BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A state audit has found a former Southeast Iowa sheriff’s deputy made more than $7,400 in improper purchases with county money including buying bullets for a personal gun, computers and drones. Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says former Des Moines County Chief Deputy Jeff White returned about $3,100 worth of items he bought but more $4,200 worth of items could not be located. Some of the items that remain unaccounted for include an Apple computer and ammunition. White retired from the sheriff’s office in December 2018 after some of the purchases were challenged.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa City man has been shot to death, and police are offering a $1,000 reward for information in the case. Police say in a news release that the shooting happened Monday morning, just before 10 a.m., when officers were called to the area for a report of a shooting. Arriving officers found a man, later identified as 21-year-old Kejuan Winters of Iowa City, inside a home suffering from gunshot wounds. Police say Winters later died from his injuries. No arrests had been reported by early Tuesday morning, but investigators do not believe the shooting was random. Police are asking anyone with information on the shooting to contact CrimeStoppers.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Board of Parole has approved 482 inmates for early release from the state’s prisons to reduce overcrowding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Department of Corrections director Beth Skinner says another 90 state prison inmates are approved for future release. “It’s critical each of these have safe, sustainable housing before they are released,” Skinner says. “Additionally, we are working closely with community based corrections to safely parole those that have been approved back into the community.”

A month ago, the state prison system was at 22 percent over design capacity. “We are working closely with the Board of Parole, which has the authority to release those who would likely success in a community setting,” Skinner says. “Together our agencies are working to find a balance of good public safety and safety of the institutions for our staff and those incarcerated.”

Over the weekend, officials announced an inmate transferred into the state prison system on Thursday had tested positive for COVID-19, but had never been in the general population and was in quarantine. Earlier this month a correctional officer working at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville had tested positive for the virus. Today (Monday) Skinner announced a second officer who had been around that person has also tested positive.  “The good news for the facility is this team member has not been at work since April 9,” Skinner says. “Because they started staying home before ever experiencing symptoms, we do not believe there was any exposure by inmates or staff to this individual.”

All staff AND inmates at the Coralville facility are now required to wear face masks as a precaution and temperatures are being taken twice daily to check for fever. The state agency is asking county officials to keep any inmate with COVID-19 quarantined IN THE COUNTY JAIL and to NOT transfer them into the state prison system. “We ask sheriffs to suspend admissions and revocations at this time,” Skinner says. “and this is to prevent the unnecessary exposure to jail inmates and reduce the likelihood of another opportunity to introduce COVID-19 into our prisons.”

No visitors have been allowed inside the state prisons since March 14th and inmates on work crews are no longer allowed to work outside of prison property.