Prisons

Sheriff seeks more inmates to help county budget (01/28/10)
The Plymouth County Jail has felt a drop of about $160,000 in revenue due to housing only half the number of federal inmates as in previous years. Currently, seven or eight federal inmates reside in the jail at $75 a day. But the jail was built to house six to eight more...

County hikes rates for inmates, work release participants (10/22/09)
Inmates at the Plymouth County Jail will be paying more for their room and board or participating in the work release program. Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo asked the Plymouth County Supervisors Tuesday to raise the rates for both groups. Starting Nov. 1, room and board will cost $40 per day and work release will be $35 per day...

Sheriff hopes company can save jail money (10/12/09)
Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo hopes a company that provides jail health care programs can help curb rising inmate medical and prescription costs. Otterloo told county supervisors Tuesday he plans to contract with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, of Illinois, at $2,417 a month for its "cost saving" services...

Supervisors look at new construction near courthouse (05/14/09)
A new chapter in the county's quest to solve the space needs issue at the courthouse has begun. The Plymouth County Supervisors Tuesday decided to pursue hiring an engineer to put together specifications for a proposed building to potentially be constructed at the site of the old jail in the southeast corner of the courthouse property...

Rural Remsen man pleads guilty to animal neglect (03/31/09)
Andrew Vaske, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to animal neglect and six other animal-related charges. The judge sentenced Vaske to seven days in jail plus $750 in fines at the plea taking Monday in Plymouth County District Court. The animal neglect charge, a simple misdemeanor, stems from mid-March when the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office seized 28 head of Vaske's cattle from two locations...

Rohde headed to prison after probation revoked (03/27/09)
A former Kingsley funeral director is headed to prison after a judge revoked his probation for financial crimes this week. Mark Francis Rohde, 50, of Kingsley, was convicted last August of two financial felonies including stealing $179,000 from Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home where he had been part-owner. The judge at the time, Judge Duane Hoffmeyer, suspended a ten-year prison sentence and put Rohde on probation instead...

Rock and roll: Don't mess with the Roller Dames (03/09/09)
Someone's been skating in the basement of the jail. Stephanie Hoppe, married and the mother of two, works as a Plymouth County jailer. But in her off time, the Le Mars woman laces up her rollerskates and becomes one bad dude. Hoppe skates with the Sioux City Roller Dames, a full-contact roller derby team. Her skating name: Felony Convixen...

Le Mars man awaits sentencing on firearms charges (02/24/09)
A 79-year-old Le Mars man faces up to 35 years in prison after reportedly selling more than 500 firearms without a license. Chester Douglas Pullen pleaded guilty last week to three charges: dealing firearms without a license, traveling interstate with the intent to engage in conduct that constitutes as dealing firearms without a license, and investing, spending and using proceeds of his illegal interstate firearms dealing to promote and carry on those crimes...

Man arrested at meth lab near Hinton (01/12/09)
Investigators shut down an active meth lab on an abandoned farm site near Hinton and arrested the suspected meth cook last Thursday. Marlo Arthur Petersen, 34, of Onawa, was discovered upstairs in the house on the property at 30894 Kestrel Avenue -- the same house where Plymouth County Sheriff Deputies found a clandestine methamphetamine lab, according to a report from the sheriff's office...

Velarde gets light sentence in stabbing trial (12/11/08)
Guilty... but not much. A Le Mars man on trial for stabbing another local man in a fight got a light conviction Wednesday in court. Christopher Velarde, 24, was found guilty of simple assault by a jury. That's a much lighter conviction than he originally faced...

Stabbing trial begins for Velarde (12/10/08)
When Josh Thompson first saw Christopher Velarde at a bar on April 27, 2008, Velarde complimented Thompson on his New York Yankees baseball cap. The next date the two men would see the hat was in court as a piece of crime scene evidence that would link them together...

County sees more identity theft cases (11/10/08)
More identity theft cases are coming before a judge in Plymouth County. County Attorney Darin Raymond shared this news with the county supervisors Tuesday. "Identity theft and that business of working somewhere and not having proper identification and being an illegal worker in this country is creeping in," Raymond told the supervisors...

O'Keefe gets maximum sentence for stabbing death (09/10/08)
The man who pleaded guilty to stabbing another man with a butcher knife in a Le Mars downtown apartment will spend up to 40 years in prison. Jody Brent O'Keefe, 35, was sentenced Tuesday in Plymouth County District court for the death of Samuel Ray Toliver, 32...

O'Keefe pleads guilty to stabbing (09/05/08)
The man charged with stabbing another man with a butcher knife in a Le Mars downtown apartment in January pleaded guilty to four felony charges Thursday. Jody Brent O'Keefe, 35, signed a plea agreement that could land him in prison for up to 40 years for the death of Samuel Ray Toliver, 32...

No jail time required for Kingsley funeral director (09/03/08)
A Kingsley funeral director will have to pay nearly $180,000 in restitution to a former business partner for money he admitted to stealing, but he faces no prison time. Mark Francis Rohde, 49, who pleaded guilty in August to stealing about $179,000 and to tax evasion, both felonies, was sentenced Tuesday in Plymouth County District Court...

Sign theft could mean jail time (07/29/08)
When Mark Sturgeon looked out his window Sunday morning, his lawn looked a little emptier. The sign he put up two days earlier, supporting a candidate running for office this fall, was missing. He was not alone. "We have had some energetic people taking signs from all over the place," said Le Mars Police Chief Stu Dekkenga. "We had a call this morning on missing real estate signs, too."...

Couple hopes musical notes carry in dollars for prison church (07/07/08)
Foot stompin' country and gospel music will be featured in concert this Sunday in rural Remsen to help raise money for The Church of the Damascus Road. The congregation of The Church of the Damascus Road Evangelical Lutheran Church of America ministers to inmates of any denomination within the prisons in Fort Dodge and Rockwell City...

Kingsley man arrested after threatening deputy (06/16/08)
A 52-year-old Kingsley man is in jail after lying to and threatening a deputy then trying to evade authorities while carrying a gun Friday morning. Christopher Steven Mills was arrested after Plymouth County Sheriff Deputy Aaron Leusink came to Mills' home, 220 Rutland Street, at about 9:30 a.m. and attempted to serve him civil papers on a small claims issue...

Police tie two to longer string of burglaries (05/01/08)
Police are pinning 11 more burglaries on an 18-year-old already accused of being part of five other break-ins. A new suspect, a 16-year-old, was also tied to five of the burglaries after police interviews. The 18-year-old, Alexx Leo Conyers of Le Mars, faces 12 more felony charges for allegedly breaking in, stealing cash and vandalizing property. Conyers was already booked in the Plymouth County Jail...

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