The Red Oak Police report the arrest of a Red Oak man on an active warrant for carrying weapons on Friday.  At 10:56pm officers arrested 18-year-old Tyler Austin Sowers at the intersection of N 7th and E Corning Streets in Red Oak. Sowers was arrested on an active State of Iowa warrant for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, an Aggravated Misdemeanor.  Sowers was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held.

The Red Oak Police Department reports a two-vehicle accident occurred on Friday in Red Oak. The accident happened at approximately 2:16pm at the intersection of Hammond Street and 2nd Street.  After investigation is was determined that a 2007 Chevy Avalanche driven by Amber Christine Goranson of Red Oak failed to stop at a stop sign traveling west bound on Hammond Street and struck a 2008 Chevy Aveo driven by 61-year-old Linda Sue Major of Red Oak.  A witness stated that he observed the accident and saw that Goranson had failed to stop at the stop sign. No injuries were reported. The Aveo sustained an estimated $4,000 damage and the Avalanche had $800 damage. Goranson was issued a citation for failure to obey a stop sign.

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled Iowa law does not allow judges to hand down a criminal sentence that includes the seizure of bail money. In 2013, Patrick Letscher and another man were arrested in Forest City and accused of stealing a pickup. Lescher paid a two-thousand dollar cash bond and was released. Letscher eventually pleaded guilty to the theft charge.

A district court judge ordered him to forfeit the two-thousand dollars, to pay part of his fine for the crime and court costs. He appealed. Iowa’s supreme court notes it’s been common practice for judges at the state AND federal level to order “pretrial” bail money be used to pay “court-imposed” fines and restitution. But the court’s opinion says in 1976 the legislature rewrote Iowa’s criminal code, so that bail money cannot be used to pay restitution and other court-ordered obligations.

(Radio Iowa)