(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has released its report on clergy sex abuse within the Catholic Church. Attorney General spokesperson, Lynn Hicks, says the office started gathering information in 2018, and examined the records of 70 priests and 50 complaints. The statute of limitations has expired for all the cases reviewed. “Despite the fact that they fall outside the statute of limitations — we still think this was a good thing,” Hicks says. Hicks says the process led to 17 people who had never before reported allegations coming forward. “We think it was valuable even in that respect to allow people to come forward and tell their story,” Hicks says. “In many cases they were able to talk to a crime victims advocate in our office and we could offer them resources to see what they wanted to do going forward.”

The report also indicates that the four Catholic Diocese in Iowa have taken steps to address the issue. “Since 2002 — that’s when the U-S Conference of Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children — there’s been very few, only about five reports since then involving Iowa priests,” Hicks says. “We note in our report that the diocese has become more responsive to victims and now reports all accusations to law enforcement authorities.” He says the changes put in place on give victims a chance to be heard. He says some of the diocese continue to get complaints and continue to investigate. “And we encourage people to come forward — even if a priest is no longer active, is deceased. We think that all of this is a good process and we hope brings healing to the victims,” Hicks says.

Hicks says they hope that victims will now know they will be heard. “We did hear that from some of the victims who came forward to us and said they felt they couldn’t come forward. They couldn’t trust the process,” he says. The four Catholic Bishops released a statement says the Attorney General’s review of cases will be studied for suggestions on how the efforts of the Catholic Church might be improved. It says the “Catholic Church is committed to do all that is humanly possible to protect minors from the sin and crime of clergy sexual abuse, and to promote healing.” The Catholic bishops of Iowa are Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport, Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines, Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque, and Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City.

A traffic stop at around 5-p.m. Wednesday in Montgomery County, resulted in the arrest of a man from Stanton. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 19-year-old Lucas Swanson was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and recorded a .125 Blood Alcohol Test. Swanson was held on $1,000 bond and cited for Possession of alcohol by a person under the legal age.

One person suffered non-life threatening injuries during a motorcycle accident Wednesday night, in Atlantic. According to reports, the accident happened at around 9:10-p.m. in front of the Family Table Restaurant in the 600 block of W. 7th Street. The injured party suffered from a head laceration.

Cass EMS and Atlantic Rescue responded to the scene. Additional information was not immediately available.

A man from Exira died Wednesday from injuries he suffered during a motorcycle accident in Audubon County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 65-year-old Jed Bengard, Jr., was riding an Indian Challenger motorcycle north on Littlefield Drive just before 5-p.m. and entering a curve south of 310th Street, when for reasons unknown, the cycle left the road and entered a ditch.

The motorcycle overturned in the ditch, causing Bengard to fall from the machine. He died at the scene. The accident remains under investigation. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Deputies with the Audubon County Sheriff’s Department.

(Radio Iowa) – The man who leads the union representing thousands of state employees plans to retire. AFSCME Council 61 president Danny Homan says he will retire at the end of his term and a new president will be elected at the union’s upcoming convention on July 24th. The 68-year-old Homan has been an employee of Council 61 for more than 33 years and was elected President in 2005.

Homan says in a statement that working for the union has been the “honor of his life” — and says while there is a lot of fight left in him –now is the time for new leadership to move the council forward. Homan joined AFSCME in 1986 when he worked as an officer with community-based corrections in Sioux City.