Charles City, IA – Charles City Police Officer Todd Smith has been under criminal investigation for the past few months and we’re learning more about the situation now.
Floyd County Attorney Normand Klemesrud filed a complaint in Floyd County District Court on Monday alleging that on or about July 14th, 2012, Smith failed to perform his duties as a police officer when he had reason to believe a sexual assault had occurred.
On the morning of July 14th, Smith responded to a report of a forcible rape. The alleged victim stated that the rape had occurred a couple of hours earlier. The victim described injuries she had suffered and also showed Smith the bruises. Smith allegedly expressed doubt that the bruises were recent. The report also stated that Smith told the victim that if there was sex, it was her fault because she had been drinking, Smith also mentioned, according to the report, that because she had showered after the sexual assault, she had washed away all evidence of a sexual assault and also discouraged her from making any further report.
The report says Smith never transported the victim to the hospital. She was later taken by a third person.
Smith was then dispatched to the hospital by the Charles City Police Department where he made a number of statements to the effect that there was no reason to do a rape kit and that the alleged victim was at fault and that with his experiences, rape cases never go anywhere and that the cases tend to come up when a person has been cheating on their significant other and wants to avoid being caught.
In the filing, Klemesrud said that Smith didn’t perform any of his duties as required by Iowa code and actively interfered with his own duty to investigate the allegations.
Smith is still on paid administrative leave. He’s been with the Charles City Police Department since 1989.
Scary.
Sorry, it sounds as if this guy would have voted for Akin or Mourdock. Unless he had a video camera in the room and saw what happened, he had no right to ignore her accusations. This is far more serious than a car driving slowly through a neighborhood or any other nuisance call to the police! Don’t try to minimize this.
You really need to read the Charles City Press sometime. This police department is so busy responding to calls about orange bags in the road and a possible suspicious person eating their lunch in their car in a parking lot that it’s no wonder they don’t have time for “real” crime. The good citizens of C.C. tend to call the police every time they hear a bump in the night. If someone drives by their house a little bit slower than the speed limit or a person walks by that they don’t know, they call the cops. If they see a bat, a racoon, a squirrel or a stray cat, their first instinct is to call the cops. Please, folks, let the CCPD do police stuff – this isn’t Mayberry!
I can tell from your comments that none of you know Todd. He is a good man and that is not who he is as a person or how he acts as an officer. Keep in mind that there are two sides to every story and maybe you should reserve judgement until the whole story comes out.
She had better have some good witnesses. Right now it is her word against his and I would be willing to bet she does not have the best reputation. This could be a case of retaliation on her part for a previous arrest. We need to know the rest of the story before holding court.
23 years is a pretty good run for a rural cop. Time to step down if he wants to start picking and choosing what laws he wants to enforce.
So how much is this guy making while he sits on his can? And what kind of way is this to treat someone who was obviously traumatized? I hope the other officers in Charles City are more professional than this guy.
Gets his pay check while this all comes out. Great and he should until proven guilty. BUT then he must pay back all that money if found guilty. To me that only make sense.