(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report the arrest at around 2:48-a.m. today (Sunday), of 48-year-old Dustin James Sell. He was taken into custody on a charge of OWI/1st offense- Driving Under the Influence (A Serious Misdemeanor). Bond was set at $1,000.

(Harlan, Iowa) – Officials with the Harlan Fire Department say firefighters and other emergency personnel were dispatched at 11:34-a.m.  Friday (today) for a large gas leak within the city of Harlan. Upon arrival, a very large leak was discovered. Harlan Municipal Utilities (HMU) crews were already on scene when fire personnel arrived.

Fire crews began evacuating the area. Avoca and Westphalia were dispatched for assistance with gas monitoring and evacuation. Fire fighters were tasked with having a charged hand line on the HMU employees and monitoring the air within several buildings to verify that there was no danger of gas within the building.

Photo from the Harlan Fire and Rescue Facebook page,

The “all clear” was given at approximately 4:45-p.m. Harlan Fire thanks HMU for their swift response to mitigate the situation. Thanks went out also, to the Avoca and Westphalia Fire Departments, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and EMA for their assistance.

Citizens and businesses in the affected are of Harlan were thanked also, for complying with the mandatory evacuation.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A state-certified caregiver has been convicted of sexually exploiting a minor while employed by an Iowa nursing home. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the defendant in the case, Martell Guider, is a 37-year-old male certified nursing assistant who has been accused of sexual impropriety at three Iowa nursing homes located in Audubon, Correctionville and Kalona. The most recent case, and the only one in which criminal charges were filed, involves Guider’s employment at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona.

Prior to his arrest in the Pleasantview case, Guider was fired from two other Iowa nursing homes amid allegations of sexual impropriety. The first of those cases dates back to April 2023, when a female caregiver at Audubon’s Friendship Home filed a complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing about Guider’s behavior.

The woman – who filed similar complaints with management at the home and with city police – alleged Guider had been making suggestive remarks to female coworkers, had sent them photos of him pleasuring himself, had recorded video of one worker as she provided care for a resident, and had invited some of his female colleagues out to his car where he kept a bottle of Seagram’s Crown Royal.

Martell Guider, a state-certified nursing assistant. (Photo courtesy of the Washington County Jail)

Audubon police have acknowledged they fielded at least two complaints about Guider’s conduct at Friendship Home but didn’t pursue the matter. Audubon Police Chief Coby Gust said the complainants provided text messages and photos and expressed concern that the man’s behavior could spill over into his interactions with vulnerable residents. “It kind of just fell off the radar as far as anything being pursued,” Gust told the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

According to the complainant in the Friendship Home case, officials at the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing rejected her complaint about Guider in April 2023, allegedly telling her the issues she raised were best addressed by management at the home since they involved worker-to-worker conduct that had no actual or potential impact on residents.

The complainant provided the Iowa Capital Dispatch with screenshots of Guider’s alleged text messages, which include two photos of a man’s genitals and two photos of a man holding a bottle of Crown Royal inside a vehicle.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, today (Friday), said a Council Bluffs man was sentenced Thursday (Dec. 12th) to 120 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to public court documents, 31-year-old Kyle Robert Smith was found in possession of a distribution quantity of methamphetamine in April 2024. After his arrest, Smith directed a co-conspirator to retrieve two pounds of methamphetamine and sell it. In March 2024, Smith was found in possession a loaded handgun. Smith is prohibited from possessing firearms because of a prior domestic violence conviction.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Smith will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The case was investigated by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Council Bluffs Police Department.