $61,730.26 of improper disbursements, $3,499.51 of unsupported disbursements, and $1,555.00 of undeposited fundraising collections.
The improper disbursements identified includes $42,210.26 of personal purchases made with the City’s credit card. The improper disbursements identified also include $10,880.22 of unauthorized payroll issued to Ms. Gray and related payroll costs, $2,006.49 of unauthorized reimbursements issued to Ms. Gray, and $545.00 of payments for Ms. Gray’s personal CenturyLink bills. Sand also reported the improper disbursements identified includes interest late fees, and penalties to IPERS, the Department of Revenue, the Internal Revenue Service, and credit card payments.

The $3,499.51 of unsupported disbursements identified includes $2,672.64 of purchases made with the City’s credit cards and $261.95 of reimbursements issued to Ms. Gray. Sand reported it was not possible to determine the propriety of these credit card charges and disbursements because they were not supported by documentation sufficient to determine if they were for City operations or personal in nature.

Sand also reported $1,555.00 of undeposited fundraising collections were identified by comparing the amount which should have been collected to amount deposited in the City’s bank account. It was not possible to determine if additional funds were improperly disbursed or if any additional collections were not properly deposited during the period reviewed because adequate records were not available.

In addition, Sand reported City officials did not implement policies or procedures to address the recommendations included in a report released in May 2018 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. The report included recommendations to segregate duties, perform bank reconciliations, ensure disbursements were properly supported by sufficient documentation, adhere to established credit card policies, and reconcile collections to deposits.

As was recommended in the earlier report, Sand again recommended City officials implement procedures to ensure the City’s internal controls are strengthened, including properly segregating duties, performing independent reviews of bank reconciliations, and ensuring all disbursements are properly supported, approved, and paid in a timely manner.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports 24-year-old Samantha Rose Lauer, of Creston, was arrested Monday night at the Creston Walmart Store. Lauer was taken into custody for shoplifting (Theft in the 5th Degree). She was cited, and then released from the scene.

Authorities report also, 54-year-old Christopher Joseph Cooklin, of Muskogee OK., was arrested this (Tuesday) morning, at the intersection of Sumner/Adams Street. Cooklin was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Fire responded at around 5:17-a.m., today (Tuesday), to a report of thick black smoke coming from a vent at the top of the building at Henningsen Processing, located at 1006 W. 6^th Street. Atlantic Fire Chief Tom Cappel…

Cappel said there were no injuries.

(Radio Iowa) – Due to low runoff into the Missouri River basin, the U-S Army Corps of Engineers predicts power production from the six main stem dams will be about 77-percent of normal this year. Electricity from the dams is distributed through the Western Area Power Administration, where spokeswoman Lisa Meiman says despite the hydropower shortage, they will meet power demand. “Those long-term contracts with our power customers require us to provide up to a certain scheduled amount of energy each year,” Meiman says. “If we don’t have enough hydropower to meet those contractual obligations, we need to purchase power from other providers to make up the difference.”

Meiman says they normally need to add to their power portfolio, buying some power every year because the capacity doesn’t always meet customer needs. “There’s always some purchase power every year and in order to meet up with the demand for of our customers,” Meiman says. “This means we’re going to be probably purchasing more on the market than we would if we had an average hydropower year in order to make up the difference between our contractual amounts and what our customers are getting in terms of hydropower.”

Meiman says they supply power to many rural customers, serving primarily municipalities, rural electric co-ops, irrigation districts, Native American tribes and state and federal agencies. “One thing to note is that these are typically smaller customers,” she says. “They live in mostly rural areas, and they are a community-owned power, meaning, we’re not selling to investor-owned utilities. We sell to communities that run their own electric utilities or there are cooperatives who are a bunch of municipalities that have banded together to serve themselves collectively.”

The hydropower is supplied to Montana, North and South Dakota and parts of Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska.