Comments on: Iowa DOT Enforcement Officer Commits Harassment of Iowa Couple

By: driver-slave

driver-slave — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:55:03 +0000

im very sorry 2 read about how they treated u. actually i found this cause i was looking around google for stories of truckers being harrassed in iowa. i am a trucker. we get profiled and taxed and repeated fines and are concerned every day and every night… and yes we loose sleep over it. millions of us. and we are being regulated right out of our trucks, homes, life savings. and where is the safety? there are so many safety organizations banded together against us it getting hard 2 keep up with the mess. lets start doing billboards with real safety messages and expose these hwy hypocrites. they treat us so shamefully… it matters. they want 2 rule your time, money, guns, whatever u got. and now they are targeting your children in classrooms with false doctorines of safety. absolute heresies! lies! have you forgotten america? safety is something that Christ assures you. not what what men force out of you. let’s remember the constitution. God and country. not like these athiest blasphemers rolling around in squad cars who believe that they are the definition of safety. and that believe their salvation is to get a section of a hwy or a bridge named after them. dear friends, if if its that bad for you, just imagine how bad it is for us truckers. i could tell you some really really bad stories…. when people stop letting it happen 2 penniless truckers then it helps everyone else cause according to the constitution all men are created equal. but truckers are made to be 3rd class citizens and people wonder why the abuse doesnt stop there, but lands on them as well. but it needs to stop there and soon. we’ve got lots of love for you america. we do it for you. dinner is present because we make it so, thru hard work. we neglect our own families so your needs will be met ontime. you look good in those clothes cause we bring it. you smell good after that shower cause we delivered your soap ontime. (and we delivered that showerhead too. and the water pipes, and the water heater, and everything else you see is present.) “IF YOU GOT IT, A TRUCKER BROUGHT IT.”

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:12:08 +0000

Most people do not understand the DOT because in ones everyday life they are not relevant to the DOT’s inforcement.
The DOT jobs is to enforce commercial vehicle rules and regulation, vehicle weight, and State vehicle regulations. Everyone thinks this only applies to commercial vehicles as in trucks and buses, but it applies to all vehicles. If you tow a trailer with a pick-up truck your under DOT enforcement, so is any vehicle that tows a trailer, school buses, passenger vans carrying 16+ people, any vehicle carrying any form of hazmat, transportation of new RV vehicles, camper,horse trailers, and utility trailers. Since the everyday person feels DOT does not apply to them, they do not know the rules. Here is my advice, if you have a pick-up truck and tow any type of trailer, an RV vehicle that tows a trailer, drive a 16+ passenger vehicle, transport any type of hazmat any where for any length of miles, or carry cargo in your pick-up truck including dirt, stone, mulch, etc.. call your state DOT dept and learn the rules. Also while the federal DOT rules are consistence in every state, each state has their own DOT rules which differ from state to state. In some states pick-up trucks do not have to enter weigh stations in others they do. As for DOT officers you must understand their REAL job is to bring revenue into the state. They do this by knowing and manipulating the DOT rules. They will get you talking hopeing you will say the right things then before you know it you have a citation. Be pleasant and polite, if the officer is rude, call 911 and ask for a supervisor, video tape the officer, If the officer is going to accuse you of a violation ask the officer to show you the rules( they all carry a big green rule book that you can also buy at some truck stops or at JJ Keller) and last understand that DOT officers feel entitled to do any action they feel warranted to the situation. In their world you do not have rights. They can be tough, search your vehicle miss up your vehicle, think they see something when they do not, and they do not need to apologies, fix the mess or be nice. This is the world of the DOT. There are some states that are more DOT abusive then others they are TN,KY,IA,CA,OR,WA,OH,GA,NJ,CT

By: jayme

jayme — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:16:11 +0000

dont listen to the crystal sawvell she doesn’t know shit about cops she likes to hit on them to see what they will do. I have been accussed of stuff by the fonda cop and the dot officer who is also part time cop in fonda and i am getting tired of it. DOT officer should never point a gun at someone wide out in the open when there is traffic going by. That is so fucking stupid. Cops and dot officers need to respect everybody not just keep harrassing them for years. Dont listen to crystal because she will give your license plate number to her boyfriend the fonda cop. If anyone wants to have a friend please be my friend..

