A Council Bluffs man that worked as a foreign exhange student coordinator and host parent was sentenced on Thursday, August 12th in US District Court to 327 months in prison for Coercion and Enticement of minor foreign exchange students. 52-year-old Thomas Donald Boatright pleaded guilty to the offenses in February of 2021. His prison term will be followed by 10 years of supervised release and he was ordered to pay restitution to the minor victims.

Boatright led a program where students from other countries enrolled in a year of high school in the United States and were assigned a host family to live with while they attended high school. A report was made by a student in February 2020 after they discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom of Boatright’s home. A search warrant recovered numerous electronic devices that contained many videos of three minor foreign exchange students in the bathroom. A further investigation determined that Boatright used his cell phone and computer to communicate with foreign exchange students prior to their arrival and those conversations were sexual in nature. Boatright used his position as a foreign exchange student coordinator and host parent to coerce and entice foreign students to engage in sexual activity after they arrived in the United States.

The case was investigated by the Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa DCI, FBI, and the US Secret Service National Computer Forensics Institute provided training and equipment.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that a Council Bluffs man was sentenced on Thursday, August 12th to 121 months in prison for Possession of Child Pornography. 31-year-old Cody Goodwin Taylor of Council Bluffs pleaded guilty to the charge in April 2021.

The case began with a cyber-tip that was received by Council Bluffs Police in July of 2020 that suspected Child Pornography had been uploaded to a Google Drive account. While investigating the tip, a report was received that Taylor’s cell phone contained child pornography as well. A search warrant was executed and a forensic analysis of the phone uncovered over 100 photos and videos of child pornography.

The Council Bluffs Police Department investigated the case and the US Secret Service National Computer Forensics Institute provided training and equipment.

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office released details on an accident that took place on Sunday evening. At 5:51 p.m. Deputies responded to the accident at the intersection of Highways 25 and 141.

After investigation it was determined that a 2011 Toyota Tundra driven by 44-year-old Horacio Gomez Sanchez of Memphis, Tennessee was traveling northbound on Highway 25 when he ran a stop sign at the intersection with Highway 141. Gomez Sanchez then struck the rear driver’s side of a 2013 Ford F150 pickup driven by 57-year-old Steven Joseph Kepford of Moorhead, IA as he was traveling westbound. The F150 spun around and stopped on the north shoulder of Highway 141 facing East. The Tundra spun around to the northwest and became airborne, striking a light pole before coming to rest on its top north of 141 in the ditch.

Panora EMS transported two patients to the Guthrie County Hospital for possible injuries. A passenger in the Ford, Karen Kay Kepford suffered suspected minor injuries.

Both vehicles were a total loss and were towed from the scene. The Guthrie County REC light pole that was struck sustained an estimated $3,500 damage.

Horacio Gomez Sanchez was cited for No Valid Drivers License and Failure to Obey Stop Sign and Yield Right of Way.

(Radio Iowa) – A Facebook post led to a Florida woman being flown to Sioux City for potentially lifesaving surgery that had been canceled due to the Covid surge in Florida. Jac E. Chace has colon cancer. Surgery to remove part of her colon had been scheduled at a hospital in Panama City, Florida, last Monday, but Grant Wittstruck, Chace’s son, says the hospital is now just dealing with Covid and trauma patients.

“My mother has Stage 3, possible Stage 4 colon cancer and needed to have a large section of her colon removed and, you know, it’s a lifesaving surgery,” he says. “They deem as elective and they couldn’t do it in Florida.”

Wittstruck says out of frustration, he wrote about the situation on Facebook. One of his former Morningside College classmates saw it. Jenna Rehnstrom-Liberto works at MercyOne in Sioux City and connected Wittstruck with the Sioux City hospital’s chief medical officer, who specializes in that very type of surgery.

Wittstruck family. (KSCJ photo)

“Out of the kindness of her heart, she sent me a private message,” Wittstruck says. “She sent me a private message and she did not have to do that. She could have just kept scrolling on our feed and she took the time to ask us to come here and it could possibly end up saving my mom’s life.” Chace flew to Sioux City Wednesday and her surgery was last Friday. Her son says if more people were vaccinated, the trip wouldn’t have been necessary.

“It’s time to get vaccinated,” he says. “…There’s no reason not to get vaccinated, but if you do get Covid after you’ve been vaccinated, the symptoms are significantly less, you’re not necessarily ending up in the ICU.”

Wittstruck is a 2008 graduate of Morningside College in Sioux City and Jenna Rehnstrom-Liberto — MercyOne’s communications director and the one who acted on Wittstruck’s post — graduated in 2006. Whittstruck’s dad is also a Morningside graduate and his mom, the cancer patient, posted a brief statement on Morningside’s Facebook page, thanking “all the people and prayers” that made her surgery possible.

(Radio Iowa) 0 A young woman from northwest Iowa was crowned the new Iowa State Fair Queen over the weekend. Eighteen-year-old Plymouth County Fair Queen McKenna Henrich, from Akron, was presented the new title during a ceremony Saturday night at the fairgrounds in Des Moines. Henrich says she’s thrilled by the honor and is ready to get started.

“Now that I’m in this position, I’m not just going to stand here and do nothing. I want to make a difference. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself,” Henrich says. “I want to go to as many things as I can, anything from a dinner with a family to a big public event, I want to be there and I want to be present.” Henrich says she received some valuable advice from the 2009 Iowa State Fair Queen, Caine Westergard, who is also from Henrich’s hometown of Akron.

McKenna Henrich, State Fair Queen

“She gave me a lot of insight and things that I should pay attention to and different things I should be mindful of,” Henrich says. “Coming into this week, I had some things I could look out for. Caine is a great role model for me because it’s awesome that she got to win and now I get to represent my county and my town and, not only that, but my parents and the people that have gotten me here today.”

Prior to her being named as the new queen, Henrich was approached by the granddaughter of Brenda Brown of Taylor County, who is of about seven years old. Henrich took off her county queen tiara and placed it on the girl’s head to pose for pictures. Minutes later, Henrich was named the Iowa State Fair Queen.