The Red Oak Police Department reports no injuries resulted from a two-vehicle accident on Tuesday. Officers were called to the accident at the intersection of Joy Street and N 1st Street.

After investigation it was determined that a 2012 Chevy Impala, owned and operated by 88-year-old Joanne Vivian Wegler of Red Oak, was eastbound on Joy Street and failed to yield at the intersection with N 1st Street. The Impala struck a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, owned and operated by 46-year-old Angela Sue Vanderhoof of Red Oak, broadside after being unable to brake in time. Wegler was cited for Failure to Yield and Vanderhoof was also cited for Failure to have Insurance.

Damage to the Pontiac was estimated at $4,500 and was considered a total loss. Damage to the Impala was estimated at $3,000.

Red Oak Police was assisted by Red Oak Rescue and Red Oak Fire at the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – A south-central Iowa man will serve 27 years in prison on child pornography charges. Forty-nine-year-old Ryan Ford of Centerville was sentenced in U-S District Court for production of child pornography and receipt of child pornography. Court information shows Ford secretly recorded minors in the shower in 2018 and distributed some of the images to others. In 2018 and 2019, investigators say he downloaded images of child porn.

Police used a search warrant and found 18-hundred images and 27 videos of child pornography on his cell phone.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests. On Tuesday (April 13), 48-year-old Yadira Valquier-Cruz, of Omaha, was arrested on I-29 at around 4-a.m., for OWI/1st offense. Bond was set at $1,000.

At around 2:15-a.m. on Monday, 31-year-old Melvin Stewart Alexander – who is Homeless- and 33-year-old Waymond Lee Foster, of Creston, were arrested at 195th Street at Highway 34 in Mills County, for Possession of a Controlled Substance. Alexander was additionally charged with being a Fugitive from Justice. He was being held without bond. Foster’s bond was set at $2,000.

Sheriff’s deputies in Page County, Monday, arrested 32-year-old Christopher Lee Gillette. He was taken into custody at the Pottawattamie County Jail on an active warrant for Failing to

Christopher Gillette

appear on a Theft in the 4th degree charge.

The Exira-EHK School Board, Monday evening approved the hiring of a Principal for the Pre-K through 5^th grade school.

That’s Exira-EHK Superintendent Trevor Miller. Mr. Miller said also the Exira-EHK Board voted to continue with the mask mandate through the end of the current school year.

The Exira-EHK Board also approved: filling a Librarian vacancy through an AEA Sharing Agreement; An Operational Sharing Agreement with IKM-Manning for a School Business Official (SBO). Kyle Wagner will be leaving this Friday and taking another H-R position. He’ll be replaced by Mallory Meyer, who currently serves as a shared SBO.

And, the Board approved continuing the Operational Sharing Agreement with IKM-Manning for Superintendent. Trevor Miller

A Technology agreement was also reached with IKM-Manning for Dan Spooner, who will do a 60/40 split, with 60% of his time at Exira-EHK and 40% at IKM-Manning. The current arrangement is 50-50. In other board meeting news, they approved a bid of $84,900 from TBB&M Construction for renovation of the staff restroom in the Exira building. There were three bids in all, for the project, which involves taking two small bathrooms and turning them into one Uni-Sex bathroom.

Miller says the facility hasn’t had any updates since the school was built in 1957. Work is expected to take place over the summer and be ready by next school year.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 42-year-old Jacob Benjamin Tuttle, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced Monday in Council Bluffs U-S District Court, for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. He is required to serve 84 months in prison, plus 3 years of supervised release following his prison term. He’ll also have to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victims Fund. Tuttle pleaded guilty to the offense on August 11, 2020.

On November 26, 2019 Tuttle was driving a stolen car on a rural two-lane highway in Mills County, when Tuttle saw a Sheriff’s patrol vehicle behind him. Tuttle accelerated to 100 mph
before he crashed the car on the side of the road and ran from the scene. He was arrested a short time later. On the front passenger seat of the stolen vehicle, officers found a Taurus .357 Magnum, along with 12 grams of methamphetamine. Tuttle is a convicted felon and drug user, therefore, prohibited from possessing firearms.

The investigation was conducted by the Mills County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.