Cedar Rapids Weather
Charges Dismissed Against CR Man in Alleged Wallet Theft at CapitolBy Adam Belz
DES MOINES - Theft charges have been dropped against a former Cedar Rapids school custodian and union leader accused of stealing a wallet at the state Capitol — after he took a 9-hour special class and paid court costs.
Marshall Clemons, 38, of Cedar Rapids, was charged with two counts of fifth-degree theft — a simple misdemeanor — after the Iowa State Patrol said he lifted a wallet from a woman’s purse in March. “In exchange for him going through our first-time offender program, we dropped the charges, and the victim was OK with that,” Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said. “He did not have to acknowledge guilt.” Clemons’ arrest made headlines because the Harding Middle School custodian was president of the local Service Employees International Union, former president of the Cedar Rapids Community Schools Custodial and Maintenance chapter and was job-shadowed by then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2008. He was visiting the Capitol with other union representatives when he was arrested. Since then, Clemons said, his life has been ruined. He lost his job as a custodian in June, and his girlfriend of six years kicked him out, he said. “I really have had my life destroyed by this,” Clemons said. According to the state patrol: A lobbyist named Jim Henter saw Clemons reach into a woman’s bag and pull out a billfold. He followed Clemons and stopped him. Clemons then gave the money from the billfold back to the woman and went to retrieve the billfold from a recycling bin where he had tossed it. Clemons then tried to flush away another woman’s billfold in the men’s restroom. Both billfolds and their contents were recovered, and Clemons was charged. Clemons denies he stole a wallet. He said Henter was bothering him, and troopers got involved when the two men became embroiled in a physical altercation. Next thing Clemons knew, he was in the basement of the Capitol, Henter accused him of stealing a wallet and troopers arrested him. After spending 11 hours in jail — none of which he said he remembers — Clemons said he had a cracked rib, a sprained ankle, a cut above the eye and a concussion. Clemons is in arbitration with the Cedar Rapids school district as he tries to win back his job. “They fired me because I’m the president of the union,” he said. More Good Stuff |
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