Today a legal fund has been created for David Howard of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. David Howard is the seventy- one- year- old truck driver who is suing Iowa DOT and IDOT Officer Darrell Wiegand for injuries his suit says he suffered in an incident involving the officer on June 6, 2005.
Mr Howard says that since receiving repeated blows to his head, back, and shoulders four years ago, he has incurred over $40, 000 in medical bills and has had repeated severe headaches which he never experienced before meeting Officer Wiegand.
In addition, now that he is bringing IDOT and Officer Wiegand to court, Mr. Howard and his wife have many additional expenses such as attorney and court fees.
Let’s help out this brave gentleman who is standing up for the rights of us all by confronting a law enforcement officer and a government agency who seem to believe they are indomitable and can do whatever they please. Not to mention that in this regard, IDOT appears to have the full support of Iowa Ombudsman and Governor Culver, neither of whom has chosen to rein in the officer or the agency.
For further information, e-mail gyrocarl@gmail.com
Meanwhile, checks made out to David Howard may be sent to
Friends of David Howard
P.O. Box 204
Ft. Madison IOWA
52627
No Accountability
October 16, 2009 by friendsofdavidhoward
This letter appeared recently in the Burlington HAWKEYE:
In March of 2009, we suffered an extremely inappropriate and terrifying traffic stop by Officer Wiegand. Just to set the record straight, our complaint has never been resolved by IDOT.
Officials there claimed to do an investigation, but we have no faith in that as they refuse to release any details and in the course of our dealings with them, they told us things that simply were not true.
For example, in April of 2009, we were told Officer Wiegand had never had any complaints against him, and then four months later Mr. Howard’s 2005 allegations/complaint surface.
What does IDOT have to say about that? What does Iowa Ombudsman (with whom we lodged a complaint) have to say? And what does Gov. Culver (to whom we wrote though he never personally replied) have to say?
As far as we can tell, nobody has accomplished anything to get Officer Wiegand’s behavior under control and what happened to us has simply been pushed under the rug by IDOT, Iowa Ombudsman and Gov. Culver’s office. IDOT director Nancy Richardson was dismissive, our state representative and senator said they wanted to help but did nothing, and as it turned out only U.S. Sen. Grassley has had the guts to stay the course to any extent. Now the attorney general is attempting to keep Officer Wiegand and IDOT out of court on more serious charges than our complaint, and this doesn’t surprise me considering the state’s obvious lack of accountability for its own behavior and the behavior of its employees.
Shame, shame, shame on the state of Iowa to allow citizens to be abused and terrorized. In my opinion, at this rate it could be only a matter of time before somebody ends up getting killed, and then what will our officials have to say?
JANE SCHNEIDER
Tags: Darrell Wiegand, Governor Culver, IDOT, Iowa Ombudsman, Nancy Richardson, Senator Grassley
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Thank you for your support of David Howard. You are looking after an American citizen who has been wronged. You may count on a donation from me.
Iowa does not need the kind of officer like Wiegand! His lack of character is horrible and those who cover up for him are even worse.
Thanks again for this blog!