By: Just-another-Iowa-victim

Just-another-Iowa-victim — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:42:04 +0000

In 1996 my son was placed under arrest and threatened here in Iowa a month and a half after we arrived here. We had spent our normal 6 months in Florida. The son’s car had been purchased at a collectors show, stolen and then retrieved all while in Florida. While he was face down on the ground he asked the officer to please look in the glove box at the records. With his pistol drawn on our son the officer was very intimidating as he yelled orders to our son. Several times our son pleaded “Please look at the paperwork in the glove box”. A friend of our son came driving up into the driveway telling me our son was handcuffed and being hauled into the county jail as he yelled “Go get my mom!” I went to the local courthouse and asked the sheriff what was my son being charged with? He was not exactly friendly. Knowing my son would be panicked after being handcuffed and arrested I asked, where is he now and can I see him. I wanted to know that he was okay. I had to become very insistent to see him, now. Finally the sheriff took us into where they were questioning him. I told one of the state police officers after he told me that our son was in possession of a stolen vehicle that he was in error. I also showed him the title, the receipt copies and registration receipts. One officer did apologize.
In the winter of 1996-97 our son driving our pickup clip the side of a car parked in a no parking zone during a snow storm. The local police gave him a ticket and the court dismiss the ticket.
In 1997 our son was working in Missouri and going steady with a girl from Creston. He had taken her to the fourth of July rodeo here and was taking her back to Creston when a car going about 80 passed him. His car had been back into a few days before by my nephew in our driveway so one side was crushed. The officer that pulled him over and was polite until he checked son’s license. At that point he wrote everything possible and then some on this ticket (a dozen bogus charges) and then hauled so to the jail in Osceola. It was a Sunday evening when son called me panicking over the claim that his drivers license had been suspended. it was the first time we had any knowledge of this so called suspended drivers license. The next morning I called DOT and asked what is the problem. DOT claimed my insurance company was not valid to do business in the state of Iowa. They had canceled son’s drivers license on a claim that our insurance was invalid. I called my Insurance broker in ST. Louis. He called the insurance company and then called me back. The claim was erroneous. They faxed me their documentation and I called DOT back again. After close to twenty minutes the gal told me how very sorry she was. I asked her to please call the court and let them know of your error and have son released immediately. She claimed she could not do that. I call the court and of course get a bit of a run around. I called the DOT offices back. Another fifteen minutes went by as I asked for her superior or someone that had the authority to officially recognize their error. This time I ask for them to please send a fax to the court. Son has been under arrest on a bogus charge for almost twelve hours. He has not had anything to eat since before noon the day before. I get to the courthouse and ask if they received confirmation of DOT’s error. They tell me yes they have. I ask them at this point where is he. They tell me he is still in lockup. I am still fairly patient at this point but that is not going to hold much longer. I am asking why has he not been released. Normally when you learn someone has been incarcerated on false charges you release them immediately. That is a reasonable expectation. Not in Iowa. It was another hour before I would see our son. He was white as a sheet. He had been puking blood all night. He asked the jailer for a few soda crackers or anything to put in his stomached and explained to the jailer that he has a herniated esophagus.(not eating for that many hours makes many people sick) He has had this condition his whole life. Nothing, no doing you would not want to give a claimed criminal a few soda crackers. Another hour and he is before the judge. She ask him on each charge how he pleads. He pleads guilty to now having a seat belt on as he did not. The rest he pleads not guilt. Finally out of the courthouse we go directly to the State Police office. My son speaks to a sergeant there. He hears the whole story and tells son that they would retract the tickets. he tells me it sounds like our officer got a little carried away. Son had admitted he was going 63 in a 55 and is willing to accept a ticket for his actual speeding amount. We leave the office and son starts telling me about the officer that gave him the ticket standing behind the door showing son his gun. He tells me the exact threats this officer had made to him while he was writing these erroneous charges down. Two weeks go by and the state police have not followed through with the agreement made in their office. Son files for a jury trial to fight these bogus charges before the time limit to do so runs out. Another month passes and the prosecutors office is still pressing these bogus charges, also telling me that officers do not lie or make mistakes. One suggested I revisit the state police. So I did. It was not the same understanding sergeant there we had spoken with before. I explained to this sergeant what transpired and the agreement that was made previously. He tells me that is not his problem and his officers do not make threats or bad charges. As politely as possible I tell him son and I both would like to see this resolved for son does not have to lose another day at work. It seemed a shame to cost the taxpayers a day in court for this when it could easily be resolved. The guy got a bit tacky at that point. He told me, “You do not know how it works!”. He then proceeded to tell me how he and his officers would be pursuing myself and my family from here on out. I told him he could very well do that but I did know exactly how it works and the attorney general, the governor and every state legislator would be receiving letters from me and I would not stand for any harassment what so ever from his department. He then started saying you mean to tell me that if any of my officers pull you or your family over you are going to consider it harassment. I told him if any of my family members or myself was actually doing anything wrong by all means pull us over and ticket us. Beware though we better be doing something wrong when your officer does pull us over though. Also if you want your officer to be proven a liar in court fine by me. We can do it. The man turned purple. His veins popped out in his forehead and he started yelling at me. He wanted to know exactly how was I going to prove his officer was a liar. I describe the whole situation in vivid detail from what was written on the ticket by his officer. The state police dropped the remaining charges. We did however have a local ex state police officer go by our house daily after that for a long time.

I could continue on and on about the threats and actions we have faced here in Iowa for several days. I do not have time to sit here and write it all in this post. Nor do you need to read an entire book on here about our experiences here. I will say it will only get worse if people do not stand up for each others rights and demand accountability and professionalism from public servants. That is correct they are public servants and they need to be reminded of that from time to time. As tax payers we do have the basic right and authority to demand that our public servants act like they are working for our best interest not gestapo’s. This is not 1935 Germany but it will become just that if the people are unwilling to take a stand for truth, integrity and justice.

By: neighhay

neighhay — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:29:39 +0000

New allegations against Officer Wiegand. http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/Wiegand-assualt-080409

These allegations date back to 2005…and IDOT officials told us in April of 2009 that officer wiegand had no previous complaints against him. Go figure…If these allegations are proved correct, then my intuition that Officer Wiegand was a loose cannon who might do us bodily harm was indeed correct!!!!

By: jayme mohr

jayme mohr — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:07:24 +0000

dont listen to sawvell she is licing with a cop that is racis ok. If you want someones opinion ask me here is my cell number ok 712-202-6452 i would like to make friends. I have been accussed of many things with then the last two years by a fonda cop and a DOT officer i am not happy with them and will never be happy. Cops shouldn’t harrass and ppl like us should turn thier ass in to the top authorities. Who will be with me on this? I am tired of cops accussing me or stuff and i bet everone else is too lets do something about it and it’s time to do something. Who’s with me?

By: neighhay

neighhay — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:00:31 +0000

I agree that the place to argue is not the side of the road. And in our case, I definitely clued in real fast to the fact that I should be completely submissive to this officer or there could easily be dire consequences (such as bodily injury to myself and my husband.) However the result of submissiveness was an inappropriate, probably illegal, search of our RV which by the way did not yield what the officer was looking for. In addition, I think an officer who is acting professionally should be able to listen to reason from a citizen. This officer clearly was not willing to reason with us and in fact we felt it was OUR job to deescalate the situation, rather than the other way around… it’s my understanding that law enforcement is supposed to be skilled in deescalation techniques!

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:50:13 +0000

I have no doubt that what happened to the 71 year old by this IDOT cop, and what happened to others did happen, but then in reading the link to a news story on the Hawkeyes site about the trucker who got lost and asked for directions I couldnt help but think the guy telling the cop about the law, his rights etc etc was inflaming the situation and escalating it to the point where the cop slammed his car door and then arrested the guy.
The side of the road is NOT the place to argue your rights, the laws, rules or anything else, and seeing this cop getting agitated or pissy should have been a clue to just shut up and just answer questions yes or no and let it go. The place to argue or protest a ticket or to file a complaint is in COURT, not the side of the road!

By: Howiebilt

Howiebilt — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:51:22 +0000

I was puzzled by the fact that the officer never asked for our license, registration or proof of insurance. He was very persistent in telling me that I wasn’t a problem and that I could leave but I stayed with my friend to make sure he and his family were going to be alright. He had his wife and three young children with him and they were already frightened by the ordeal. After hearing these accounts, I am glad that I stuck around. The officer was clearly put off by my presence and I can assure you that nothing wrong would have taken place while I was there.

I treat everyone with the same respect they show me and I am sure that the rest of the DOT officers in Iowa are good people. I’m not afraid. Good luck to you neighay ! I hope that you and Mr. Howard are triumphant .

By: neighhay

neighhay — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:48:08 +0000

Pied Piper, I agree. If you are ever pulled over by IDOT law enforcement, dial 911 immediately and get some local police to the scene.